The class of 2022 is about to enter the labour market. Aside from the challenges they will face after the Covid-19 pandemic, many managers still do not understand how members of Gen Z behave in the workplace.
According to the Pew Research Center, those born after 1996 will make up about 60 million job applicants in the next decade. Young adults turning 21 were born after 2000 and are still considered children by many managers. But beanbags, ping-pong tables and the prospect of future corner offices are not what attracts young talent.
How the pandemic has affected Gen Z in the workplace
According to the World Economic Forum, Generation Z was hit particularly hard by the pandemic: Many young people graduated from high school and university during the crisis, leading to uncontrollably few career prospects.
At the same time, these young workers are heavily overrepresented in industries such as hospitality and travel, which experienced record high layoff and unemployment rates during the pandemic.
The layoff rate for those under 25 was 73% higher than for those 25 and older, and the quit rate was 79%. As a result, members of Generation Z began to rethink their future.
They do not earn as much money as their older counterparts and are more motivated to find better-paid employment. They are more digitally savvy and therefore better suited to the option of teleworking.
What is important to Gen Zers?
It would be easy to assume that these workers, who are thinking about their future, must be all about fun and benefits. However, research shows that Gen Zers value positive impact and productivity.
Entry-level positions have a reputation for being monotonous. Gen Z people are much less inclined than previous generations to settle for useless tasks. They know that technology can do these tasks more effectively, and they are right. AI capabilities are evolving rapidly, and solutions to automate travel, expense, and invoice processing are already revolutionizing the workplace and dramatically reducing the need for manual data entry.
If you want to attract the best younger employees by providing them with meaningful work, make sure you have the right tools and technology in place before they arrive. Not only will you enable Generation Z employees to do the meaningful work they want, but you’ll also help them build their skills in key areas and increase your team’s efficiency by automating manual tasks.
If we give Generation Z the freedom to do what they want and love what they do, they could become the most productive generation of the twenty-first century.
As Fast Company puts it, if we can give Generation Z the freedom to do what they want and love what they do, they may become the most productive generation of the twenty-first century.