How Campbell's and Ace Hardware Are Appealing to Gen Z Workers

Newsweek

14-05-2025

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Challenges in recruiting a new generation and fast-changing times can be magnified in industries where the work is deemed less interesting, such as large manufacturing, distribution, or retail divisions, either due to labor market preferences or portrayals of the work in mass media.
Despite these challenges, Campbell's and Ace Hardware—two employers with large blue-collar workforces—earned a 5-star rating on Newsweek's Greatest Workplaces for Gen Z, produced in partnership with data analytics firm Plant-A Insights. These two companies are focused on developing new strategies and are seeing success in the form of this recognition from third-party surveys and analysis.
At Campbell's, the company long-known for its soup but also the corporate owner of a plethora of food brands, including Snyder's pretzels, Pepperidge Farm, V8 and Pace salsa, the Gen Z recruitment strategy has included renovated offices, an in-person Welcome Week program for interns, a co-op program, investments in learning and development in support of enhanced career-path opportunities and a shuttle from downtown Philadelphia to the company's headquarters in Camden, New Jersey.
"I love to see early career talent come and challenge us," Diane Leeming, senior vice president of human resources and head of talent at Campbell's, told Newsweek. "We encourage them ... to challenge our thinking, to tell us what they know that we don't know about what [their] generation is looking for, so that we can be agile and adapt."
The Campbell's 2024 intern class.
The Campbell's 2024 intern class.
Campbell's
Because of Campbell's supply chain and manufacturing locations across the country, interns and early career professionals also have access to a wide variety of opportunities in where to work, Leeming added.
At Ace, the company emphasizes entrepreneurial experience and lots of unique career paths that start with part-time, in-store or entry-level roles. The company has also revamped onboarding, expanded community efforts and promoted the stability of jobs in their stores and trade careers in mechanics or home repair.
"We have teammates that started with entry-level jobs in our distribution centers that are now directors running million-square-foot facilities," Kane Calamari, CHRO at Ace Hardware, told Newsweek via email. "We've seen warehouse associates double their income by training to become one of our drivers, and corporate team members leave to become Ace store owners."
While corporate roles in tech, consulting and finance remain popular with younger workers, typically for their high pay and prestige, companies like Campbell's and Ace Hardware aim to stand out by providing unique opportunities. The companies offer core corporate roles but also opportunities in supply chain, distribution centers and retail management.
"We offer something Gen Z often doesn't expect from a multibillion-dollar corporation and a global brand: real entrepreneurial impact," Calamari said. "Ace is a cooperative, which means our corporate team directly supports thousands of small business owners across the country. That sense of ownership, mission and visible impact is hard to find in traditional corporate roles."
Campbell's: More Than Soup
As a diversified food manufacturing and distribution company with locations in places like Chicago, Denver, Charlotte, North Carolina, and many smaller cities and towns across the country, Campbell's offers a corporate experience close to home.
"I think our diverse locations actually help us attract early career talent," Leeming said. "Because people can have opportunities closer to home, versus having to come into a headquarter location."
This summer, Campbell's will welcome 54 interns from 30 different universities. The company looks to convert the interns into full-time roles to join the 19,000-person workforce at Campbell's, 15,000 of which are in manufacturing or distribution centers.
"We have a really great breadth of opportunities across different experiences for our early career talent," Leeming said. "Then our primary goal with early career internships and co-ops is conversion of those experiences for early career talent to full-time job opportunities."
The internship experience kicks off with a Welcome Week at the recently renovated corporate headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, about four miles from Center City, Philadelphia. The $50 million renovation project was recently completed with the opening of Maggie's Place, a bistro where employees get free soup on Thursdays. The company has employees in the office three days a week, from Tuesday to Thursday.
"It's a really engaging workplace," Leeming said. "We've built a lot of collaborative workspaces. [Maggie's Place] is more of a collaboration site; it's got some games there for people to just kind of unwind and relax together but also be creative. It's got a history wall of Campbell's rich history."
With a hybrid approach and a desire to attract employees into the office, Campbell's has adjusted its space usage for the new priorities that people have when they go into work.
