Gen Z: A New Challenge for Fast-Food Employment
Fast-food employment is a revolving door, with estimated turnover ranging from 80%–140%.
Now that Gen Z workers make up 49% of the food-service workforce, recruiting and retaining “Zoomers,” as people born between 1997 and 2012 are known, has become a chronic headache for fast-food brands. Beyond financial incentives, some are succeeding by offering softer benefits that sync with Zoomers’ values and goals.
What Motivates Gen Z?
Gen Z places a high priority on gaining skills and charting career paths. Expanding training beyond food-prep skills to instilling transferable knowledge, such as conflict resolution, is likely to hit home. Embracing socially responsible initiatives such as sustainability also aligns with Gen Z’s values.
Young workers tend to be open and concerned about mental health, so recognizing and incorporating their emotional well-being into training and perks is likely to resonate. In addition to acknowledging high stress in certain jobs and offering such benefits as meditation apps, consider teaching employees the skills needed to reduce stress, such as responding to rude customers in a way that de-escalates tension.
Case Study: Chipotle’s Approach to Gen Z Benefits
Chipotle has launched some new benefits to retain Gen Z workers. The company began offering:
- a 401(k) retirement savings program
- a Visa card that offers faster access to paychecks while building credit scores
- a tuition reimbursement program
Strategies to Reduce Turnover: A Gen Z Manager’s Perspective
One manager at Wendy’s, a member of Gen Z herself, says making young employees feel valued is important.
In my experience, simple, small, thoughtful changes can lead to big results
the manager wrote in a first-person article in Nation’s Restaurant News.
She cited several strategies that helped her attain the lowest employee turnover among 36 stores in her region. Offering referral bonuses puts cash in workers’ pockets and enables them to work with friends. Flexible scheduling is another high priority, so she posted schedules allowing employees to choose and trade shifts. Showing patience and kindness during training resonates strongly, too. Explaining why the mundane tasks they must perform are important to the business makes the chores more tolerable.
Fun Competitions Drive Engagement
Also, consider organizing light-hearted competitions. This manager created a leaderboard ranking different restaurants’ speed at processing drive-through orders. The fastest team earned a reward — and a boost in team spirit as well.
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