How to Attract, Engage & Delight Your Gen Z Employee

As an Inbound Digital Marketing agency, we are devoted to understanding our clients and their buyer personas so that we can be an effective solution provider.

Having said that, we also believe that generating more satisfied customers starts in our own office.

"A happy employee is a productive employee, but a happy employee who feels valued, respected, and supported will go above and beyond to provide exceptional customer service." - Simon Sinek

What do you think?

Today, we're deep diving into an employee persona - the Gen Zs.

The Millennials have been the centre of discussions for years. Ironically, with a large pile of positive and negative findings, some honest parents and employers would still admit that they still can’t fully grasp the minds of this cohort yet. Nonetheless, time does not wait. The murmurs about the millennials have faded as we embrace a whole new generation that would make us all confused again.?

Realize it or not, Gen Z is among us

Generation Z (Gen Z) are generally categorized as those who are born from 1997 onwards; the youngest of the 5 generations that are active in today's economy. While Gen Y and Gen Z have a sizable set of similarities on the surface, studies have shown that their outlook and response to life situations are indeed different. This is no surprise, as both generations have experienced different periods of history. The impact of different historical events will cause the development of different cultures, core beliefs, values and mindsets.

Thus, although Gen Z comes right after the Millennials, there is a fine line of difference in the way they perceive the world around them.

At this point, at least a quarter of your employees are probably the Gen Z. So what does this mean for us as employers? It's time for us to understand their persona, motivations, behaviour and needs in order to create a progressive working environment for our organization as a whole.

Here are a few things you need to know to?create value?for your Gen Z employees.

They crave frequent feedback, ASAP

Gen Z is very socially conscious and they have a strong desire to receive feedback and provide their opinions. In fact, 84 % of Gen Z have rated this with high importance when they’re choosing a job.

The keywords here are frequent and fast. Let’s be real, we are in the midst of the age of anxiety, the need for speed is making Gen Z (ahem, everyone) more impatient and anxious, and we can’t deny that our current virtual social environment has nurtured Gen Z’s need for instant gratification.

They get excited about a picture, they post it, and if they don’t get X number of likes by X time, they get emotionally affected.

Believe it or not, this matters in the workplace. Now that they are in your organization, they?need?you to assure them, as frequently as possible, that they’re doing a good job.

Your commitment to come alongside them with constructive feedback makes them feel seen and recognized, which creates a sense of purpose and heightens engagement.

This calls for organizations to be more intentional in their mentorship to cultivate a workplace with learning and development opportunities for young working professionals.?

They prefer you to talk with them face-to-face

You might be thinking,?“What? But their eyes and fingers are glued to their phones!”

You’re right! But that’s their habit. Human habit does not always reflect their core desire. In other words, the common belief that Gen Z doesn’t value face-to-face interaction is false. Research shows that?74% of employees would choose real-time conversations and collaborative brainstorming?in meetings over emails and group text messages.

This is easier said than done, especially when you have a hectic schedule. But whenever it’s necessary, walk over to them to relay your message. Encourage your teams to have weekly meetings - short and sweet. So that each employee gets to voice out their thoughts and findings. In the long run, this will encourage Gen Z to take ownership of their work. Making your young workers feel heard will help them to understand that they are not just here to take instruction but to contribute as well.

Good company culture as such will translate into authentic human connections.

Question: How hard do you fight to maintain your company’s culture without letting your external appointments get in the way?

They have different working styles

As the saying goes, you have to stay relevant to the generation. The other option you have is to be left behind. Are there practices you’re prohibiting that have actual potential to boost their productivity and eventually work performance?

We’ve heard of some companies that forbid the usage of headphones with the reason that Spotify is a distraction. That’s not true! In fact, research has shown that music is a source of motivation to be productive and a contributing solution to fighting high-stress levels, which has been predicted to be the biggest obstacle to performance improvement in the future workplace. Currently, stress has been called “the health epidemic of the 21st Century; 37% of Gen Z feel hindered in their development due to stress and looming burnout.

Companies need to realize this - no matter how innovative you pride your company to be, outdated policies, strict roles and top-down management will be your downfall.

Learn to explore flexibility?within your organizations! Exp: remote work, role customization and performance-boosting perks. Employers who recognize the distinct advantages of emerging mobile social and networking technologies will eventually thrive.

They want to be trained

You assumed that they have the ‘know-it-all’ attitude? Think again.

94% of Gen Z admit to lighting up with motivation when they have learning opportunities, in comparison to previous generations. Continual learning and development (L&D) are key to maintaining a progressive, productive workforce in every organization.

Since Gen Z are accustomed to digital learning, the best kind of training a company can offer is a mix of in-person and digital corporate training programme. But then the next question would be: what type of skill should your organization focus on developing?

No matter what industry you’re in, this is a tip for you to take away:

"The importance for people to be always learning throughout their career, the importance of collaborating, developing those higher-order cognitive skills, where you can interpret, analyse, make connections between seemingly different pieces of information, and persuade others of your argument, that you can provide good service and insight, that you can emphasise, and care, and be concerning of others.?These are skills that are going to be in greater demand than ever." -?John Fallon, CEO, PEARSON

If you’re an Inbound Digital Marketing Agency (like us), you’d understand that digital transformation is reshaping every aspect of a business organization by integrating digital technology into all processes, and our workforce needs to be equipped with future-ready skill sets. The perfect training will thus be a strong mix of hard and soft skills to embrace the upcoming industry trends.

Our solution is Certification Day. Let us explain more to you - watch the video below!

Trust us - your commitment to grooming your talent will translate into an upgrade of creativity in your deliverables to serve your clients’ needs.

Prioritize education and mentorship.?After your Gen Z worker completes a course, sit them down to share their takeaways. This way, managers can solidify the young workers’ new theoretical knowledge with real-life experiences.

Your dedication to understanding their challenges and mentoring to help them reach their goals will lessen turnovers and increase their zeal to serve your company (and clients) better.

Understanding everyone's journey is a key pillar of digital transformation

One of the biggest stereotypes about Gen Z is that they are “Millennials on steroids”. Carrying that mindset, many employers have tried to use back the strategies they’ve applied to Millennials with a ‘fresher appeal’ in hopes to relate and reach the younger cohort.

Nonetheless, as much as they may follow the footsteps of the Millennials, we need to accept the fact that Gen Z is a distinct cohort with their own set of preferences, concerns, priorities and goals.

Worry not! Strive to understand your new Gen Z employees. It’s all about building good relationships. Don’t see them as a code to crack, see them as a seed that will eventually grow and bear great fruits under your care and nurture!