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Extra Features and Video Online FloristsReview.com R E A D O N L I N E 49 B usinesses large and small are having a tough time fi nding and keeping enough employees. It's not only fl orists. Traditional top-down dynamics between employers and job-seekers no longer seem to work. Today, eff ective recruitment and retention require a new highly personalized approach using communication vehicles favored by "Gen Z"-ers— today's fastest growing workforce demographic. So, how do you fi nd good workers? And how do you keep them once they're hired? ose questions have become top of mind for employers everywhere. Job candidates are scarce. e few who entertain off ers often end up turning them down. And too many of the ones actually hired go AWOL after the fi rst day of work—especially in a fl ower shop, where the work is harder, dirtier, and less glamorous and fun than many candidates initially imagine. is is all part and parcel of a tight labor market, which shows no sign of loosening any time soon. e root problem lies in today's fastest growing workplace demographic. People 25 years of age and younger—Gen Z-ers—diff er substantially from previous generations. " e candidate pool has changed dramatically from the past," says Mel Kleiman, founder of Humetrics, an employment consulting fi rm in Sugar Land (Houston), Texas. " ey diff er in their job expectations and in how they communicate with employers." CAST YOUR NET Approach Gen Z-ers the right way, goes the reasoning, and you'll boost the odds of good hires sticking around. e fi rst thing to understand is the young generation's high level of trust and devotion to the Internet. "Employers today need to spend their biggest recruiting dollars on social media," says Don Phin, a management consultant in Coronado, Calif. " at's where Gen Z-ers hang out." But which social media, exactly? Turns out, it makes a diff erence. "Gen Z-ers generally are not on Facebook like some of their older peers," says Toronto, Ont., Canada-based management consultant Randall Craig. " ey tend to consume more of their content on TikTok and Instagram. So that's where companies need to make their presence known." Posting on such media carries risks and complications of its own. e No. 1 problem is setting the right tone. Just duplicating the stuff sent to traditional media outlets won't cut it. Instead, posts have to reach the younger crowd through a fl avor of irreverence— something normally at odds with many companies' brands and images. Asking an employers' current crop of Gen Z-ers to help post is a good idea. So is establishing a presence on a number of platforms, respecting the milieu of each. "Posts on LinkedIn or your company website need to be more traditional while posts on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok may be more playful," Craig informs. A company's current workers can also perform a recruiting function on other vehicles. "Encourage employees to share open positions on messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and through texting," Craig continues. "Private shares of such information come with implicit third- party endorsements." Finally, employee referral programs can play a vital role in attracting quality people. "Employers need to make it easy for everyone in their businesses to recruit, and they need to give them enough reward to incentivize them," advises Phin. Leaderboards can foster a spirit of competition while bonuses can reward success. DRAW THEM IN Social media posts must include the right bait to make prospects bite. at means including information job-seekers want to see. " e top three things employers can put in their postings to attract Gen Z-ers are salary, benefi ts and scheduling fl exibility," says Jason Dorsey, president of e Center for Generational Kinetics in Austin, Texas. e salary part might seem surprising, given the reputation the youngest working generation has for social concerns. "Gen Z-ers value salary not because they're greedy but because of their life experiences," Dorsey explains. " ey went through the Great Recession [December 2007 through June 2009] with their parents, then they entered the workforce and lost their jobs because of the pandemic. Now they're trying to make up for lost time—a impetus all the more urgent with infl ation going through the roof [hitting a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June]."

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