Younger employees give high marks to relaxed office environments in survey

Creating a relaxed and harmonious office environment and building a diversified and inclusive corporate culture have become two main methods for enterprises to attract employees born after 1995 and increase the stability of working teams, a report said.

Compared to other measures, such as providing staff with a systematic learning and training platform and building a fair career development channel, which previous generations usually focused on, 72 percent and 62 percent of the respondents to a survey said these two factors work more effectively to attract young employees, according to a report released by Chinese online recruitment services provider Zhaopin.com and Harvard Business Review on Thursday.

"Employer brand has become one key element when the younger generation chooses who to work for. It also makes enterprises pay more attention to team leaders with an easygoing and empathetic character and good communication skills," said Sun Qun, executive vice-president of Zhaopin.com.

More than 35,000 employees, 60 percent younger than 30, in nearly 2,500 enterprises based in more than 10 cities on the Chinese mainland took the survey.

Yang Weiguo, dean of the School of Labor and Human Resources at Renmin University of China, said the relationship between employers and  younger employees has changed from worker-employee to partners.