Oct. 26, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

Moses Tut has spent the past four years working from the Twin Cities to the San Francisco area, running a startup and then working at an accelerator preparing other entrepreneurs to pitch to investors.

Those roads ultimately led him home, though, and Tut recently returned to Sioux Falls where he’d built his career in nonprofits.

“With Sioux Falls, there’s a spirit of collaboration,” he said. “Even though some of us might be competitors or in different industries, there’s always that sense of we’re one Sioux Falls and we’re working together for the betterment of the community. I think people are a lot more receptive and inclusive in Sioux Falls.”

Tut is back to running his nonprofit, Conscious Youth Solutions, and will share the insight he has gained on the newest generation to enter the workforce as part of a panel discussion, Talent Tips for Gen Z, as part of the WIN in Workforce Summit from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Sioux Falls Convention Center, organized by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Initially, it’s about understanding Gen Z – how they maneuver and function and think, the ideology and who they are as a generation, and then you can better understand the best ways to interact, engage and retain them,” Tut said.

“They need a two-way channel rather than a downstream channel and to feel like they’re included in decision-making, that they have a voice when it comes to things they care about in a workplace.”

It’s a generation that looks for elements such as how their values and ideals are represented and respected by a business and how inclusive their workplace is, he said.

“And if organizations don’t hold these values, Gen Z doesn’t find it a priority to plug into these workplaces. They can go somewhere else or find different ways. The work environment is changing with remote work and freelance jobs and multiple streams of income, so for employers it’s about creating a culture and a place where people want to be and where they feel respected and included.”

Tut’s personal story gives him unique insight into the values of this generation. One of seven children, he was born in South Sudan and spent his first years as a refugee with his parents before coming to the U.S. as a 6-year-old in 1999. Family from Minnesota drove to pick them up in Dallas, where they were resettled.

“We lived in an extended-family home with three or four families and really had to integrate into the American system,” he said. “How do you turn on the lights? How do you work a microwave? How do you learn to read and drive and all these other things? It had been a nomad life; we went out and hunted for food with no electricity or water or sewage system and lived in huts. So it was a huge culture shock.”

They moved around Minnesota before settling in Storm Lake, Iowa, where Tut graduated high school and came to Augustana University on a track scholarship. University life didn’t prove the right fit, so he became an entrepreneur instead.

“I created and designed clothing about aspiring and believing in yourself,” he said. “That’s our mission, and after about six months, I got into the nonprofit world sitting on the Sioux Falls Diversity Council as a board member.”

That’s how he became integrated into the Sioux Falls business community, helping with everything from basketball tournaments to parent focus groups and backpack drives.

“And different leaders embraced me,” he said. “I started to see the gaps for youth and think about how to provide additional services for them, and that led me to create my nonprofit.”

He continues to build relationships within the business community and said he’ll be again attending the WIN in Workforce Summit in addition to speaking at it.

“I found the WIN in Workforce Summit very valuable in the past, all the different perspectives and insights from other professionals,” he said. “It’s something that’s needed, and it’s refreshing to hear different views as far as how to market, retain, hire and get these individuals to feel comfortable. And we’re all working for the same goal – how do we create a place that’s welcoming where you can live, work and have fun – and I think overall there is that shared sense of community ideals.”

To learn more and register for the WIN in Workforce Summit, click here.