Phil Cooper Presents Thought Leader Session at PestWorld 2021

TRENTON, N.J. – Generations exist in the workplace, and we know to acknowledge the differences, but does it really matter? 

According to an article by Yahoo Finance, “There were a record 4.3 million U.S. workers who quit their jobs in August 2021,” sparking the Great Resignation among Millennials and Gen Z workers. 

With each job loss, companies are being crippled by a nation-wide labor shortage that is only going to get worse if companies fail to evolve with the changing times that seem to be dictated by the younger generations. 

Key components to the Great Resignation lie in many generational differences that some businesses choose to ignore rather than acknowledge, such as work-life balance.

With five generations now in the workforce, it’s more important than ever for each generation to feel “heard” when it comes to career expectations and Gen Z hasn’t been silent on what they expect and how quickly they will quit if it isn’t the right fit for them.

“Gen Z's job transitions have increased by 80%,” stated an INSIDER article. “Millennials are transitioning jobs at the second highest rate, up by 50%, with Gen X following at 31%. Boomers are trailing behind, up by just 5%.”

Although Millennials and Gen Z’s typically want the same things in a job, requests are sometimes falling on deaf ears with their Boomer supervisors. 

According to an article by INSIDER, “Millennials paved the way for a change in better flexibility and wellbeing at work, but Gen Z is turning it from a workplace perk to workplace norm. That's how things go with generations — whenever the youngest cohort emerges in the labor force, and in the world, they always seem more progressive than the last.”

During PestWorld 2021, Evolve YT CEO Phil Cooper presented a challenge to attendees during his Bridging Generations session.

“Finding quality talent and keeping that talent is becoming increasingly difficult,” he said. “So, I challenge everyone to take generational differences into play and start looking at the various ways to attract them to your business and how to effectively retain them. You’d be surprised how much of an impact this has on your hiring and retaining efforts.”

Cooper led a Thought Leader session at PestWorld 2021 addressing the generational differences, how to find and hire quality talent based on generations, how to adapt marketing efforts as well as how to improve employee satisfactory scores by having managers address their teams based on their generational preferences. 

“There’s a talent war brewing with companies fighting to attract and retain the best talent, yet we can’t seem to keep them,” he said. “Something needs to be addressed in the way we search and keep our talent, and one way is by addressing generational differences. What does a Millennial want in a position? How do we take a core value and make it ‘speak’ to different generations in different ways?  It’s more than just the compensation and benefits that drives people to stay at your company.”

According to a Yahoo Finance article, PwC, a leading accounting firm, is pulling out all the stops to try to attract and retain their talent.

“This white-hot talent market, this war for talent, I don’t think, has ever been more intense,” Yolanda Seals-Coffield, principal and deputy people leader at PwC, told Yahoo Finance. “The ability to attract new channels of talent to go out to people and tell them that they can have a differentiated experience with us around flexibility is what’s motivating us here.”

Cooper presented to over 100 pest management professionals during his two-part session, questioning their mindset of traditional hiring efforts and transforming perceptions on the importance of acknowledging generational differences. 

Cooper, who will be the Keynote Speaker for North Carolina’s Pest Management Association’s “United We Stand, Together We Grow” conference on November 17th, is passionate about helping companies understand the impacts generational differences can have on the growth and success of their company.

“When we learn to understand the different generations, expectations and how to communication properly with them, your team will be destined for success,” he said. “Each generation provides a unique set of insights and when they all come together it’s a recipe for success.”

For more information on Evolve YT’s Bridging Generations course, visit https://evolveyt.com/courses/.