Generation Z: Insights Into the New Gen of Drinkers

Zoey Lacata [00:12] I am Zoey Lacata, Brewbound reporter and the unofficial spokesperson for Generation Z, and because of that we couldn't have a Brewbound Live without a Generation Z panel and talking about our youngest legal drinking age consumers. So to help us today get a better understanding of what Gen Z is looking for in both the beverages they buy. And the employment they are looking for, we have two frequent speakers on generational consumer insights. First is Lindsay Kunkle, senior director of digital insights at FTI Consulting, and Peter Rose, senior partner at Kantar's consulting division. Lindsay and Peter have prepared a presentation for us, and afterwards we'll have a few minutes to ask some questions. If you have any questions during their presentation, hit up that text line. It's 818-699-0760, and we'll try to get to them afterwards. So without further ado, Lindsay and Peter.

Lindsay Kunkle [01:29] Hello Brewbounds. Uh, thank you so much for having us here today. Again, I'm Lindsay Kunkle, um, from FTI Consulting, and I'm joined on stage by Pete Rose of Kantar. We both work with businesses to help them better understand consumers and other key business stakeholders to better communicate and market to them. Today our focus is on Generation Z. Um, we're gonna share a bit about them as consumers as well as employees. We're gonna be sharing data from Canar's monitor, which is a survey of consumers' values and attitudes that's been running all the way since the 70s, as well as FTI's uh leadership redefined survey, which is all about um the changing expectations looking at uh professionals in uh large businesses across the US. This is not the first time I've been on the stage talking about um Gen Z, um, if anybody can remember all the way back to uh 2017, only four years ago, but it feels like an eternity ago, uh, I was up here celebrating the 21st birthday of, um, Gen Z, and our focus of that conversation was really about moving beyond millennials. Um, and really just kind of beginning to understand what this new generation might be as drinkers. Well, quite a bit has changed since 2017. That's probably the understatement of this presentation today. Um, and today Gen Z is ages 21 to 24, um, and they're very much well into your consumer base. Uh, there's been quite a bit that they have, um, changed that they have led and change that they have experienced as they've come. Of age these past few years, um, of course there was a global pandemic which changed the way we live and work, um, but there's also been a lot of social change, a lot of seeds that were planted frankly before the pandemic that accelerated their growth throughout. Um, throughout the pandemic, things like, um, Nike backing Colin Kaepernick in 2017 and, um, which was largely done because of the Gen Z consumer, um, all the way into, um, wide sweeping Black Lives Matter movements again, many of which were led and supported by Gen Z. We had Greta. Bloomberg, a Gen Zer who, um, stood at the UN Climate Action Summit, he's speaking in terms of climate and environmental rights, um, which led to wide sweeping, uh, climate protests, um, and there's been a number of other changes, everything from, uh, corporate. going to space to continued political polarization, um, to the great resignation which I know has been a sore spot for many of our businesses, um, so a lot has changed since and we have a, uh, even more profound understanding of who the Gen Z consumer and employee is. Since we're late into the day and into many presentations, I wanted to start with a bit of a startling or should I say sober stat that we have to share, uh, and that is that. Fewer Gen Z consumers are regular are consuming um alcohol than millennials. We see more saying that they never consume alcohol than we did millennials at the same age. Now it's only about a little over 1 in 5 Gen Zers who are never consuming alcohol, uh, but. These are kind of habits that are formed early into their drinking life and perhaps good news for brands like Athletic Brewing who would cater to this segment of the Gen Z demographic. Now in terms of frequency we also see Gen Z drinking less frequently than millennials. Millennials, we see engaging with, um, uh, consuming some sort of alcoholic beverage. About 50% of them are doing that on a either daily or weekly basis, um, but it's only a little less than a third of Gen Z who are doing the same. At the same time we're seeing some interest in alternatives such as marijuana, um, among both Gen Z and millennials, um, that could, as we continue to see, um, legality and accessibility increase, continue to eat eat into some of that that frequency. But good news in terms of what they're drinking looking here at their drinking preferences based on a weekly basis, um, we see a little over 25% drinking craft beer. That's the number one choice in beverage, followed by, uh, larger beer brands and then flavored malt beverages and hard. And seltzers just as a comparison point we see vodka about equal with big beer and we see wine equal to about the hard seltzer range, um, so just as kind of a context setting to some of what we're sharing, uh, that's really where they're and what they're drinking today. Pete,

