Hiring Gen Z workers is a challenging undertaking. A business leader in my community has a lofty and admirable vision to hire Gen Z employees, but he is ready to pull his hair out. He trains them technically, but he also needs to teach them the necessary life skills for success. Once they are proficient, competent, and responsible workers, he encourages them to move on to higher paying and more challenging career opportunities. He unselfishly launches them, that they might accomplish immeasurably more than they could have ever imagined. He is to be admired and applauded for his desire to pour his heart into and to invest in these young hires.
Many Gen Z employees have been described by HR professionals as lacking motivation, easily distracted, poor face-to-face communicators, unrealistic, craving recognition, having a disdain for repetitive tasks, lacking an acceptable work ethic, and possessing work-impacting mental health issues, to name a few.
Based on Gen Z’s employment reputation and personal deficiencies, you can quickly surmise that my friend’s noble-minded vocational calling is leaving him frustrated, discouraged, exhausted, and overwhelmed.
He often says to me, in an exasperated voice, “They just don’t get it. I’m not sure I can keep this up. I’m running a business here!”
I cannot supply the silver bullet to solve his employee ordeals, but being reminded of historic generational differences will provide some key insights. These reminders are not intended to condone Gen Z’s irresponsibility and character flaws, but to clarify his perspective. Gen Z is a product of its time, as are past generations.
A young entrepreneur named Lachlan Brown has written an article titled “Psychology Says People Raised in the 1960s and ‘70s developed these 7 Mental Strengths that are Rare Today.” This article is extremely helpful to company leaders who are in their 40s to 60s.
These seven mental strengths provide for a window of understanding and context for figuring out Gen Z workers. Because our upbringing has determined what we have known, experienced, and believe to be “right,” this, then, constitutes our own contextual framework. This personal framework, then, is the interpretive lens through which one views employees. My friend, and all of us, would do well to learn from Brown’s research regarding generational strengths.
Here are the strengths from past generations contrasted with the Gen Z perspective, as described by Brown:
High Frustration Tolerance is described as staying steady when things don’t go your way. Gen Z wants instant relief, gratification, and an immediate escape.
Independence Without Needing Applause is the ability to work independently and have self-satisfaction for a job well done. For Gen Z, life is fueled by a constant need for recognition and praise.
A Practical Relationship with Emotions in past generations was accomplished through emotional regulation. But the present generation is often ruled by anxiety, stress, and life’s issues, and it prevents these individuals from functioning and even going to work.
Social Confidence Built Through Real-World Practice was done face-to-face through personal interaction, with all the resulting realities. Gen Z consistently hides behind technology to communicate and to solve its problems.
A Strong “Make Do” Mindset which many families lived by, including my own, had this family motto: make do, do without, eat it up, and wear it out. Today, Gen Z requires everything to possess the latest upgrade, and believes that it is impossible to live with what you currently have.
Patience for long timelines is a bygone concept. Families planned weeks in advance to watch specials on TV that were shown one time. Mailed letters, the main vehicle of communication, were highly anticipated. For Gen Z, delayed gratification is resoundingly rejected. Everything must deliver immediate results. As soon as a new phone comes out, it is deemed to be too slow.
A Grounded Sense of Identity (less performance and more substance) was based on a person’s character and values, which provided a stable identity, and it used to define one’s persona. Members of Gen Z are dead set on branding themselves. Appearance, even if it is purposely untrue, is often coveted and valued. Self-aggrandization is the expected norm.
These seven strengths are not intended to insinuate that the days of old had all the answers. They assuredly did not. But understanding the context for the way we think has a significant impact on how we see, evaluate, and care for Gen Z and all those under our employ.
So, let’s adopt my friend’s noble-minded calling by sacrificially stepping alongside Gen Z, by tackling the tough issues, and by inspiring life-changing transformation.