Inc. recently reported that around 60% of companies have cut Gen Z employees that they hired this year. 75% of those surveyed said that the young workers had unsatisfactory performances, lacking motivation, professionalism and communication skills.
Or as one CIO told me, “They don’t even know how to write a *%&* subject line in an email!”
Okay.
Neither did I when I was twenty-two. I could write one, but having now learned the art of a subject line, I’m fabulous at email subject lines. Aren’t you?
I don’t mean to dismiss the studies and research out there on a generation born between 1997-2012, describing people who are now between the ages of 12 and 27. I get it. They are:
Digital natives
Desiring purpose
Focused on career growth
Emphasizing work-life balance
Looking for environments of diversity and inclusion
Preferring open communication
It’s been a long long time since I used this word, but in honor of the Simpson’s 36th year on television, “D’oh!”
Other than being a digital native, I could be described the same way.
Beyond Label and Caricature
I know some things about leading this generation since I parented two of them. They are human, which means they have:
Forces opposed to them. Forces are those dynamics that are out of our control but require response: economic, political, global, climate, philosophical, market competition for jobs. Covid was a major force since most of Gen Z had to survive the pivot of virtual learning and social disruption.
Ideas and Ways Of Doing Things that work against them. Gen Z are change makers, seeking to influence how business does business. But they aren’t the first gung-ho generation to want to shake things up. Even as they shake business to reconsider ideas and ways, Gen Z has their own that needs to be challenged.
False Self Individuals within Gen Z are not immune from acting as they think they should rather than as they really are.
A Different Way To Lead
- Incorporate personal assessments in the onboarding process. Identifying areas of growth is more important than spotting generational attributes.
- Double down on teaching and explaining company values and how they really work
- Triple down on development; give them a coach! (See me if you need one)
- Make sure they have a clear sense of personal and company purpose, and then make the connection for them constantly between purpose and the work they are involved in.
- Invite Gen Z representation into different aspects of your leading change.
- Turn people’s judgments about Gen Z into training opportunities and celebrate the growth (as in, teach what makes a good email subject line and highlight some good ones in team meetings, etc). By the way, remember the show “Are You Smarter Than A Third-Grader?” Try “Are you smarter than a Gen-Zer?”
- Don’t believe the whole lack of work ethic rumor. Test it. If the epic work is there, the work ethic will be there. If not, blame the lack of work ethic on a person not a generation.
- If you can’t give them a coach, give them a senior buddy. We all need an emotional hug or a verbal kick in the butt to go with the mentoring and measuring.
- Teach respectful and mutual candor.
If 60% of companies cut Gen Z employees, that’s on the company not the employee.
Of course, lack of development is still a primary reason people leave companies. If Gen Z employees hadn’t been cut by those companies, they probably would have left them anyway for someone willing to invest in them.
I feel like a defensive dad. Or, a contentious leader. Gen Z will give you a significant return on investment, especially if the investment we are making is measured by the development we give and not just the wages we pay.
