“Why Businesses Need To Adapt To Employees’ Needs” with Marc Z of Marc Z Legal Staffing

Jeffrey (1s):
Well, here we are sitting in our zoom studios of Radio Entrepreneurs, 2022 and who better to speak with than the fabulous Marc Z from Marc Z Legal Staffing, the rules for success in 2022, according to the great and all powerful Marc. Welcome back, Marc.

Marc (19s):
Wow. Thank you Jeff, that coffee must have been really strong this morning.

Jeffrey (26s):
Triple expresso baby.

Marc (28s):
Well, I can see that it’s working well, first of all, thank you so much for, for having me on the show today and, and giving me a chance to really talk about, you know, what’s really topical and on a lot of employers and employees minds for the new year.

Jeffrey (44s):
Now what’s on your mind. I’m not sure I should ask that, but I want to know,

Marc (49s):
Well, on my mind and on employer and employee minds should be literally working in the office. So what does working in the office mean? And what’s the value and what are we seeing since last year originally, as you know, when the whole COVID situation started almost two years ago, we went to really a remote working environment. And then after a certain period of time, smaller companies went back to work because they needed to smaller professional services and other different kinds of companies went back to an office work as they needed to and bigger companies of all sizes after a certain number of people have stayed remote.

Marc (1m 49s):
And, you know, they may be, have made the adjustments say, okay, we’ll take X amount of number of people coming to the office. Now we’ll take voluntary people coming to the office. If you want to come in as much as you want. So there’s been some kind of balance and it’s left a lot of business and professionals saying what’s the right balance. And, and ultimately if, especially if I’m joining a farm or continuing to operate, or if I’m going to be part of a business, I really do want to be in the office and I really want to be part of it.

Marc (2m 29s):
And I think it’s important for employers and employees to come up with a balance. I think what we’ve learned over the last few years is you can be successful working remotely when you can be even more successful. If you can maybe have a hybrid environment or a hybrid work schedule, even ourselves, I mean, you actually were at the forefront a long time ago in terms of remote, but from myself as you know, I’ve always been a big advocate of, especially in my business, people being in the office, but we’ve been able to work around that. And now a lot of people really do appreciate the time out of the office, but my team is really itching to get back with some in-office time.

Marc (3m 19s):
So what we found is a lot of professionals, whether it’s in business or professional services at a certain stage that they hit once they started working remotely, probably the demographics are probably 60 and beyond. They’ve said, you know what? I can be successful. I’ve been going to the office every day for the last 30, 40 years, and I don’t need to go back. And then there are people that say, you know what? This totally remote work is working for me and my family and all the different responsibilities.

Marc (4m 4s):
I’m hitting my, my goals set by the company set by the accounting or the law firm or any other type of business. So I don’t necessarily need to go back. Maybe I’ll go in one day a week, but we’ll, we’re overlooking as the benefit of going back. So for example, millennials really do want to go back to the office in some fashion, not necessarily every day, but they want to go back. Some millennials, I know, want to go back every day, especially millennials that are starting new jobs or starting new positions with the same company that way by doing so.

Marc (4m 45s):
The hope is they get a chance to know the teams better. They get a chance to bond spontaneously, see each other because a lot of situations happen organically.

Jeffrey (4m 57s):
Well, let me let let, let it all. I’ll personalize it. And I’ll go back to when I was in my thirties. I, you know, as much as I hated commuting to work every day and being in a fishbowl, I always tried to align myself with what I would call a, just a brilliant superstar boss, who I could learn from. And I needed to have that proximity to that person so that I could learn what they were doing and their skills. If I were working remotely, I doubt I ever would have learned the skills that I learned that I have today. So I can, you know, so at my age now I’m no longer a millennial.

Jeffrey (5m 37s):
If you can’t tell, I don’t really care about that. Mentoring for me, I’m more concerned with my mentoring for others so I can understand why millennials want to be in an office. And he gets an important part of their developmental process.

Marc (5m 52s):
Correct. In fact, when we’ve talked to, you know, millennials or attorneys that have become more promoted to a senior executive that were promoted to a partner at a firm, they really want to be there because you’re right, they’re lacking mentorship. One of the reasons why people are leaving opportunities for new opportunities is that they’re lacking mentorship. So that’s, that’s huge where they’re lacking the ability to inter integrate with a group. We talked to a number of professionals and they talk to us about being feeling like they want an island that they were coming in.

Marc (6m 33s):
They turn on their computer, turn off their computer. Same thing with, you know, junior candidates, a lot of companies, you know, junior employees, the, you know, the 20 somethings, maybe early 30 somethings, they literally would go in and they didn’t feel part of, especially in starting a new job, they didn’t feel part of the company. And then, and that’s the other thing is a lot of companies and firms over the last few years have done their best. They tried slack, which is a system, which is sort of like instant messaging to keep they’ve tried, get together, zoom, get together, you know, cocktails after work, virtual cocktails, but normally right, it only worked so much.

Jeffrey (7m 19s):
Well only those are the types of things. The Marc Z is of the world. Like the Jeffrey Davis is of the world. They’re like, I’m not showing up because you’re more sociable than I am,

Marc (7m 30s):
But it’s not having to do Jeff. It’s not having to do with sociable. It’s, it’s, what’s connecting and it, and when you meet somebody it’s like in my business, when you meet somebody, I mean, zoom is the closest thing right now. But if you meet somebody, you can have a connection having met them. But if you don’t meet them or you know that really, and then starting the idea of working with somebody and understanding somebody. And it’s a great thing, you know,

Jeffrey (7m 55s):
And you’re right. I’m starting with a new client tomorrow. And my first meeting I was gonna schedule and they said, you know what? For our first meeting, I’d like to meet face to face and get to know you fine. We’ll meet face to face. But I, then I assume we’re going to go more towards remote relationships. Once we get to know each other, look, you are the all-powerful all-knowing Marc Z. And anyone who wants to get ahead in business really needs to know you. So if someone’s looking for you, Marc Z, the wonderful. How do they find you?

Marc (8m 28s):
Well, first of all, why would they have an espresso? First of all, Google Marc Z, M a R C and the letter Z. And we’ll come right up or Marc Z Legal dot com, MIRC LPGA, L M a R C Z leg, aol.com and then 6 1 7 3 3 8 1 300.

Jeffrey (8m 48s):
And I have not seen Marc Z other than on a zoom for two years. So it’s kind of unbelievable when you think about right mark, it’s unfortunate, Jeff, but you know what? Our time will come soon and you are, you know, according to, you know, the world records, you are the ultimate hugger of all people. So, so mark, thanks for being on the show today. Look forward to speaking to you again next week on Radio Entrepreneurs.