Rural Economic Summit keynote speaker talks about attracting, retaining younger workers

MASON CITY — A nationally-recognized keynote speaker who provides strategies for attracting and retaining millennial and “Gen Z” employees was the main speaker at Thursday’s Rural Economic Development Summit held at North Iowa Area Community College.

Steve Bench founded Generational Consulting in 2017 to help companies and organizations better understand generational differences. Bench says growing up at age 25 today isn’t the same as previous generations. “We need to understand what adulthood looks like today. What does Gen Z worry about? What scares them? What can we show them so they understand the opportunities that they have right here in northeast Iowa, and how do we show them.”

Bench says with “baby boomers” declining and Gen X not able to keep up with that deficit, employees have more leverage than they’ve ever had in the country.  “There’s almost more jobs available than people willing or able to work them. That level of choice is something that we’ve never seen before, and it gives the employee the leverage, because they don’t need our job. They don’t need any traditional job. They can drive Uber. They can rent out their apartment and go back and sleep on their mom’s couch. I’m not saying I’ve done it, I’m just saying I’ve heard it’s possible. So if I don’t have to choose, if I don’t have to conform, then we need to take the intentional effort to get their attention. We need them more than they need us.”

The Rural Economic Development Summit was sponsored by First Citizens Bank, North Iowa Area Community College and the North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation.