These Are the Retail Employers Rated Highest by Gen Z Workers
Samantha McDonald
Business Editor
Entering the workforce during a period of record-low unemployment, Generation Z employees are increasingly gaining an upper hand, disrupting the way companies do their hiring.
That’s according to a newly released study from Glassdoor, which aggregated the job-seeking habits of the cohort to find that Gen Zers look for employers that can offer a healthy work environment combined with flexible hours and decent salaries. (Pew Research Center classifies Gen Zers as individuals with birth years between 1997 and 2012.)
Evaluating those born between 1997 and 2000 — the portion of the group that has already entered the labor pool — the recruiting and business review site reported that three of the highest-rated companies were in tech: Apple, Google and Microsoft, all tied with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5.
However, retail also made its mark, with sportswear giant Nike and department store chain Nordstrom weighing a respective 4.2 and 4.1 to make the top 10 ranking.
The Beaverton, Ore.-based athletic company was named to Glassdoor’s list of the 100 best places to work in 2018, and its chief, Mark Parker, is ranked among the top CEOs of 2018 — the same year the firm grappled with the departures of high-level executives amid reports of inappropriate workplace behavior. Nike has since upped its focus on gender equity, adding more women to its top ranks, as well as announced a plan to raise wages for 10 percent of employees.
Nordstrom also made last year’s ranking of top CEOs, with the late Blake Nordstrom earning a shoutout for his role as co-president of the Seattle-headquartered retailer. “We want all employees to feel as though it’s their name on the door and that they are empowered to do whatever it takes to serve the customer on their terms,” he previously told FN. “Our open-door policy is connected to the idea that we all have a stake in this together.”
The feedback — which stems from a mix of part-time, full-time, intern, contract and freelance workers who left reviews on the site from last October to mid-January — shows that Gen Zers take into consideration the company culture, their trust in senior leadership and career opportunities when choosing an employer.
“As members of Gen Z continue to join the working population in the next decade, we’ll likely see employers continue to adapt to attract these new job seekers,” the analysis read.
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