Speaker 3 [06:46] great, thanks, Lindsay, and good afternoon. It's really nice to be here and in front of a live crowd. This is my first live presentation in 22 months, so you, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to not be sitting on a, uh, on a Zoom presentation. I wanna spend a few minutes talking about the attitudes and values of Gen Z. The behavioral information that you saw as context is really important, but I think what's going to be, uh, paramount for everybody in this room is to get an understanding of what makes Gen Z tick. And the beauty of. Kantar's US monitor study, which has, as Lindsay mentioned, been around since 1971, is that we have a wonderful read on what it is that makes people tick, what their hopes and dreams and fears are, their attitudes, their values, their motivations. And when we take a look at generations, and we've done this all the way back to baby boomers, what we like to do is get an understanding of what a generation's core values are, those bedrock kind of foundational pieces of who they are, what they're all about, what's important to them. And, and those core values are heavily influenced by starting points. What do we mean by that? Starting points are those moments, those events that occurred that all members of a generation experienced together and that helped shape not only who they are as they come of age, but what they're going to be like going forward. And when we think about Gen Z, there are 3 critical core values, each influenced by a different starting point that then. Turn shapes what we think Gen Z is going to be all about through their 20s into their 30s and their 40s. The first of those starting points, and we're going to touch on each one of these, is diversity. That starting point of being the most diverse, uh, generation in US history and looking at diversity in a different way, uh, influences their value of being open. to just about anything and that shapes what they want. The second of the major starting points is disruption, and certainly we have all lived through the same disruptions over the last 15 to 20 years. But if you think about it from a Gen Z perspective, they've known nothing but disruption. That sense of disruption creates a core value around realism, and we'll talk about. sense of being realistic about prospects moving forward that's going to shape how they see the world and the fact that they don't see things working as well as it should. And then finally, the last of the three starting points is that idea of connectivity of being always on and always connected with everybody else around the rest of the world that drives a core value of what we describe as agency or a sense of empowerment. That Gen Z has in spades and what that's going to influence more than anything else is going to shape what they do and what they believe they can do and the mandates they're going to place on brands moving forward. All of this is interconnected. All of these are reciprocal parts. We talk about it really as the idea of systems thinking. It's all connected together and Gen Z sees that as well. Let's go through each one of these three. The starting point of diversity is one that I think is interesting because it's kind of obvious to say that each passing generation is more diverse than the next, and certainly you see here that by 2026, just five years from now under normal immigration scenarios, we're going to have a generation that will be majority non-white. And right now in our monitor data it's about 45% nonwhite, but I think for those especially who are members of Gen X or who are baby boomers in the room, we need to think about diversity in a far different way than we were all accustomed to thinking about it as we came of age, because to Gen Z, diversity means far more. Than just race and ethnicity, it's about identity. It's about sexual orientation, and we have a generation in Gen Z that experiences others and is open to others on a far broader set of issues than just race and ethnicity. This all drives, as I mentioned, this core value of being open, of being more open to other cultures, other lifestyles, other mindsets. It doesn't mean that everybody in Gen Z all sees the world through the same lens. And certainly we know that there are going to be plenty in Gen Z who are not culturally open, but relatively speaking this is a far more open generation than previous ones. 2/3 of Gen Z says that that idea of value is an important personal value to them. And when we measure Gen Z on what we call brand bravery, Which is their expectations of what brands need to be doing around diversity, equity and inclusion. About 50% of them score high on our scale compared to just a third of the rest of the population. What does this mean? What Gen Z wants is a far more inclusive world, and they're going to expect brands to play a role in that. The second of the starting points, disruption. Again, there's nothing on this slide that is new news to anybody in this room. We all lived through it, but many of us lived through it as adults. Think about living