Without Repeating Past Mistakes MARKET TO GEN Z
What’s the best way to fire someone? Is there one? Even in the most well-handled circumstances, firing an employee always leads to tension and hard feelings. Managers dodge awkward questions, morale takes a turn, and other employees start to fear for their own jobs. Seeking to improve the whole process, David Siegel, digital media executive and adjunct professor of management at Columbia University, offers a more humane and perhaps even more successful approach when it comes to firing: transparent separations. “With transparent separations, you don’t blindside an employee or fire him outright,” Siegel explains in an article for the Harvard Book Review. “Instead, you encourage him to leave on his own by letting him know he is going to be let go soon and needs to start looking for a new job ASAP. […] I don’t recommend setting a strict departure deadline at first, but I do provide a time frame for clear progress on the job hunt. […] I also ask that the employee keep the arrangement confidential.” Telling an employee they will be fired weeks in advance feels like it could backfire, but Siegel claims he’s actually been thanked by fired employees for this approach. This is because rather than being caught unaware and seeing their life thrown into uncertainty, fired employees feel supported by the company and have the opportunity to make the transition without fear. Here are the two biggest benefits of transparent separations. Smoother Transition —Your company has the time to find a suitable replacement, and the employee has the benefit of looking for a new job while still employed. Of course, if an employee lets their work suffer during the transition, managers should treat this like a broken deal and accelerate the termination. Improved Company Culture —Abrupt firings make employees nervous and turn managers into villains.With the transparent separation method, the departure is known in advance and the employee being let go is able to talk about their new job rather than let rumors fly about an unexpected termination. Transparent separation isn’t the best option for every situation. For example, if a manager’s bad behavior is creating a toxic work environment for employees, that manager needs to go right away. However, when the reason for the departure is performance-based, taking the time to practice this method can help create a more positive experience at your company. Can Your Company Benefit From Transparent Separations? Time to Say Goodbye
Have you started marketing to Generation Z yet? You should be. The oldest members of this generation — usually defined as people born during the mid- 1990s to early 2000s — are starting to enter the workforce. By 2020, around 40 percent of consumer buying power will come from Generation Z. Companies need to think about how to reach them — preferably without making the same mistakes they made when marketing to millennials.
Learn Where Your Audience Is At and Why
Generation Z grew up in an internet-focused world, but that doesn’t mean you can reach them through Facebook or email. Younger social media users gravitate to video-based platforms like YouTube or TikTok. On these apps, content feels more “real” because it is made by users for users. This preference shapes their buying habits. A survey from Business Insider found that only 49 percent of Gen Zers shop online once a month, a steep decline from the 74 percent of millennials who regularly make online purchases. Fifty-eight percent of the Gen Zers surveyed said they preferred brick-and-mortar shopping because they “wanted to see and feel the product.” There have been countless embarrassing attempts to get “on the level” with millennials, from a pizza company misunderstanding a trending hashtag about domestic violence to a presidential campaign asking people to use emojis to describe how they feel about student loan debt. These disasters produced major backlash because they were inappropriate, condescending, and insincere. Stay true to your brand persona and think twice before you approve an ad that riffs on a popular meme or claims your product is a “big mood.” Many of the mistakes companies made when marketing to millennials came from trying to market to “Millennials”— in other words, they relied on stereotypes to plan campaigns. Don’t make the same mistake with the 61 million Gen Zers about to enter the workforce. As president and founder of Red Fan Communications, Kathleen Lucente, puts it, “It’s more about understanding a set of behaviors, communication preferences, spending habits, brand affinities, and loyalties. Using terms like ‘millennial’ or ‘Gen Z’ might be easy, but they shouldn’t be applied to marketing when there are myriad other ways to understand behavior.” Marketers need to up their game when it comes to reaching this next generation — a generation who spent years watching companies clumsily attempt to connect with their millennial parents or siblings. Gen Zers can spot insincere or manipulative marketing a mile away. Don’t Be ‘Hip’ Remember That ‘Gen Z’ Isn’t a Demographic
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