Youth underemployment is one of today’s most pressing challenges. Young people make up 38% of the global workforce; a percentage that is set to rise to 58% by 2030. What is most astonishing is that they are three times more likely to be unemployed than older adults – a concerning reality that impacts all of us.
As a business, investing in youth is imperative in addressing today’s global talent crunch and safeguarding tomorrow’s workforce. I believe youth empowerment does not only give businesses a competitive edge, but it is also essential to powering a resilient future.
There are three focus areas that businesses can start with:
1. Unleashing the innovative potential of youth
Young people who are fresh in their careers present a distinctive skill set and mindset that can be revolutionary for business. When effectively engaged, their unique perspective of the world has the power to help businesses unlock a limitless breadth of opportunities. There is no denying that we are on the cusp of a generational shift, with Gen Z set to make up a quarter of Asia Pacific’s population by 2025. As businesses today face the challenge of connecting with these highly pragmatic consumers, young people will play an increasingly important role in leading businesses to meet their fast-evolving and ambitious expectations.
Their potential for innovation stems from their superpower: digital fluency. As the first true generation of “digital natives”, businesses can tap on Gen Zs as their secret weapon for navigating their digital transformation in our increasingly connected world. Whether it is integrating new technologies that optimise business operations, or creating new products and experiences that appeal to increasingly sophisticated customers. For hospitality brands like Marriott International, this means the ability to reimagine the guest experience through innovation at every level. For example, last year we launched Moxy Universe, a limited time offering where guests can experience augmented reality at 12 Moxy hotels in Asia Pacific through their own avatars. That is just a glimpse into the future of hospitality!
2. Building an inclusive culture for equal access to opportunities
In addition to opportunities for new business growth, I am genuinely excited about the positive social change that these young minds bring to the workplace. Gen Zs rank inclusive work cultures as their top three considerations when choosing an employer. That means diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) will play a key role if businesses are to attract and retain the best talent.
One of the first things that businesses can do is to ensure diverse hiring efforts. For example, many Marriott hotels in the region already collaborate with non-profit organizations to ramp up their efforts in creating career and training opportunities for people with disabilities and disadvantaged backgrounds. Businesses also need to make intentional efforts on how they design inclusive working environments where people from all walks of life can feel truly heard and seen. It is this very reason why one of Marriott’s most recent global initiatives, Associate Resource Groups, was launched. We set up ‘community groups’ such as for Women and LGBTQ+ that welcomes everyone, regardless if they identify with the group, are supportive allies, or simply want to gain new perspectives. This initiative helps foster a sense of community and enable our diverse associates around the world to come together, celebrate their backgrounds and give back to the communities where they live and work.
In this region, we also embraced different approaches such as setting up mentorship programs to provide career support to our talents. We also do not shy away from spotlighting diverse perspectives and experiences through fireside chats and social media campaigns, where inspiring stories of associates overcoming challenges and rising to new career heights come to life.
3. Creating more meaningful work experience and growth opportunities
Finally, let’s talk about what truly attracts employees and makes them stick around: offering accessible learning and clearer paths toward career advancement. Having the right combination of meaningful work and growth opportunities is what cultivates great leaders who will lead with courage and serve with humility.
This is essentially why new Marriott hires are encouraged to use our career development framework, ‘Become’, to create a customized career development plan and set clear short- and long-term goals, right from the get-go. They can also enroll in developmental programs such as Marriott Development Academy (MDA), which offers self-paced and guided learning pathways to develop functional and cross-functional skills. We are proud to share that to date, approximately one-third of our 1000+ MDA graduates have seen career progression and have been elevated to more senior roles.
Earlier this year, we also piloted the iJobs program for our associates to enrich their roles by multi- skilling into different operational functions with their hotel. Providing opportunities to strengthen their adaptability for new challenges by taking on broader responsibilities. Its impact has been very encouraging and we are now scaling it up from 30 to over 300 hotels, so that more associates can
develop new skills and open doors to more exciting opportunities.
Empowering Asia Pacific’s youth starts today
With the travel industry set to add 82 million jobs to Asia Pacific over the next decade, we have a vested interest and responsibility to empower our next generation of workers. Ultimately, the future is not waiting for us and the work needs to start now. Tomorrow is ours to shape: do we merely witness change, or do we drive it?
About the author
Andrew Newmark is the Chief HR Officer for Marriott International in Asia Pacific excluding Greater China. He brings over 30 years of experience in people management, talent acquisition and development.
