Exceptional conference speakers, seem to fall into one of two categories. 1. Wow! When I grow up, I want to be like them or 2. Imagine what she’s going to be doing when she gets to my age? Somehow Alexia Hilbertidou falls into both categories. She has joked with Queen while receiving a Young Leader Award for Services to the Commonwealth, flown on a NASA mission and founded GirlBoss NZ. With over 13,000 members and programmes running in New Zealand, Australia and the Cook Islands, GirlBoss is New Zealand’s largest organisation for young women.
At the #COHSF2020 Conference, she took us on a Tinderesque ‘swipe right’ journey into the minds of Gen Z and how we might be able to engage them in workplace safety. The standard view of this cohort is that they are aged between 10 and 22 years and have an 8-second attention span. However, there is a lot more to this generation. According to the stats, 14% of them already have a ‘side hustle’ and 58% want to run their own business someday.
Gen Z are more health-conscious and on average don’t smoke or drink a lot. These homebodies would rather binge Netflix than party. Which may be why there has been a massive decrease in teen pregnancy. They are strategic in their thinking, which also comes back to Netflix. Rather than a binary two-channel choice, Gen Z can choose multiple platforms and watch what they want, when they want, however they want to.
Alexia recommends that managers who want to engage Gen Z need to be ready to provide their youngest employees with opportunities to learn and integrate their ideas. Provide them with a Dragons Den like opportunity to solve your company’s key problems and you will be surprised with what they come up with. Also, if you do something innovative like offer employees a $40 plant budget, don’t be surprised if this turns into a team-building exercise where everyone is trying to cultivate the healthiest plant.
The COHSF committee would like to formally thank Alexia for taking the time to come and speak to us and would welcome her back anytime.
QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS
1. What has been the highlight of your working career?
Starting girl boss and mentoring CEO’s of the future
2. What has been the hardest decision that you have had to make during your working career?
Chose not to go to University
3. What was the hardest lesson that you have had to learn?
Be focused on what I want to change and not get distracted by other people and their influence.
4. If you could go back to your first year in your professional role, what advice would you give to your younger self?
Focus on your mission and don’t be distracted by other people’s thoughts
5. What advice would you give to people starting out in their careers?
Take advantage of opportunities, never give up, your voice is valid and develop your networking skills
6. What is the key message from your presentation?
There is a lot more to Gen Z than you think, take the time to learn how to engage them.
7. What is the one thing you would like the audience to do when they leave the conference?
Value Gen Z as co-creators with ideas worth listening too.
GET IN CONTACT
Website: www.alexia.nz
Email: alexia@girlboss.nz
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alexiah
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nzgirlboss
Twitter: twitter.com/girlbossnz
Instagram: www.instagram.com/nzgirlboss