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Generation Z Is Ready to Work
We just released a free e-book called "Recruiting in a Multi-Generational Talent Pool," which talks about Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. This helpful free resource was written to help companies attract, hire, and retain top talent from all three of the workforce generations. Now we have to make room for a new generation.
Meet the Zs.
Also known was Post-Millennials, Founders, Plurals, the iGeneration, and also the Homeland Generation, Generation Z talent is slowly beginning to trickle into the workforce. They are often confused with Millennials, otherwise known as Generation Y. This group of young people consists of individuals born in 1995 or later. According to Huffington Post, they make up 25.9% of the U.S. population and that number will rise to 1/3 of the population by 2020. These are the children of Generation X and/or Millennials.
Generation Z Characteristics
While Millennials grew up during the Technology Boom, Gen Z was born into a world chock-full of technology. They are said to process information faster and are maybe less focused than Millennials. They are better at multi-tasking, juggling their social media and school work.
Growing up in the period of global recession and turmoil, they are more cautious. They seek stability and security, while Millennials are drawn to flexibility and freedom. According to Business 2 Community, they prefer in-person communication over instant messaging. Yes, this generation was born social, with about 92% of American children with digital footprints.
Zs in the Workforce
While 71% of Millennials want to invest in advanced degrees, only 64% of Gen Z think that this is the path they want to follow. There will be more early-starters from this generation, as there are not a lot of Gen Zs that are interested in getting advanced degrees.
Gen Z prefers being the "lone wolf." According to Talent Blog, they value independence over collaboration in the workplace, unlike Millennials, who prefer to collaborate with work peers.
It may be harder to keep them, as well, since 83% believe that it is alright to stay 3 years or less at their first job. The best way to retain them would be to provide them with mentorship and to provide them with opportunities for advancement.
Each generation brings a special skill set to the workforce. In the next few years, we would like to see how Gen Z will contribute to the animal science industry. In a future blog, I will write about how you can attract, hire, and retain Gen Z talent. Stay tuned!
DAN SIMMONS, CPC, Sr. Recruiter
Continental Search is owned by Daniel C. Simmons, a Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) who has been recruiting since 1991. In December 2015, Dan celebrated his 650th career placement. Dan has won more than 20 awards from Top Echelon Network, America's leading placement network, including Placer of the Year in 2009 and the prestigious Million Dollar Award. He is also a member of the National Association of Personnel Services. Dan has been a recruiter in the animal feed industry since 2002.
Dan is a student of the recruiting industry, as well as a speaker/trainer, both in-person and online, for various industry webinars. He has been a featured speaker at the Top Echelon National Convention. Dan has also been a guest speaker providing insight into career management at universities and trade associations. These include the Reciprocal Meat Conference for the American Meat Science Association in 2008 and 2009, the Washington D.C. Chapter of ARPAS (American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists) in 2008, and the animal science departments of both Penn State University and the University of Delaware.
How Data Can Make Dairy Farming More Profitable
"We'd like to help farmers make better and more informed decisions because volatility is here to stay." That is the message Dairy Australia is sending farmers.
South Australian dairy farmers met in Mount Gambier last week to hear from industry innovators about the big data revolution. At a time when dairy business viability is making headlines, the event focused on helping farmers to collect and analyze data to make what they already do more profitable.
"How do we help farmers manage their business better? Both from a price perspective but also from a climate perspective?" Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday said. "Volatility is something that we're seeing much more frequently.
"It used to be that prices swinging up and then down, that used to be every seven years. Now we're seeing it around every three to four years." Some dairy farmers in the area are already using technology to optimize their businesses.
Associate extension professor in dairy systems, Jeffrey Bewley, traveled from the University of Kentucky to talk to dairy farmers.
"There's a lot of terms we use. Big data, internet of things, precision dairy," he said.
"Basically we're looking at how we can refine the management of the operation and use data as a source of competitive advantage for each dairy producer.
"We have wearable technologies that can kind of look at rumination behavior, eating behavior, lying behavior, and body temperature.
"People are using that for estrous detection - to know when to breed the cows and being applied for disease detection."
