As with generations before, there’s been a shift over the last several years in what employees expect from their company. Now more than ever, where a person works is about more than just a job; people are looking for connection, belonging and support from their employer and coworkers.

A workplace that creates an environment capable of fostering meaningful connections between a person and their company can increase the quality of that person’s work as well as their loyalty to that company. However, connection and support will mean different things to different people, and employees are likely to have vastly different priorities based on where they are in their lives and careers. 

How a company responds to those bids for connection from its employees is essential to creating long-term satisfaction and engagement. Helping employees at all stages of life feel cared for and valued is no small feat. It requires a concerted, enterprise-wide effort to pull off, but that effort can go a long way in building loyalty and increased productivity from employees. 

Through competitive benefits and other offerings, Land O’Lakes aims to make all employees feel valued and works to support each individual’s personal and professional goals by enhancing their physical, emotional and financial well-being.

Reaching Different Generations

Land O’Lakes’ workforce, very similar to the U.S. labor force, has sizeable populations of employees from four generations. Our co-op is almost evenly split with 49% of employees being Baby Boomers and Generation X (born 1946-1979) and 51% Millennials and Generation Z (born 1980-2012). In both datasets, Millennials are currently the largest population.

Additionally, both our co-op and the country at large are facing a current shift in the makeup of that workforce. Baby Boomers are continuing to retire, and Gen Z is expected to make up almost a third of the total workforce by 2030.

With such a range of employees at different life stages, it can be hard to meet everyone’s specific needs. Amy Bloomquist, Total Rewards health and wellness manager for Land O’Lakes, says there is a delicate balance to strike when choosing what Total Rewards are offered to satisfy as many people as possible.

“You can either have many vendors to cover individual needs, or you can have a few different ones that can cover a lot of those needs and also specialize their offerings for each demographic,” Amy says. “A lot of the benefits we provide to all of our employees come from a smaller number of vendors, but within those offerings there are specific focuses for different segments.”

Work/life balance

To help determine what programs are valued most, Land O’Lakes conducted a Total Rewards Survey. The survey was designed to measure which offerings employees value and what is important to different segments of employees. 

Through that survey, the Total Rewards team found that work-life balance rated highly. That result is very similar to national data from the Pew Research Center, which shows that only around 40% of workers in the U.S. see their job as central to their overall identity. Employees want to find meaning in their work, but they don’t want to be solely defined by their careers.

On a larger scale, those findings correlate with the results from a global benefits survey performed by business management consulting firm Willis Towers Watson, which showed nearly a third of respondents listed flexible work arrangements as one of their top three benefit priorities. 

Over the last several years, Land O’Lakes has worked to provide several avenues for employees to have more flexibility in their schedules. Land O’Lakes’ currently operates a two-day-per-week in-office hybrid work model for headquarters-based employees. For facilities employees, a flex work program was created and rolled out for participating manufacturing facilities in early 2022 that allows part-time workers to choose their own hours.

Through hybrid schedules and virtual work arrangements, employees have flexibility when needed to adjust their work schedule to better balance life requirements such as attending an important appointment or assisting a family member.

Joy Berwald, a Dairy Foods customer logistics liaison, is a mother of four and has a daughter with complex medical needs. Before she started with Land O’Lakes in 2022, she had difficulty finding a job that helped support her and her family.

“There are certain benefits that people don’t realize aren’t offered at all employers. When I had my kids, I didn’t have any kind of paid leave,” Joy says. “I was taking unpaid family and medical leave, and when that ran out, I couldn’t work from home and wasn’t offered flexibility in my schedule to help meet my family’s needs. I couldn’t work there anymore.”

The flexibility of her daily work schedule at Land O’Lakes, combined with available Parental and Caregiver Leave, has provided Joy with options to support her family, something that she says she hasn’t had before.

“What I have at Land O’Lakes is different than what I had elsewhere – and it feels like it fits with being a farmer-owned cooperative,” she says. “There’s an emphasis on doing right for the company, but there’s a real emphasis on doing right by the employee as well.”

Spanning the Generational Divide

In addition to maintaining a good work-life balance, employees today are also looking for more purpose and connection in their jobs. A large part of that purpose comes from relationships and opportunities to form communities at the workplace.

To help foster opportunities to make new relationships across working generations, Land O’Lakes introduced a Reverse Mentorship program in 2022. Open to anyone in the company, the nine-month program focuses on the understanding that intergenerational discussions are key for both newer-in-their career employees and more experienced employees. 

In a reverse mentorship, the newer-in-their-career employee plays the mentor role and leads the discussions with the longer-service employee who holds the mentee role. The interactions provide opportunities for new conversations about personal and career growth. For the 2024 iteration of the program, around 250 people across the enterprise participated.

Laine Ruska, a Purina IT portfolio manager, says programs such as the Reverse Mentorship program show that Land O’Lakes does its best to position every single one of its employees for success.

“I’ve met so many people from many different walks of life. I don’t come here just to do my job, I come here because I like to be around the people that I work with,” Laine says. “That’s a reason why people stay at Land O’Lakes; your community is here.”  

Culture and buy-in

Amy says it’s no accident that Land O’Lakes has developed a strong support system for its employees.  The programs that Land O’Lakes offers, whether its retirement prep, virtual physical therapy through Hinge Health or the Reverse Mentorship program, are carefully researched using data and feedback from places such as the Total Rewards survey. 

“There is a lot of thought that goes into it on our team. We're investing in resources for our employees,” Amy says. “We're very thoughtful in making sure that what we offer is meeting the needs of our employees and their families, and that those resources are being utilized. If not, we'll try a new program to see what works best.”

Over the last several years, Land O’Lakes has been able to adapt to changes in what employees need in the workplace and strives to create a culture of caring for employees and one that sets each person up for success.  

The Total Rewards team works constantly to introduce services that are easily accessible and increase engagement with employees. Laine says they’ve done just that, and they’ve done a great job at supporting employees and helping them figure out how they want to continue to grow in the company.

“Everyone is so open, supportive and willing to have those conversations,” she says. “There are always opportunities to try new things.”