The Workplace Journal speaks with Jonah Stillman, expert, TED speaker, and author, about how best to engage and retain Gen Z in the modern workplace.
Age diversity in the current workforce is the widest ever, but only 8% of companies acknowledge age within their diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives. Are organisations taking any steps to address this generational divide?
Yes, certain ‘smart’ organisations are taking steps every day to stay ahead of this generational curve.
We are living in a time where four generations are employed in the workplace – Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Gen Y or Millennials (1981-1994) and Gen Z (1995-2012).
Several organisations have taken concrete steps to address the generational divide between baby boomers Gen X, and millennials. However, organisations have condensed the younger generations together, assuming that anyone under the age of 30 belongs to the same group of ‘millennials’, which is not the case.
Organisations have assumed that Millennials and Gen Z are the same, when in reality, they’re very different.
As a new generation enters the workforce, companies must adapt quickly and embrace those differences, and that’s where smart organisations can win the retention game, which is a pain point for most employers in understanding the different ‘generational divides.’
Beginning careers in a post-pandemic job market, Gen Z has struggled to find work and fully develop much-needed soft skills. What exactly is holding them back?
A large proportion of Gen Z undertook their studies virtually, graduated during the pandemic, and entered a fully virtual workforce. The challenges Gen Z faced in building workplace connections was due to a lack of forming strategic relationships.
Gen Z’s need to build social capital. Building social capital is particularly difficult in a remote work setting, or even perhaps in a hybrid workforce.
This is the biggest issue being faced by the young Gen Z workforce. Gen Z must go out of their way to make relationships with their managers, co-workers, and other people within their company, even within their industry, and vice versa.
At the same time, companies have a huge responsibility to empower managers to support and mentor Gen Z employees.
Most meetings have a specific agenda, and when it’s over, everyone hangs up and those conversations never happen.
Holding managers accountable to enable young employees to learn and develop their careers is important, especially in the early stages. But it is not an easy conversation when you are at the bottom of the hierarchy, holding your ground in front of fully-formed, almost intimidating professionals, especially as a new starter.
No, I don’t think it’s an easy ask. That’s why it’s more of the responsibility of the companies to make sure to understand that for many Gen Z employees, it’s their first corporate job. Gen Z are unsure about the outcome of how such a conversation will go down. Whereas if you’re a manager, you’ve been in their position, and know what their anxieties or concerns could be.
Gen Z have appreciated and responded positively when such conversations were brought up. But it’s hard, especially when you’re not sure who to speak to and how to bring it up. Organisations must recognise this, and take this first step to shorten the generation divide at the workplace.
By 2030, 30% of the workforce in OECD countries will be Gen Z, and businesses are competing for Gen Z talent to build cultures to meet their needs. What is the younger generation looking for in employers?
The turnover rate among Gen Z is very interesting. Statistically, millennials had an equal, if not higher turnover rate, switching jobs at the same rate as Gen Z is doing now. The reason for this is that it’s gotten easier than ever to find different work. According to our research, 62% of Gen Z want to customise their career path.
For Gen X in the 90s, finding a new job was a much longer process. Now, with the existence of technology, digital resources and social platforms young employees are constantly being recruited, reached out to, and brought new opportunities. This is the number one reason we’re seeing a higher turnover rate among younger generations.
I would call this having more access to opportunities in the early stages of their careers. As for the growing percentage of Gen Z in the workforce, one of the most important things to understand around retention is what motivates Gen Z to stay at a job.
Gen Z is indeed inclined towards meaningful work, but statistically, their top priority for a job at the moment is pay and salary. They are money-hungry and looking out for themselves in terms of pay and salary.
The way to retain Gen Z is to reward them based on performance. Companies that strictly offer new opportunities or promotions based on tenure are struggling. This is because Gen Zs feel that, no matter how well they perform, they are not going to get any promotion for at least three or four years. As opposed to an organisation which recognises merits and offers a structured development path, along
with a performance-based bonus, which might secure a better chance at winning the retention game.
A culture based on performance, and not just tenure, seems to go down well with Gen Z, as opposed to a ‘heads-down’ culture.
Recent social media trends such as ’lazy girl jobs’, ’conscious quitting’ and ’bare minimum Mondays’ have been embraced by Gen-Z at the workplace. Are Gen Zs applying a measured approach to work that prioritises a work-life balance, or are they lacking a serious work ethic compared to their predecessors?
The ‘work-life balance’ conversation is such an outdated model, especially for companies that are working remotely and hybrid. Work-life balance was based on the premise that work was a ‘place,’ that you go to work from ‘nine to five’, and when you leave work, the rest of your time is for yourself. Nowadays, work is just wherever there’s Wi-Fi.
This idea of ‘nine to five’ seems unacceptable to the younger generation. Younger employees are embracing a blended model – a work-life blend – where work and life are happening 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
They do not necessarily equate productivity to the amount of hours or location of work. Some might believe that this is just doing the bare minimum and not going above and beyond. However, opportunities
for more work must be traded off with more money or contingent progression opportunities. But until that happens, this ‘blended’ approach seems like a win-win situation, as the work-life balance argument continues to become outdated.
Three-quarters (71%) of workers in Britain believe that the younger generation is changing the formality of language in the workplace. How do you think a balance can be struck?
Gen Zs are evolving communication styles at the workplace and strengthening the cause to create a balance. Email is certainly not the only medium of communication at the workplace anymore. There are more casual platforms like Slack and Teams, where corporate communication is becoming more like an instant messaging app.
Communication at the workplace will continue to become more informal, but the right balance would need to be struck as long as employees are using wise judgment at their discretion to choose whether they need a Team message, a video call or a formal email to fulfil a task.
A potential issue with informal communication becoming a corporate ‘norm’ is externally focused rather than internal – communications with customers, clients and partners – as very clear expectations need to be established from the get-go.
Can you share any best practices or case studies from an organisation that you’ve helped successfully manage an intergenerational workforce?
I recently worked with a big beverage brand to build a multi-generational team. It has been widely observed that Baby Boomers and Gen X are sitting around the boardroom table to make decisions to recruit and retain the Gen Z workforce. The heavily skewed presence of older generations naturally leads them to design resources, offices, and policies that will cater to them.
One of the best practices for building a multi-generational team is to make sure everyone has a seat at the table, ensuring that Gen Z is present in those conversations.
It doesn’t matter if they’ve worked there for less than a year. If your goal is to build a culture that is attractive to all generations, the top-down approach is not sustainable.
This could be not only a really powerful tool for building multi-generational teams but also a great retention strategy. If you’re a young employee and you feel heard and valued, it’s very unlikely you will switch to a new job.
Any final thoughts?
As generations progress, new ideas surface, but organisations can be quick to dismiss them. We must embrace change for innovation and retention with the arrival of a new generation at the workplace.
When we fundamentally strategise our approach for bridging the differences as we broaden the table to add more seats for younger people, we can create diverse and dynamic teams representing an evolving workforce which is reflective of today’s consumers.