SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Bells Marketing Consultant, a local marketing consulting firm, is working to connect more local businesses with young people through workshop events.
Jonathan Bell, the company's founder and managing director, founded the company when he was just 16 years old. Growing up in Springfield, he said he saw a gulf between baby boomers and younger generations.
“We're told that Gen Z is lazy, that Gen Z has rights, that we don't show up for interviews, we don't do this, we don't do that,” Bell said. “I think there are a lot of stereotypes that are honestly not true.”
According to research from LinkedIn, people born in the mid-to-late 1990s (known as Generation Z) are more likely to have left or are considering leaving their jobs because their employers didn't offer flexible work policies. It will be expensive.
Bell said Gen Z workers have grown up in a world with social media, and their overall persona is very different from what older generations such as baby boomers and Gen X grew up with.
Bell said bridging the generation gap won't happen overnight, but said he hopes the workshops his company is holding at its factories will help.
“We recognize that gap, but we really want to bridge that gap, so we don't expect this event to solve things overnight,” Bell said. he said. “But we can actually be in the same room with each other and actually connect with each other and like each other and say, 'Hey, just because I'm part of a different generation doesn't mean I'm going to do that.' I'm looking forward to it. Even though I'm going to degrade you, I don't mean to say anything bad about you.”
Everyone is welcome to attend this event starting at 10am to learn about how to retain and employ younger workers.