The Campbell's central gathering area in the office.
The Campbell's central gathering area in the office.
Campbell's
"We designed the building to have neighborhoods and open collaborative spaces for people in those neighborhoods to just gather together, brainstorm, come up with the latest marketing campaign or the newest flavor that our consumers are looking for," Leeming said. "A lot of open space, collaborative space. We have separate, dedicated training space. We really invest a lot in training our employees and our leaders. I would call that a huge differentiator for us, for early career talent, thinking about where they can best learn and grow."
The company has also considered accommodations for working parents and other amenities that employees may need.
"We've got a day care on site. We've also got a fitness center, dry cleaner, a company store. There's just a lot that we created in this headquarters space to really make people love coming to work," Leeming said.
For trades and blue-collar work, it's investing in partnerships with local vocational schools and community colleges to run vocational career pathway programs.
"We've got a lot of experienced, knowledgeable workers in the maintenance space who are nearing potential retirement ages," Leeming said. "So when you think about talent from a succession strategy and knowledge transfer, we've been saying, how do we build that knowledge within the organization and younger generation?"
Campbell's is also encouraging young job-seekers to pursue careers in maintenance.
"If you don't want to go the degree route, you can get certified through this program," Leeming said. "It's helping us bring people in who may not have the degree but have an interest in the maintenance field, and we have these experienced workers who will train them. That's another area where I think we have a lot to offer...we'll teach you a very technical, advanced skill, so you can have a career with us at Campbell's."
Campbell's has also worked to expand career pathways and allow employees to expand their skill sets by assisting on internal projects.
"One way we need to be responsive to what early career talent is looking for is, How do you create experiences and pathways versus, you know, a traditional job with a linear path to it? And we've been, you know, moving away from career paths to career experiences as well," Lemming said.
This emphasis on experiences includes the opportunity to move around and explore new career areas.
"You can move anywhere, pretty much, across the United States. We've got locations, and we are more than happy to move talent, because we believe the more people see of the total company, the better they'll be in terms of their own growth and development," Leeming said. "Moving to different locations across our system would be super advantageous for you, as you think about a career path growing into leadership."
Ace Provides Diverse Experience with Stability
Ace Hardware added new onboarding and enhanced training to lure Gen Z employees for corporate, in-store and distribution center roles. The co-operative network of small businesses in the retail tools and home goods sector expanded learning and development opportunities through a new platform that includes accessible opportunities to learn management skills or gain technical abilities.
"We've revamped onboarding to emphasize mentorship and belonging from day one, pairing new team members with experienced guides and prioritizing regular, two-way feedback, to support development and retention," Calamari said. "Whether someone wants to grow into management, explore the trades or lead in a corporate setting, there's a structured path forward."
He also mentioned a partnership with Children's Miracle Network that raised over $200 million for children's hospitals across the country as a part of the employee experience that resonates strongly with younger generations.
"This allows all of our team members, from our stores to our warehouses to the corporate office, an opportunity to give back and help raise money for their local CMN Hospital. This sense of purpose and feeling of pride keeps our newest team members engaged at an entirely different level," Calamari said.
Calamari boasts that in addition to offering access to widespread small-business-owning opportunities, the company is proud of its many long-tenured colleagues.
"We're proud to have several employees across the company with 30, 40, even 45 years of service," he said. "That kind of longevity speaks volumes to Gen Z workers looking for more than just a stepping stone to their next job."
Along with opportunities to get into the trades or own a repair business, Ace offers stability in a field that has the appearance of being somewhat "AI-proof," in that people will always need plungers, wall mounts and hammers, no matter how good machine-learning technology gets.
"Whether you're in tech, marketing, operations or the trades, there's room to grow and lead," Calamari said. "At a time when many young professionals are looking for both purpose and possibility, we think Ace offers the best of both worlds: meaningful work and real opportunity."