Managing Gen Z

Abstract: Gen Zers make up the fastest-growing portion of today’s workforce. To motivate these people in their early twenties, businesses must re-engineer their operating environments to emphasize stability, prioritize communication, encourage autonomy, and connect business activities to larger social concerns. While bright, eager to please and technically savvy, Gen Zers will often need coaching to improve their performance in personal communications and team environments.

The Gen Zers have arrived.

As the fastest-growing component of the nation’s labor pool, people in their early twenties are having a major impact on business operations everywhere. “Gen Zers are the new workforce, whether management from previous generations likes it or not,” said Dr. Zachary Ginder, Executive Director at Pine Siskin Consulting.
To deal effectively with Gen Zers, employers must retool their work environments to meet the needs of a generation that sees the world in a radically new way. “It’s necessary to have people on your business team who can communicate with Gen Zers in their language and with their way of thinking,” said Michael Gibbs, CEO at Go Cloud Careers.

The most visible change is a growing level of racial and ethnic diversity–a transformation that is also apparent in the nation’s customer pool. “Brands must understand the massive demographic shift toward multicultural America that Gen Zers represent,” said Natalie Griffith, Director of Product & Content at Collage Group. She noted that Gen Z is the first American generation where multicultural groups make up more than half the population. “While it may be obvious that focusing on this cohort will attract Gen Z dollars now, it also future proofs a business as the nation’s shift toward diversity is here to stay.”

The more diverse workforce is also demanding that employers take a stand on larger social issues. Collage Group found that Gen Zers are likely to support brands that offer support to women, Blacks and people with disabilities. Wise employers will create a sense of larger purpose for business activities, then emphasize how employee actions contribute to that initiative. “Management needs to regularly reinforce how each individual’s work fits into the greater good of the organization,” said Ginder. “How do the business operations have a positive social impact? That speaks to purpose, to inclusion and to social justice.”

Meeting the challenge

While understanding the younger generation can be difficult in any era, Gen Zers represent a particularly tough challenge. “I have to say that I speak with a lot of managers who are scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to connect effectively with post-millennial folks,” said Ginder. One common error is to expect favorable results from communication styles that worked well in the past. “We’re talking about a totally different group of people who grew up with different influences and cultural values and norms.”

A good starting point, said Ginder, is to understand the anxiety felt by people in their twenties, due largely to their experiences with the Great Recession and the Covid 19 pandemic. “In their early impressionable years, Gen Zers saw their parents get laid off, get upside down in their mortgages, and maybe even lose their homes.”

Little wonder that Gen Zers are a little more cautious than previous generations and view with skepticism the promises of prospective employers. “Driven by anxiety, Gen Z mostly seeks a stable 9-to-5 job that pays the bills,” said Griffith. “This point was recently corroborated by survey data from Handshake, an employment site for Generation Z, which asked 1,800 new graduates what they wanted most from their future employers. The overwhelming majority—85%—answered ‘stability.’ Pay and benefits also ranked high, but both of them in my estimation are proxies for the same thing. The desire for ‘a fast-growing company,’ on the other hand, garnered only 29% of the vote.”

It makes sense, then, for prospective employers to accentuate the longevity of their firms, and the dedication to career support that can go hand in hand with long term employment. And this is all the more the case due to the unsettling tendency of the young generation to job hop. “Gen Zers are likely to switch jobs faster than previous generations who would typically stick things out a lot longer before deciding to move on,” said Ginder. “This has a lot of financial implications, since the cost of turnover can exceed 20% of a position’s annual costs.”

At first blush, a tendency to job hop may seem to contradict a desire for stability. But the fact is that an aggressive series of career moves can provide more security than blind faith in the loyalty of a single organization. “Gen Zers don’t just look at the current job, but at the next job and the job after that,” said Bob Verchota, senior consultant at RPVerchota & Associates, Minneapolis. “And they don’t think anything about working in a gig environment. They’re fine with that. They may have six gigs going at once.” Another thing: Many Gen Zers have gigs on the side, and management has to be comfortable with that.

Being transparent

Employers can also reduce the incidence of job-hopping by being transparent about the nature of the positions being offered to candidates. “Success is about managing expectations,” said Ginder. “Be extremely transparent with job descriptions, what the hours are, the positive and negatives of the organization, what advancement’s going to look like, how feedback works, and information about the organization’s communication styles.”

