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Should Corporate America Be Concerned About Gen Z Workers?
A survey from ResumeBuilder.com finds 74 percent of managers believe Gen Z workers (ages nine to 24) are more challenging to work with than other generations. A news.com.au article explored whether older workers “could do better” adjusting to Gen Z.
“Gen X and Baby Boomers are more traditional, conservative, and rule-following,” Roxanne Calder, a Sydney-based recruitment agency founder, told Australia’s news.com.au. “Gen Z challenges the status quo and way of thinking, which is much needed in a world so fast and ever-changing.”
A 2021 New York Times article noted that “twenty-somethings rolling their eyes at the habits of their elders is a longstanding trend” and questioned whether Gen Z represented a “new boldness” or just another generation facing skepticism as they enter the workforce.
Stanford University researcher Roberta Katz in an interview with Stanford News, said while Gen Z is often seen as “too coddled,” she describes the typical Gen Zer as a “self-driver who deeply cares about others, strives for a diverse community, is highly collaborative and social, values flexibility, relevance, authenticity and non-hierarchical leadership, and, while dismayed about inherited issues like climate change, has a pragmatic attitude about the work that has to be done to address those issues.”
“What Gen Z wants is to do meaningful work with a sense of autonomy and flexibility and work-life balance and work with people who work collaboratively,” Julie Lee, director of technology and mental health at Harvard Alumni for Mental Health, recently told the Washington Post. “During the time I entered the workforce, I didn’t feel empowered. I didn’t feel that I was able to ask for those things.”
Still, among the reasons managers in the ResumeBuilder.com survey found Gen Z difficult to work with were lack of technological skills, cited by 39 percent; lack of motivation, 37 percent; poor communication skills, 36 percent; and being easily offended, 35 percent.
“Gen Z are digital natives and they’ve always communicated online, so their interpersonal skills, or soft skills, have suffered,” Tara Salinas, a business ethics professor at San Diego University, recently told CNBC. “They took an even bigger hit because of Covid-19, and it has shifted the way that we need to interact with them in the workplace.”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Are the concerns over Gen Z workers the typical clash between young versus old workers or does the new generation face real shortcomings as they enter the workforce? What adjustments must firms make in recruiting, onboarding and developing Gen Z talent?
Poll
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Perry Kramer
Managing Partner, Retail Consulting Partners
Perry Kramer
Managing Partner, Retail Consulting Partners
We should always exercise great care in generalizing a group of people and even greater care in treating them based on those generalizations. Every person should pursue something they’re passionate about and if they’re lucky enough to secure it at a pay that sustains their existence, they should work really hard to keep it and their companies should work really hard at keeping them – win-win. For everyone else, take pride in what you do and work passionately at being the best at it, no matter what it is. There’s real joy and satisfaction in that and in being self-reliant. If a company doesn’t appreciate or compensate you enough, find another one but manage your career wisely. Companies should provide environments where people can grow, prosper and be successful but the responsibility is as much if not more an individual one as it is a societal or corporate one.
Corporate America will need to adapt if it wants to optimize the Gen Z talent pool. The US is behind the EU and other regions in adapting to the expectations of the Gen Z work force. There is a strong talent pool that we need to address with different approaches to training, on-boarding , growth/promotion/retention plans. We need to accept that unless we adapt it will be very hard to grow talent , (which is usually much more economical than buying it).
Should not every company want workers challenging the status quo and way of thinking, which is much needed in a fast and ever-changing world?
Gene,
I think it depends on the basis of the challenge. New thinking, creativity, asymmetric approaches? Great!
Concerns about micro-aggressions – real or imagined? Not so much.
I agree. Business is full of micro-aggressions, real or imagined, thoughtless or directed. Those who are concerned about it will not be successful. A company is not responsible for dealing with those who can’t handle it.
There is nothing new about younger generations challenging the status quo as established by older generations. But this time it’s different. The perspectives that were experienced and developed in the formative years are vastly different, solar systems different, between the different generations now. Younger generations are now hard wired with a whole different set of norms and expectations than previous generations. But it’s still important to note that younger generations have a lot to learn from older generations, and visa versa. It’s not about right or wrong. It’s about learning.
So, on target! It isn’t about right or wrong, it’s about learning. Today my best teachers are my four grandchildren. I encourage them and thank them to challenge me whenever they can.
Just as Millennials blew up archaic systems and made them better, Gen Zs apply critical thinking to improve the workplace. It’s the latest example of multigenerational friction as younger cohorts reimagine the status quo.
To attract Gen Z talent, prioritize flexibility, innovation and a balance of autonomy and collaboration. Celebrate their creativity rather than squash it or dismiss it as insubordination.
The generation Z is different than its predecessors but we must also remember that their superiors, employers, managers, etc. are not seventy-something baby-boomers. They are also of newer, more savvy and bold generations who, by definition, understand the differences and can sympathize with the objectives of GenZers.