through all of this from age 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. If you lived in this world starting as a youngster, then you fully expect that disruption is absolutely the norm. Now some of this is good disruption. The launch of the iPhone as an example of a technological innovation that completely disrupts the way that we live. But what it also means is that disruption is forever right around the corner for Gen Z, and 3 and 4 of them talked about just how disruptive COVID has been to their daily routines and their lives. What this helps to shape. Is a good healthy dose of realism. It doesn't mean they're not optimistic. It doesn't mean that they don't feel that they're going to be able to achieve in life, but they don't look at life through rose colored glasses, and you can see that barely half of Gen Z says that they feel very or somewhat optimistic about the future of the country. We tend to see greater optimism historically in monitor among younger folks, not necessarily the case with Gen Z. And I think one of the interesting things for those of you who are Gen Xers in the in the room, remember. that by and large Gen Z was raised by Gen X parents who tended to be far more cynical and far more realistic about things, and we see some of that rubbing off for Gen Z. 4 and 5 Gen Zers agree in our 2021 monitor that people have to be thinking about ways to beat the system. And again you see that that that the rest of the population pales in comparison. And so this sense of realism that they have shapes what they see in the world. And by and large what they see is that the system ain't working. The third of the starting points that we want to talk about is this idea of connectivity. And again, think about the explosion of connectivity that has happened from the time that Gen Z was in diapers. In 1997, when the oldest member of Gen Z was born, there were 11 internet users per 100 inhabitants in the developed world. Over the next 20 years, that number multiplied by a factor of 7. And so this notion of connectivity and you can see how all of social media has exploded. Gen Z has grown up with it all along the way. They can't remember a world without social media. And one of the things that it helps drive is that they believe they can have an outsized impact on the. Rest of the world perhaps from their own bedroom, they have the ability to influence more people faster than ever before and this idea of advocacy of speaking out because I believe it's the right thing to do and that I can make a difference is a profound value for Gen Z. They want to try things even if they don't succeed. Failing fast is a mantra among them. And so I think that this is not a group that is likely to be armchair advocates. They are going to push for what they believe in. And again you're going to see in a few minutes when I turn it over to Lindsay that this is going to influence their expectations about what they want in an employer, what they want in the workforce. What are they going to do ultimately? They've got a duty to drive change. And they'll want brands to move right along with them. So here's a recap of the core values, what they shape, and the fact that this is all interconnected for Gen Z. This is the way we need to be thinking about their hearts and minds that differentiates them from previous generations of young adults that we've all marketed to over the last several years. For the remainder of our time together, we want to think about Gen Z from two lenses. First, we'll look on the outside and think about them as consumers, but we also want to look at them inward and think about them as critical members of our future workforce. These are two important ways that we want to work with and connect with Gen Z. I'm going to take us through the first half of this talking about Gen Z as consumers, and then I'm going to turn it over to Lindsay to talk about Gen Z as members of the workforce. What kinds of things are we seeing with Gen Z as consumers in terms of how best to engage them? Well, the first place you have to start is to think about the notion of well-being, and some of what they see in terms of the systems that are broken is the fact that mental and social well-being is absolutely in peril. Now Gen Z is not alone in terms of saying that having positive relationships and social interactions are very important to overall well-being. Again, 7 in 10 across the nation. So the fact that it's a little higher among Gen Z, not too big a deal. But what they're also saying to us is that this idea of being connected, of belonging to something, has eroded over the last couple of years. Not a surprise. It's something that's adversely affected a lot of us, but it's hitting them where they live at a monumental time in their lives. And what we see is that this has an outsized effect, in particular. On their mental well-being, Half of them say that mental health is the most important aspect of well-being that they're concerned about. On the flip side, the older you get, not surprisingly, it's physical health that is