Attempts to categorize abilities and attitudes based on age group alone risk being largely ... [+]
By 2025, Gen Z–the generation of people born between 1997 and 2012–are expected to account for more than a quarter of the world’s workforce. And, with the oldest members of the cohort now aged 25, many workplaces will have already welcomed their first Gen Z staffers.
Pollsters and trend forecasters have been kept busy trying to determine exactly what this means for companies and for the future of work. Who are Gen Z, and what do they want from their jobs?
Stats and surveys tell us this generation is purpose-driven: 42% would rather be at a company with a sense of purpose, rather than one that pays more, a 2022 report by Lever found (although money is important to them too).
Wellbeing is a high priority, as is having plenty of opportunities to develop: the top reason given for Gen Z choosing their place of work was a good work/life balance (32%), following by learning and development opportunities (29%) and a good salary (24%), according to a 2022 study by Deloitte.
Gen Z are chronic job hoppers, found a 2021 CareerBuilder survey, spending an average of two years and three months in a role, less than any other generational group.
They are also an intensely entrepreneurial generation, with almost two thirds (62%) either having started or wanting to start their own businesses, according to data from WP Engine and the Center for Generational Kinetics.
As for their day-to-day work, Gen Z are extremely tech-focused, with 80% keen to work with cutting edge technology, Dell found. But they are just as likely as millennials to avoid answering the phone, another survey found.
Surveys like these are usually aimed at employers, with the aim of inspiring them to introduce appropriate workplace measures to attract and retain Gen Z staff. But how useful is this information, really, and how much should we use it to guide our approach?
Commonalities in how people born at a similar time will get by in the workplace certainly exist. How could they not? The economic, social and cultural pressures to which we are all exposed leave their mark and help shape our values and aspirations. But attempts to categorize abilities and attitudes based on age alone risk being largely meaningless. For one thing, they ignore the fact that many trends affect people across the generations in similar ways.
To take one example, many employees got a taste for remote or hybrid working as a result of the pandemic and would like to see that continue. While 75% of Gen Zs would prefer a hybrid or remote working pattern, the Deloitte study found, 87% of office workers of all ages said they wanted to work at home at least some of the time, a survey by AtlasCloud revealed.
Generalizations about the generations can also end up crystallizing into lazy cliches, which aren’t helpful to anyone. Consider the most enduring stereotype about millennials: that they are perennial renters who fritter away all of the money they could be saving for a house deposit on avocado toast and flat whites.
At the same time, understanding what motivates your workforce, and how to best support them to achieve their goals should, of course, be a priority for any employer who wants their business to thrive.
Perhaps a better way to do this, however, is to take more of a tailored approach: looking at an individual’s strengths and weaknesses, and work out how to make the most of the former while improving upon the latter.
This might sound vague or difficult to measure in any kind of systematic way, but actually there are plenty of tools out there which provide a useful framework for this kind of analysis.
We use Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment to measure people’s talents and the natural patterns in the way that they think, feel and behave. Participants answer 177 questions and the results are then packaged into 34 different core strength areas, such as analytical thinking and adaptiveness to changing realities.
How does this help our company in practice? It means we can support people on an individual level. We don’t try to ‘fix’ them if they score low in a particular area, but we do support them by providing targeted coaching and mentoring, and finding ways to put their strengths to use in terms of the opportunities they are offered.
The impact this has on performance is palpable. People are more productive when they are given the space to work in a way that best suits their disposition. And they’re more likely to achieve their goals when they feel they are being well supported.
Since we introduced the strengths assessment, we’ve seen employee happiness levels go up, the number of sick days taken go down, and we’ve experienced lower staff turnover.
The results of these assessments may show that people’s strengths do follow certain generational patterns. But people often surprise you: an older employee could score much higher on adaptability, while a younger employee could be highly resilient.
That’s precisely why it pays to dig deeper into what makes your workforce tick.
