Viral Fission’s Aditya Anand speaks about engaging India’s largest Genz community through value added activities.
GenZ is an active community. How do you keep them engaged at all times?
To answer the question in a single sentence, ‘our ears are always on the ground’.
Being highly agile and dynamic, GenZers do not hesitate to make choices to align with their goals and values. Our model is built on consistent and personal grassroot level engagement with our network. The aim is to be able to gather real-time intelligence on their preferences and opinions. These insights then help us structure the experiences and ensure that we are bridging gaps, meeting their needs and adding value. Our specially curated offerings including masterclasses, outdoor sports activities, upskilling and networking sessions are designed to match the expectations of our community and ensure high engagement rate.
Viral Fission has some interesting initiatives for GenZ. Can you elaborate on them and what they aim to achieve for the community?
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We have a wide range of ongoing initiatives based on our network’s demand. One of our key initiatives would be the recently launched ‘VF Refresher’.
VF Refresher’s open door meet-ups encourage the community to brainstorm, discuss and debate. These events are mixed with open mics, board games and conversations. It is a response to the need for a safe space to connect to exchange ideas and network.
Another interesting initiative we have is the ‘VF Turf’, which are region specific outdoor sports or ‘friendly’ matches. We are aiming at encouraging more real-life connections, interpersonal and team building activities beyond only screen led ones. Beyond team and network building, we also are working on VF Runway which will be more focused on encouraging entrepreneurial pursuits of India’s GenZ. To sum it up, these are just a few of the many opportunities planned and in action which take place both on-ground and off-ground.
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Challenges when coming up with networking initiatives. Plans to elevate these engagements?
Our vision is to scale these initiatives pan India seamlessly and make them as holistic as possible. Apart from the challenge posed by the pandemic, which has restricted the reach and scale of our initiatives, a challenge that we face and hope to answer at all times is to make sure that the requirements of the community as a whole are looked into and no single individual is left behind.
Considering the large demographic, we are catering to, it becomes primal that we come up with innovative engagement activities regularly to entice and hold onto our ambassador’s attention. With regular surveys and interactions, we have tailored activities to suit the need of every individual. In tier 2 and tier 3 cities where turf wasn’t at our disposal, we started with our refresher project that would engage our ambassadors and get them to extend onto their ‘first professional network’ and involve them in recreational activities.
Do you notice a gap in what the current workforce culture has to offer for GenZ? What is GenZ demanding?
GenZ has a fearless, value inclined perspective towards their career. They aren’t scared to take risks, quit jobs and upskill to achieve what they aspire. They are well researched and hands-on as far as their areas of interest are concerned and not afraid to question the authenticity and quality of opportunities. While they look for quality, they are also ready to take painstaking efforts to ensure they are quality professionals themselves.
They have obtained the right balance between hustle and chill. Hence, latticed workplaces which utilizes their individual skills and allows for tangible growth opportunities are highly attractive to this workforce.