most important. But traditionally, when we've asked questions like this in Monitor, we tend to see that physical health has been number one. Uh, the number one concern, regardless of what generation you're looking at. Not so today for Gen Z, where there is a strong emphasis on the importance of mental well-being. One of the things that we often talk about in terms of social media and in terms of the ways in which we engage from a digital standpoint is, hey, these are wonderful uh wonderful apparatus in order to help us feel connected. And yet if you think about it, there are certain ways in which it actually works against Gen Z. They are finding that being able to connect with folks over Zoom or whatever platform you might need still leaves a little bit to be desired. And one of the things that's been hardest for Gen Z to give up during COVID has been social interaction. Numbers are at parity for all the generations, but for Gen Z, this was the toughest thing that they had to give up, and almost 60% of Gen Z said that they are feeling more isolated since COVID started. Again, it's not the issue that these are issues unique to Gen Z, but it's more the impact that it has had on that generation. We thought that this tweet from thoughts of dog was kind of interesting in terms of thinking about just how important pets have been in terms of keeping everything tied together over the last 22 months. The dysfunctionality of the digital spaces that we're seeing is something that a lot of us have, I think, experienced over the last few years. We've spent time over the last few years unfriending, disconnecting, closing accounts, stepping away. The idea of social hygiene is how we refer to it. And one of the things that we're seeing among Gen Z is that almost 7. 10 of them say that they've cut back on using some social networks because of the toxicity of the of the medium, and one of the things again, if we think about the profound impact that Gen Z has experienced from the toxicity of social media, 44% of Gen Z says that they have experienced discrimination on social media. That's quite a bit more than the rest of the nation. Now, lest you think that that is simply a function of the fact that Gen Z is more likely to be on social media to begin with, we held that constant as we tried to analyze this data. No matter how we slice the data, we saw that Gen Z. Had uh was adversely affected to a much greater degree in terms of the discrimination that they personally were experiencing on social media so they've seen both the upside and the downside of those platforms. So what are they gonna do all about this? Well, one of the trends that we talk about. Uh, within the monitor business is this idea of raw authenticity, of being true to yourself, of being unvarnished, of living in a world that has been for the last 10 to 15 years far too photoshopped, getting rid of the filters and just being who you are. More than half of Gen Z say that social media is an important way to express myself, and the same percentage says, and this is, I think, important. In a world in which Gen Z talks a great deal about openness, about being welcoming of others' identities, uh, this is a group that is very likely to challenge stereotypes of who I really am, and I think we need to think about that in terms of messaging, in terms of how we portray the generation. This issue of challenging stereotypes is nicely portrayed in this quick TikTok video. With no audio. That's all right. We'll let it run. At some point, hopefully you'll get a chance to see the deck and you'll get to see the 22nd video in its entirety. The one other thing that they will do is embrace alternate realities. We've got a generation that is looking for different ways of doing things, and one of the things that we're seeing is that with the explosion of AR and VR, they are quite likely to be embracing these alternate modes of engaging with other people. So at a time when they are. Feeling as though current ways of connecting with other people are at worst toxic and at best somewhat disengaging, they're going to be looking for different ways to engage with other people, and this may mean anything from video games to live streaming, things that will allow them to try new ways to. Engage other people. One of the cool, uh, uh, things that we saw online was I miss my, I believe it's I missmybar.com, where during COVID you can create the ambience that you want from your favorite bar at home. Think you and a significant other, you by yourself or maybe you and a group of 4, were having drinks at home. You could set this up, put it through the sound bar, and adjust the ambience around you, the sounds that you were used to from your neighborhood bar, bartender working, people talking, how full the room was, what the uh what the weather was outside, how loud the street ambience was, levers that you could pull in order to try to recreate your favorite uh feeling of being in the bar. So that's a look at Gen Z as consumers. Let me turn it over to Lindsay to talk about Gen Z's in the workforce.

