Gen Z and their Career

Within five years 30% of the workforce will be Gen Z. Is the world of work ready for this?

Interestingly, over the last couple of years there has been quite a lot of research* undertaken into Gen Z and what they want from a job and a career, and the results may surprise some of you.

Who are Gen Z?

Most agree that they are those individuals born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, so they will be around 18 to 28/30 years of age in the workplace in 2025.

This is the generation that has grown up with data, having access to massive amounts of information and knowledge, enabling them to check anything they are told. To Gen Z, the internet and digital technology are a central part of their lives, a given that is non-negotiable.

So, how do you attract, engage and keep Gen Z workers?

What do they look for in a career?

Their attitude to work and careers may be different to previous generations and what they want may not be what employers think they want from a career! For example, Gen Z like to work for empathetic bosses, but they probably won’t find this in what they see as old school workplaces.

They are less interested in the ‘traditional’ workplace, working practices and company hierarchy, meaning that they will have no qualms about leaving if their role does not align with their values and work-life balance. This inevitably leads to more job-hopping than in previous generations.

Gen Z look for:

• Transparency and clear expectations

• A great work-life balance

• Meaningful work where they can make a difference

• Always on technology

• Fast promotion and career growth

• Being treated as individuals

• Mental health support

• An environmentally sustainable organisation

• To work with people like them

Why is this? Well, it seems that their experiences during the pandemic – remote education and working - together with their reliance on digital technology gives them a different perspective on life and work compared to older generations.

Many companies have reported that Gen Z workers seem poor at communicating, preferring to do this digitally, lack career motivation and come across as unprofessional through being late and missing deadlines. They also see work as being able to be done anywhere, using technology, so see no reason to be tied to an office or workplace. These are all traits of the ‘old-school’ of working in Gen Z’s eyes, who value output against hours worked.

This certainly gives employers a few challenges in the years ahead in how to manage, and keep, Gen Z workers!

Do they want it all? It may seem so, but positive traits do include resilience and being forward thinking. They like to be inspired by other young people, seeing and hearing their stories and they also like to encounter employers through work placements and mentoring.

Whilst they are tech-savvy it seems that they value a divide between work and personal use and prefer to be communicated with by email, LI, careers apps, text or telephone regarding work and not by social media as they think this is ‘intrusive’. Fair comment.

An interesting twist on the research showed that whilst Gen Z are the most digital generation ever, they do not warm to being interviewed by AI, liking a human touch in the recruitment process.

We have been warned…

*further reading can be found on Forbes, Deloitte Digital, Career.io, Business Insider, Prolific North, BHSF, Newsweek and Culture Monkey