As Generation Z begin to enter the working world – they’ll account for 27% of the global workforce by 2025 – their unique perspective and vastly different priorities than previous working generations will certainly make a ripple in the working world.
However, there is some trepidation about the new generation’s approach: 82% of managers in a recent survey felt that Gen Z hires lacked essential soft skills, such as communication. So how can businesses manage the new intake of workers to maximise their strengths and minimise their weaknesses? Online education and training experts GDA Online Training are here to help: Managing Director Garry Douglas has put together his top tips on how businesses can get the best out of Gen Z hires.
Zero in on their needs and focus on their strengths
When dealing with a new hire of any generation, it’s a good idea to spend some time with them to get an idea of their personal strengths and weaknesses. Every person is different, but there are some wider generational differences to be aware of.
4 in 10 business leaders report that Gen Z are unprepared for the workplace when they leave full-time education. Various reasons have been cited for this, including the experiences of Gen Z during the pandemic leading to their missing important in-person life events, meaning they have had fewer opportunities to learn the soft skills that older generations did as a matter of course.
Being the ‘digital-first’ generation has been cited as a weakness of Gen Z by some hiring managers, but if you channel it in the right way, it can also be a strength that can help set your business apart from your competitors. Have your Gen Z hires take a look at your processes and procedures: their status as digital natives may mean they can spot much better and more streamlined ways of achieving the same task, thus you are leveraging their awareness of technology to improve your business’s efficiency!
Prioritise training and development
Businesses often seek to recruit employees who are already trained and ready to go, citing fear of employee attrition, cost and time as reasons for doing so. However, there are advantages to taking on an employee who has little or no prior training: it means you can train them to do tasks in the way your business wants them done, without bad habits or preconceptions from earlier roles creeping in.
It is not just your Gen Z hires who may struggle to perform well without training, though. Without adequate opportunities to develop and learn, your employees may lack the necessary skills to perform their roles effectively, which might lead to decreased productivity, increased errors, and reduced client satisfaction… none of which are good news for your business! A lack of training opportunities can also hinder employee engagement and motivation, resulting in higher turnover rates and enduring difficulty attracting top talent, whereas a whopping 94% of employees stated they would stay in a job that gave them development opportunities. It very much pays to take investing in training your existing staff seriously!
Offer opportunities for them to grow
While training will help Gen Z employees learn the theory behind a range of key soft skills, they will still need opportunities to put what they’ve learned into practice before they can master the skill. Lack of experience with things like professional conversation and workplace communication may be at the source of the problem in many cases; after all, how can we learn without experience?
Offering new hires an opportunity to take ownership over certain tasks and projects is a great way to get their buy-in. Gen Z are especially known for their independence and ability to self-motivate, so it makes sense to leverage those qualities by offering them responsibilities to show what they’re made of! Letting your recruits develop new skills is also essential: a recent report showed that 80% of Gen Z hires want a job that allows them to explore and develop new skill sets, rather than focusing exclusively on one skill. Embracing the Gen Z desire for variety can ultimately help your business by developing multi-skilled staff members who can turn their hand to a range of different duties.
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