Lindsay Kunkle [22:35] Thanks, Pete. So we now want to talk about Gen Z on the job, and the first thing you need to remember when it comes to Gen Z as your employee is that they take work really personally. They are looking for careers that make them happy, not necessarily the most possible money. And they're looking for a job, a career that reflects their own personal identity. They're looking to work for businesses that support and leaders that talk about issues that connect with their own identity, their own beliefs, their own values. Now that doesn't mean um as a generation with core values of open. and realism that they're going to put aside opportunities that conflict with um their own values um but they are looking to kind of optimize that alignment and that reflection of their personal self. Now this was something that the CEO of LinkedIn recently talked about in terms of the great resignation. He actually called it the great reshuffle. Um, he changed the words because it's not about Gen Z leaving the workforce or not wanting to work. It's about chasing passions. They're looking for the right why to why they do their jobs, why they engage in a certain career. Now there is a bit of an issue when it comes to Gen Z's perception of businesses. However, there's a culture of distrust. Um, Gen Z, uh, 64% of them will say that if the opportunity arises, most businesses will take advantage of the public if they're not gonna get found out. Um, they do not trust business. They have an inherent skepticism of business, um, and to overcome that skepticism, it's really a two-way street. They see employers not trusting them. It's in the headlines. It's in their actions during the pandemic, um. There was an increase in the number of employers using surveillance tools of remote work. I think the surveillance tool usage has doubled during the pandemic, um, so that's a word of just saying that they, you know, don't feel trusted. They're taking that as a sign and internalizing that. I'm not gonna show you the um TikTok videos here but we do have some hashtags to the side if you wanna do some um extracurricular research afterwards on some of these slides. Now Gen Z doesn't feel very supported by employers and we kind of understand that, um, distrust, that culture of distrust that has come about when we look at, um, their, uh, reporting burnout. Gen Z though has worked the least out of all the generations in the workplace is the most likely to say that they're experiencing burnout. Um, you know, and a lot of this is kind of emotional. They don't feel like their employers have that same sense of empathy. Now what do you do? How do you kind of connect with this group? What is Gen Z looking for as your employee? Well, they're looking for inclusivity. That is the mandate from Gen Z. 8 and 10 of them are saying that they're giving preference to companies that are inclusive, but it's not about dipping your toe in the water in terms of diversity. It's about. Going the next step beyond, um, Caheel Green was the, uh, first, um, black student body president at Yale University, and he wrote an open letter to his future employer saying if you're still making the business case for diversity, your company isn't the place for us. They're looking for it to be embedded and a big part of the culture. A company that's doing this very well right now is actually Yahoo. They started an employee resource group on neurodiversity and mental health and started the Minds of All Kinds uh campaign and it's really resonated with degeneration because it's going beyond some of the traditional demographics of diversity that we think about. Now the other thing you need to do is think like a Gen Z employee, and they're thinking about 3 things now. We're all always thinking about profit, of course we have to, and so is Gen Z. It's top priority for them. They're looking for jobs that pay well and that give them stability, but at the same time they're very concerned about their own personal growth. They're looking for companies that invest in people. They want opportunity. they want to explore since they're early in their careers they're looking for that where they work. They're also looking for businesses invested in the planet. They're very sustainability minded and so that's a key thing. So these three keys or this triple bottom line is something I wanna keep in mind as I shift over and talk a bit about how we actually connect with Gen Z both as employees and as, uh, consumers. So I talked about distrust and that there's this inherent distrust that Gen Z has and that's true and it's a little bit stronger than it is for millennials, but you have to know that you matter. Uh, businesses are seen as a hope and a light for Gen Z. 9 in 10 of them are saying that businesses have some or a strong influence to shaping the future of the United States more than community groups, more than government. You see other generations favoring government a lot more, especially millennials. And it goes back to those three P's. It's not just about profit, it's also about the people, the planet, the society at large. Gen Z is looking for businesses and their leaders to take a stand on major social issues. Um, and that then in turn will impact your corporate reputation. It will help boost the opinion of your company because what