When the Aspida insurance company launched in 2020, its chief people officer Sandy Ball saw an opportunity to
She wanted that culture to appeal in particular to Gen Z and millennials, which eventually became 80% of the Durham, North Carolina, company's workforce, Ball says.
"We were a startup. We needed an entrepreneurial mindset; we needed people that weren't hung up in bureaucracy," she says. "Attracting and retaining the people that we wanted with this entrepreneurial spirit and this ownership mentality and the ability to collaborate: All that was really important to us."
Read more:
Ball had previously worked in HR and the insurance business for nearly 20 years, which gave her ideas about what worked and didn't work
"In bigger companies, a lot of times you have decision by consensus; there's not a lot of empowerment in the different levels in an organization," Ball says. "In a small startup company, you have to make sure that you have empowerment. People are making decisions at different levels and we move fast."
Employees at Aspida — which has a workforce of 200 worldwide, including 160 in the U.S. — needed to be empowered to adopt a "fail fast mentality," she says.
"If you're moving fast, you're going to make mistakes. But when you make mistakes, you fix them, you pivot and you move on, and I think that's part of that entrepreneurial spirit," Ball says. "If you want people to be innovative, you have to give them the latitude, the ability and the decision-making to move fast and to be OK with them failing as long as they learn from it."
Read more:
Gen Z workers tend to look for a work environment that "feeds their socialness," Ball says. Where older generations might think of a separation between working and going home to friends and family, younger workers seek to
"It's definitely a benefit when you are working with people that you could call a friend or that support you in an environment that you really enjoy being at," she says.
To encourage a friendship-building environment, the company provides opportunities for new employees to connect with others, she says: Assigning "ambassador" employees to take them to lunch and answer questions; setting up a speed-dating-like session of quick conversations with 20 other employees to get to know their peers; hosting ask-me-anything sessions with upper level staff.
HR also organized minor engagement exercises for employees to get to know each other,
"I don't mean to be hokey about it, but there's just laughter in the workplace. It's kind of like the secret ingredient that turns these coworkers into teammates and workdays into memories," Ball says. "Every generation would probably want that."
Read more:
Gen Z employees also tend to be focused on their community and aligning their purpose to the mission of the company, so Aspida's managers help employees see how their work impacts the company's goals and bottom line, Ball says. In Durham, the employee community work includes providing book drives and career days to a local charter kindergarten-through-8th grade school.
Career growth is another priority for younger employees, Ball says. To that end, the company offers an eight-month early career and leadership development program.
"I can't necessarily control if they get promoted or not — that's the managers," she says. "But I can prepare them for their promotion. I can grow them where they are and I can give them tools, access to people and mentors, and training."
HR should recognize the needs of Gen Z employees but also learn about what drives individual employees without stereotyping them based on their age group, she says.
"You have to understand your team and what they value, then adapt and put in the programs that attract and retain for your industry and your group," she says. "People are always telling you what's important to them. Are you listening?"
