Gen Z's Recipe for a Perfect Job
If there was a recipe for a perfect job, it would read something like this:
To many CHROs already doing a tight rope walk, this combination might sound a bit utopian. But this is what Gen Z is looking out for, tells us Naukri’s recent job seeker preferences survey.
Career growth opportunities was the number 1 criterion followed by work culture and a preferred job location for job seekers when defining their dream job. This was true across all cuts of work experience- 0-1 years work ex, 2-5 yrs, 6-10 and >11 years of workex.
The younger lot values faster career growth whereas the more seasoned professionals value monetary growth
Growth, job location and work culture more important than money
It’s not all about material or instant gratification thankfully. In fact, career growth trumps monetary reward pretty much across all cohorts but more so with the younger lot (0-1 years workex).
Monetary reward only starts assuming more importance for those who have been in the work force for 11 years or more.
Gen Z wants to grow fast, fail fast, achieve faster. Above all, they value learning opportunities and the right job fitment.
What does career growth mean?
Two phrases: Challenging Work and more opportunity to learn via training. The former got 58% of the vote, the latter got 53% out of a total of seven criteria (job seekers were asked to choose their top 3).
The younger workforce wants to grow fast, fail fast, achieve faster. They also want to have more learning opportunities which implies that companies that foster stronger senior-junior and peer-to-peer mentorship are likely to appear more attractive with this generation.
What’s interesting is that youngsters want to see real movement in the level of responsibilities they are shouldering as opposed to just a movement in designation.
An opportunity to manage a team is visible growth (getting a 42% preference vote). Seniority or designation growth not translating into change in actual work profile were perceived as unattractive.
So if you are an organization that has verticalization without real role differentiation, you need to rethink.
Gen Z also values fitment-doing what they like doing, and being able to do what they are good at doing. Recognition by leadership, hence, is easy to come by and well, seen as the ability to create impact. (See graph below)
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What’s a great work culture? How do you get that right?
Unlike many other questions that we posed to our job seeker audience, this one had clear favourites.
People wanted first, work life balance (72%), second, they wanted to be valued at work (37%) and third, they valued rewards and recognitions (25%).
The rest was more or less perceived as clutter.
And that includes stuff like off-site trips, management and team empathy, diversity and even a flat org hierarchy. Even work place diversity and non-discriminatory environment did not make it to the top criteria, arguably, a covid effect of sorts, the ability to do something meaningful at your workplace, get recognized for it along with the ability to have a life outside it- that was seen as very much desirable by most of the respondents.
?Gen Z wants best in class salaries first, above industry appraisals second, wealth creation opportunities third
Having a job location that is either in one’s home town or close to it, is also seen as desirable. It means less travel time and hence more time for family hence work life balance. Refer to the graph below to discover what Gen Z means when they say they want “flexibility”.
What is a great Monetary reward strategy?
As the Comp and Ben team, if you’re wondering what mix to offer your employees, here’s the moment of truth.
Jobseekers want competitive salaries first, industry appraisals second, wealth creation opportunities third.
In other words, they want to believe that they are doing better monetarily than similar folks in other companies doing similar work. This is a great retention strategy, except that it’s costly.
Money is not going to compensate for time taken away from family or learning opportunity.
Well, if you must, you can cut down on those freebies and tuition fee reimbursements (yes, the latter was preferred less to corporate discounts and gym and wellness programs). They value training, insurance followed by paid vacations and retirement plans. This is not surprising since training also ties in very closely with career growth which was earlier rated as the most desirable attribute of a dream job. (Check out the graph below)
The jury is out.
Money is not going to compensate for time taken away from family or learning opportunity. Token movement up the corporate ladder or flaky benefits such as freebies and designation change without role change are not going to cut any ice either.
Jobseekers want professional growth and they want to learn fast.??
Tell us what you think in the comments below.