is said by a company's leaders, what you say about your, your business and what you stand for is going to influence Gen Z's opinion of your company overall. Now Gen Z and even millennials are going as far as saying that maybe it's time to get a little political. We see that this is kind of an increasing notion. It's not a majority of Gen Z quite yet. But saying that a CEO should engage in politics now, I, from, uh, other research that we have done, we see that it really when you do so should be based on policy and not partisan politics and that aligning with your employees and your customer base as well as your corporate values is really critical as you engage in that. So it takes some investment, some research to make sure that you're doing it in the right way. An example of this comes from Durham, North Carolina, um, at Pony Sorus Brewery who worked with, uh, I think 3 dozen other breweries across the state. Um, this dates back almost 5 years ago, um, to when the, uh, HB 2 law was, um, put in place which would void cities of their anti-discrimination rules. Um, and they created a, uh, beer to raise money for their LGBTQ friends and customers and employees who were, um, feeling the, the kind of the backlash of this role called the don't be mean to people golden rule stays on. I think before it was done brewing they surpassed their goal of fundraising by 25 fold, uh, and what is really I think unique about this is it's become part of their culture they have, um, what they call the Fab Fund which continues to raise money every time, um, a pint of don't be. To people is poured at their brewery or elsewhere and um they're continually advocating for people for to get voter education so there's a lot of um continued work and emphasis that they've ingrained and made it part of their culture and values which made it very authentic that they did what they did there. Now I do wanna set expectations realistically as you begin to engage in social issues because it's, it's a difficult but necessary battle for all businesses today to do. We asked working professionals to look back on the last 18 months when a lot of business leaders were talking about heavy topics, different social issues, and the pandemic, um, and we saw for the most, um, other generations that. Most people thought most working professionals thought that CEOs, it brought out the best in CEOs, not the worst. It was a little bit more split for Gen Z. We see it's on, you know, quite, you know, 4439 versus what the last 18 months bringing out the best versus the worst. Now I wanna click into that a little bit deeper and look at the types of issues that were being talked about. Um, what we see is that a more favorable response was received than less favorable. Um, so whether any issue that was discussed, Gen Z saw the company or the leader more favorably than less favorably, but not nearly as much so as millennials. Millennials were kind of giving every issue that was discussed a thumbs up. And Gen Z was kind of felt like no change on most of these issues. Now I bring this up because we're seeing a bit of a shift in terms of moving from a millennial audience to a Gen Z audience. Millennials wanted any issue just to be brought up, discussed, and they were happy. Gen Z is looking for something deeper. They're looking for proof there that something change is actually happening, that it's structural change. Um, in some of our other data we see that they're looking for things like a purpose mission to be stated, um, employee statistic statistics to be, uh, laid out, um, and financials that help back some of their purpose and other initiatives as well. Go ahead and keep on moving on, um, so there's a lot there. What do you speak out on? We hear from Gen Z. You should speak out on a diverse set of issues, not just one, and if it aligns with your purpose, all the better. But that does not mean you have to speak out on everything. Less than half say that they expect leaders to respond to every issue externally. And a good place to start is looking inside your own walls. People, employee issues tend to rise to the top of what Gen Z is looking for, and we ask, when we ask them what leaders should prioritize the most, they say back to what Pete was talking about earlier, physical health and mental well-being of employees, and it doesn't hurt to ask your own Gen Z employees because they have an entrepreneurial spirit that will definitely help you out. Now just two quick final examples here to round out some of what we talked about. The first comes from a partnership of New England Brewing Company with Sacred Heart University in which they established a, uh, scholarship to a brewing science certificate for a black student, um, to help, um, in response to some of the Black Lives Matter movement and really help, um. Increase the diversity within the industry they've done a lot internally as well at New England Brewing to support um diversity as well and lastly, Chobani um has a slogan in which how we make our product matters great saying, but they've actually backed it in all of their actions again and again and again. Um, everything from giving shares to employees, to expanding parental leave, to increasing hourly wage. And with that, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up and we can shift to some Q&A.