Gen Xers at my company are still trying to hold things together until our seventy-plus owner decides what the future of the company is – meanwhile we are really impressed with our new Gen Z hires who can take the balls we toss them and start running. Collaborative & seeking input/background for sure, but also savvy enough with the tools and communities we serve to be decisive and not need a lot of hand-holding. Wish we had even more of them!
I’m with you 100% Scott. Same sentiment I hear from others around me.
Younger generations will always challenge the status quo. The Baby Boomers definitely challenged the Greatest Generation with their mini skirts, rock and roll, hippiness, etc. We’ve just forgotten (or weren’t alive when it happened). That said, change across all aspects of life is happening faster. And organizations haven’t evolved to keep up with this rapid change. Those who do will be the ones to reap the rewards of attracting and retaining this new and different talent pool. Yes, they will challenge the status quo. But those brands that don’t embrace that challenge will lose out in the long run as an even more digitally savvy and agile generations comes up behind them.
Gen Z workers — and their older Millennial siblings — are often painted as job-hoppers without the determination to work for one company for more than a few years. What used to be a red flag among older hiring managers — too many workplaces on the resume — should no longer trigger a negative reaction.
The challenge to older managers in corporate America is to figure out what makes Gen Z employees tick — what keeps them motivated, engaged and inspired enough to stick around besides the obvious issues of pay and benefits.
I believe there is a bit of both next-generation skepticism and a change in the skillset of Gen Z. The decline in public schools, a move away from liberal arts in college, and a text-happy world where writing and interpersonal communication are, in fact, impersonal, have eroded the workforce to a certain extent.
In some ways, digital natives (a.k.a. Gen Z people) are as different as any other generation has been from the one before. Except way more. If these generalized personality and behavior traits are truly Gen Z attributes, they could make the best retailers ever. They value experiences so, if empowered to do so, could make shoppers feel much more valued and worth helping then earlier generations did. The key is to give them the freedom to work as they naturally want to work. We need to understand their motivations and match our opportunities to a changing workforce.
I like that corporate America has this problem because it means they will finally be forced to rethink their worker dynamics. Remote work, job sharing and flexible hours are only a problem when management doesn’t know how to manage teams under those conditions. If they want to have any employees in the next 5-10 years they are going to need to learn how to work with radical diversity – in age, in location, in gender, ethnicity and more. But this won’t happen until something forces corporations to face the music and embrace the Gen Z mindset across all age groups.
I like that corporate America has this problem because it means they will finally be forced to rethink their worker dynamics. Remote work, job sharing and flexible hours are only a problem when management doesn’t know how to manage teams under those conditions. If they want to have any employees in the next 5-10 years they are going to need to learn how to work with radical diversity – in age, in location, in gender, ethnicity and more. But this won’t happen until something forces corporations to face the music and embrace the Gen Z mindset across all age groups.
Great way to express it. Great context.
I have seen and bristled at the coddled children, and everybody wins a trophy and helicopter parents. I can’t see these offspring being successful employees. But, as Ms. Katz has seen, many are “self-driver who deeply cares about others, strive for a diverse community, are highly collaborative and social, values flexibility, relevance, authenticity, and non-hierarchical leadership, and, while dismayed about inherited issues like climate change, has a pragmatic attitude about the work that has to be done to address those issues.”
I believe this generation will change things for the better in business and culture. They already have.
I’m tired of this argument. All 9 to 24 year olds aren’t alike in part because they have very different life experiences. Growing up poor in Detroit’s inner city is not the same thing as growing up rich in New Canaan, CT. And it’s not just about income. It’s about access to prenatal care, early childhood nutrition, the quality of public education and/or access to private education, access to technology, networks – personal and familial – etc., etc. So we really aren’t talking about a generation, but a more entitled sliver of a generation. And, as Nicola Kinsella points out, there may not have been a more rebellious generation than portions of the Boomers, or one that demonstrated more open contempt for previous generations. The phrase, “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” is a Boomerism after all. As I look back on all the silly predictions and analytics associated with the Boomers, Gen Xers, Gen Yers [later Millennials] and now Gen Z, I’m struck by how little we actually learn from our experiences. Young people act like young people. Period. Full Stop.Whether they were born digital or born in a cave they probably believe they are smarter than their parents, their teachers, and certainly their bosses. I’m honest enough to admit I did at that age. The only discernible difference in Gen Z – and again in the entitled section of Gen Z – is that their sense of entitlement can manifest itself more directly in the workplace. We’ll see what happens to them in another decade or two. Then we will know for sure if they really are all that different.
Yes. No. Few.
This is – what …(the)fourth…fifth time ? – on this topic. How often do we need to travel down this fact-free road?
Most Gen Z’ers I know are conscientious, practical, and want to work. They seem self-motivated and care about doing a good job. Considering their childhood upbringing in a hypersensitive divided online society, and during a stifling pandemic, it’s no wonder they could use communication coaching and encouragement. If anything, adult society is responsible for this in poor modeling and creating many of these sensitivity issues.
In the long run, and once they get more experience around good leaders, I’m optimistic Generation Z will have a good impact on society. I’d hire a Gen Zer, no problem.