Transparency needs to begin long before a candidate even thinks of applying for work. “We’re living in an information age, and this is our most technologically-savvy workforce so far,” said Ginder. “Everything from a company’s reputation to its organizational culture can be found online. So that is important for getting the Gen Zers to actually apply for the job.” Companies must take pains to polish their images on social media and review sites such as glassdoor.com.

That same transparency needs to be provided on the job itself. “With Gen Zers specifically there’s a lot more desire to know,” said Gibbs. “Transparent communication tells them they are valued, that they are worth communicating with, and that there’s a level of respect. And if they receive that respect, they will in turn respect the manager.”

Transparency goes two ways: Gen Zers also want a seat at the table when it comes to authority. “Traditionally, early-career professionals have felt their voices would be dismissed because of their inexperience,” said Ginder. “With this new generation of post-millennials, though, we’re talking about folks who have a real focus on respect and inclusion in the workplace. That means they want to be able to have a voice when it comes to decisions. They want to understand the process and procedures for how things function.”

Too, Gen Zers want to enjoy some autonomy when it comes to how they get their work done. All of this can be a bit unsettling for employers. “One challenge is that a lot of Gen Zers have not had jobs prior to their first position, so they have little experience,” said Ginder. “It can be challenging for an employer to foster a sense of autonomy.” One way is to encourage experimentation within boundaries. There is a trend toward normalizing failure as a learning tool, as a way to move everyone forward on the skill path.

Avoid the temptation to award promotions in name only. “Gen Zers will see through title inflation,” said Ginder. “It may be attractive at first, but because they’re a generation that values transparency, it will eventually fall flat. And then they’re going to be disillusioned and job hop a lot quicker.”

Will these approaches help reduce employee turnover? Maybe to some extent, but no matter what the company policy, Gen Zers are unlikely to possess the same job loyalty as previous generations. “The Happy Feet syndrome may decrease a bit and maybe longevity will go up, but it’s not about loyalty the way boomers and the greatest generation people think about it,” said Verchota. “It’s really about loyalty to me, to my career, to what I want out of life, and about how I’m responsible for getting it.”

Related: Are You Ready for Gen Z?

Finding champions

Gen Zers also differ in their favored sources for instruction. “Older generations tended to look for guidance from people who had maybe 20 or 30 years of experience,” said Gibbs. “Gen Zers, though, tend to look to their peers. So rather than having an expert tell them how to do something, it can be more effective to find a champion in their age group whom you can turn into a superstar and let them be the communicator.”

Too, Gen Zers tend to eschew reading and have short attention spans. That can make instruction manuals less effective. “It’s smart to provide video content, short bits of training that only last two to three minutes,” said Gibbs. “Provide bite-sized infotainment to help drown out other distractions such as social media.”

The Gen Zer’s penchant for technology can also make them loners. That can be problematic in a workplace where one-on-one interactions often help drive revenues and efficiencies. “Gen Zers tend to be individualistic and would rather communicate through technology than face to face,” said Ginder. “But that’s not how an organization typically works. It’s not just a bunch of solo folks doing their thing. Most things happen within some level of teamwork.”

This is where managers can experience a lot of frustration, and the new generation will need some assistance. “It’s important to help Gen Zers build their personal skills by supporting structured team activities,” said Ginder. “There will have to be a lot of coaching around when it’s appropriate to pick up the phone or to walk down the hall and communicate with someone, especially during situations of conflict or where there’s a higher opportunity for misunderstanding.”

Related: Recruit and Retain: Workers in a Candidate-driven Market

Making it work

Managed correctly, the growing wave of Gen Zers entering the workforce will have a positive impact on company operations. “Gen Zers have a lot going for them,” said Ginder. “Research shows they’re highly achievement oriented, more educated than previous generations and more diverse. That speaks a lot to some of their qualities, but also to how we can tailor the way we work with them.”

If older generations have a bit of a struggle dealing effectively with the youngest workers, the result can be worth the effort. “There is much upside potential to learning how to adjust our management practices to maximize the potential of Gen Zers,” said Ginder. “There’s so much there. It’s an amazing generation, as all generations are. Using the right framework and approach, the sky’s the limit.”

Phillip M. Perry is an award-winning business journalist based in New York City. He covers management, employment law, finance and marketing for scores of business magazines.