Zoey Lacata [34:51] Awesome. All right, thank you, Lindsay and Peter. Let's head over to our conversation section. Alright, and we have a couple minutes left so we can just jump in right away. Um, let's start with brand loyalty. It was already a challenge with previous generations. Um, we saw that with the Rotation Nation Days of craft beer. How is brand loyalty playing out with Gen Z?

Speaker 3 [35:18] I think we're seeing, uh, Gen Z, uh, fairly fickle, uh, right now, uh, and, and I think, you know, what we're likely to see is Gen Z continuing to kind of hold up the microscope on brands and to understand or to ask the question, what have you done for me lately? And, um, and I, I, I do think that we're seeing a generation that. Um, not just from a workplace standpoint but from a consumption standpoint is going to be, uh, trying to align with brands, uh, that, uh, whose values are, are quite similar to their own and so that notion of loyalty is maybe you're only as good as your last, um, public performance if you will.

Zoey Lacata [36:01] Um, we, as we saw, Generation Z has grown up with social media all around them, and it seems to be the default advice to reach, to connect with them is on social media, but there are so many platforms these days, so many ways to get involved with that. What is the most effective way for beverage companies to be involved on social media but not get lost in the void of it all?

Lindsay Kunkle [36:26] It's a great question. Uh, you know, I think having a presence is really important, but places where you can actually engage and interact with them is, um, I think the space where they're looking for the most kind of invention with how they connect with brands in, in social media. Fortnite has done a really. Interesting, um, job at connecting with Gen Z. Um, it's a game you can actually, uh, go in and see concerts. They have live events, um, so the things that kind of bridge the, the virtual and the physical world are is a space where I think that's there's really ripe for a lot of play and innovation in terms of how you connect with Gen Z there. Uh, Lindsay,

Zoey Lacata [37:09] you co-authored a report for FDI last year on the shifting expectations of consumers, and one thing you pointed out was that Gen Z tends to be wary of corporate initiatives sometimes, but also really seeks transparency, as you guys noted today, they also want you to be involved in social issues. So how do you get involved as a company and still pass that authenticity test?

Lindsay Kunkle [37:33] I think that's where it's important to connect to other values and it should never just be um a single effort it needs to come from a certain place it needs to have repeated effort behind it um I think doing things in which your own employees really support and back that's issues or causes that are meaningful for them makes it more authentic and so is always a good place to start.

Speaker 3 [37:57] The sense of realism that we talked about as a core value of Gen Z is one way to help bring it home. It could be that it's a passion point for a CEO or for a member of the executive team because of something, uh, personal with their family, with a dear friend. There, there's a cause that they can connect to in a realistic way, and I think that, um, avoids the appearance of we're just checking the box for its own sake.

Zoey Lacata [38:22] And last question, what do you think is the most common misconception people have about Gen Z?

Speaker 3 [38:29] Um, I heard some snickers when Lindsay put up the slide about burnout. And I'm sure that what was implied was they've only been in the workforce for a few years, how can they burn out? Um, this is a very serious generation with very serious ambitions. Um, we used to kind of taunt millennials years ago when they were starting in the workforce and talk about how they wanted to get out of the office at 5:15 because they had a spin class or Pilates class to go to, um. I think Gen Z is incredibly ambitious and so I would not see them as anything other than high aspiring, high achieving, uh, uh, workers and people. Yeah,

Lindsay Kunkle [39:07] I totally agree they're absolutely hardworking. They might wanna take a break at 3 o'clock in the middle of the day to do something else, but the, the effort and the, you know, sincerity of that is still there.

Zoey Lacata [39:19] Great. Well, thank you, Lindsay and Peter, and with that we'll pass it over to Jess.