Dr Bewley said there are opportunities the technology offered that would be impossible to achieve with human laborers.
"A farmer can't be watching every cow, every second of the day, but a [piece of] technology attached to the cow can be," he said. "The biggest opportunity is providing a good life for the animals who produce the products that we all enjoy."
But Dr. Bewley said the price point of technology could be a tough pill to swallow, particularly in times of low milk prices. "Today's probably not the time when a lot of people are going out here and buying the technology," he said. "But it's a nice escape to think about: 'Here's what we can do, and when things get better, we'll be able to do it."
Dairy Pride Act Has Imitators Worried
There are many new products that are non-dairy, but labeled as milk or cheese. While these items may taste good and are beneficial to our health, it makes no sense to mislead consumers into thinking they are milk-based. Some manufacturers even package them to resemble dairy products, which can cause confusion.
Jim Mulhern, the CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, says that the time is now for the FDA to take action in his monthly column. He says that this "is a welcome development for the entire dairy chain, which for decades has done a slow burn as the FDA turned a deaf ear to our complaints that standards of identity for products like milk, cheese, and yogurt are being violated by an expanding list of plant-based imitators that are undeniably not dairy foods."
Mulhern believes that the public should not be denied its right to consume non-dairy products. However, he would like the labels to be accurate to prevent misleading the public.
The Dairy Pride Act was introduced in the Senate and House early this year. Once passed, it will require non-dairy products made from plants, algae, seeds, and nuts to be labeled accordingly. This will mean that it cannot be named milk, yogurt, or cheese, as this will confuse the public.
Rick Pascual recruits in dairy nutrition for feed companies and their suppliers across the USA. Rick joined Continental Search in January 2015 and has successfully filled a number of searches for nutritionists, sales, and sales management for leading companies.
After
completing coursework and a grueling exam, Rick became a Certified
Personnel Consultant (CPC) in November 2015, as well as a Professional
Recruiting Consultant (PRC) by AIRS in April 2016. Visit his LinkedIn profile for more information and to stay updated with news about recent dairy trends.
How Food Safety Performance Affects Chicken Slaughter Establishments
According to the CDC, roughly 1 out of 6 Americans get sick due to foodborne diseases. Of these 48 million people, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die.
I stumbled upon this article while browsing through The Poultry Site, which I thought I should share. It talks about how food safety performance impacts chicken slaughterhouses. I believe it will be a great read and is share-worthy, especially if you have friends or family members who are worried about meat safety.
Food safety is a vital concern in the U.S. and other countries, as children, people with autoimmune disease, and the elderly are quite vulnerable to foodborne conditions. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and other USDA programs that came before it have regulated meat safety before 1900.
As more focus has been put into meat diseases in the last few decades, the FSIS set up the Pathogen Reduction and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Rule in 1996, which is also known as PR/HACCP. With regard to illnesses caused by chicken-related salmonellosis, these provisions have shortened annual instances by 190,000 from the year 1996 to 2000.
Food safety experts know that many of their consumers get foodborne illnesses since they are unable to directly observe food safety of the products they purchase. While there are some institutional buyers who use Salmonella and/or other testing to measure food safety, some do not test their produce and thus, they have no direct knowledge about the safety of the products they have purchased.
In 2003, FSIS decided they would announce a change in regulation and consider making the results for Salmonella tests for individual establishments available to the public. In the years that followed, they made many changes, like using an easy-to-understand metric for rating how establishments performed on Salmonella tests in 2006, disclosing the establishments with poor or mediocre performance on their website from 2008 to 2010, and even establishing a new Salmonella standard for chicken carcasses in 2011.
Trish Valenzuela specializes in recruiting for poultry feed additive companies. She has filled positions in technical support, sales, and sales management across the U.S.
Trish joined Continental Search in July 2015 and through hard study, she passed two certification programs. She is now a Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) and a Professional Recruiting Consultant (PRC).
Visit her LinkedIn profile to connect with her and stay updated with current poultry trends. Trish can be reached at (302) 248-8242, through LinkedIn, or at trish@consearch.com.
   
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