Employers are being encouraged to study the mindset of the new generation of employees, Generation Z, in order to put in place social elements to maintain their loyalty and secure the future of their company.

“They [Gen Z’s] are really the future, we have to understand that. We have to understand how they think and I think in our HR [human resources] departments and in our management teams, we have to learn how they think,” said Dr Dana Morris Dixon, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with direct oversight for Skills and Digital Transformation.

She was speaking at a Global Services Sector of Jamaica President’s Breakfast Forum on Tuesday, October 24.

Morris Dixonm who was responding to concerns raised about the loyalty of Generation Z and millennial employees to companies amid a change in technology, noted there may need to be a shift in how companies operate to facilitate these individuals.

“Young people are really important and we have to listen to them and they are not just loyal to companies as you said, you have to give them a reason to be loyal to you. They want meaning in their work. In order to keep these young people you have to embed the social elements into what they are doing. You are doing some other outreach work, they want to do beach cleanups, they want to do other things. They want to feel like their life is valuable it is not just about work anymore and if you want to attract them we are going to have to be really deliberate about understanding how their mind works,” she added.

Generation Z refers to the generation of individuals born between 1997 to 2012, who follow millennials.