Tips for managing Millennials and Gen-Zers + AI tools for HR and Team Leads

Hey, community!

Thank you again for subscribing to my newsletter. It’s exciting to see so many of you here.?

Over the last month, some popular topics have caught my attention were:

• AI in the workplace
• Employee engagement during times of uncertainty.
• The role of managers in maintaining employee engagement.

The team at Plai has been researching managers' role in employee engagement and the behavior of #millennials and #GenZers at work. Below is a list of prompts for #ChatGPT and other free #AI tools. You can use these prompts to gain clarity on team management and HR. Let's get started!

Millennials & Gen Z similarities and differences at work

It seems like the world is changing faster every day, and Gen Y (1980-1995) and Gen Z (1996-present) are at the helm of it all.?

Research shows that, in terms of their workplace attitudes, these generations are much more similar than different. They strongly prefer remote work with work-life balance and flexibility, honest and transparent communications, motivation through recognition, and learning and growth opportunities.

However, Gen-Z tends to be more individualistic, prefers entrepreneurship, and switches jobs more frequently. This isn't out of a lack of loyalty, but instead reflects current high employment, economic growth, and career opportunity. When it comes to job-hunting, Gen Z values workplace advancement and well-being above all.

Few things to consider when managing Gen Z

• Gen Z relies heavily on feedback and expects their employers to be open and honest. Although they are often entrepreneurial and autonomous, they realize the importance of a leader monitoring them and providing helpful tools and feedback. The Internet provides too much information for them to process, and they need someone to help them distinguish between the relevant and irrelevant.
• Coaching or mentoring is the most effective form of leadership for Gen Z. With mentoring, values, and knowledge can be shared. To expand the benefits of this approach, try reverse mentoring, where knowledge is exchanged between generations. Older generations can impart experience and wisdom, while younger generations can support older generations in embracing new trends and technologies.
• Gen-Z prioritizes career growth and development, emphasizing personal growth. Employers should offer opportunities for learning and development tailored to their employees' individual needs, such as through mentoring and coaching programs, to help them achieve their career goals.
• Gen Z values financial perks and is highly entrepreneurial. In their world, loyalty is often bought through frequent buyer programs, points, or discounts - and the same applies to employee loyalty. Employers should understand and meet their needs and motivate them through relevant reward and recognition strategies. This will increase retention.
• Gen Z views work as a third place. The ‘third place’ was coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg and refers to a place outside of the home and work for socializing, relaxing, and feeling part of a community. These spaces provide a break and offer balance, tranquility, socializing, and new experiences. Work and life have merged, creating expectations of financial rewards, social connection, training, personal development, fulfillment, and environmental sustainability. The "third place" is now considered the office, a combination of work, social, and health-related activities. This has led to the rise of workplace initiatives such as well-being programs, volunteer opportunities, mindfulness practices, and social events.

What to Consider in Managing Millennials

Millennials are highly reliant on work-life balance and doing work that aligns with their values. Millennials also tend to be much more exposed to work-related stress and burnout. Rather than just searching for jobs for the money, Millennials are likely to seek out projects that have a social impact, so they can have fun, experience interesting things, and have time for their personal hobbies and recreation.

They appreciate a flexible work environment, remote work options, and control over their work schedule. Motivation for them is driven by recognition, comfort, and interaction, and they prefer to work in groups and go out and socialize.

Potential conflicts between Y and Z at the workplace

Managers and HR experts should know that different generations have different communication, information-sharing, and collaboration approaches.?Companies must find the best ways to motivate and retain younger generations while recognizing their differences.

Intergenerational communication and information-sharing techniques differ from those of previous generations, which can result in conflicts and misunderstandings (Dill, 2015).

The members of Generation Y often cause conflict due to their self-assurance and unwillingness to tolerate criticism or contradiction. The research shows that Millennials don't tolerate monotony or individualistic tasks, while Gen Zers tend to embrace them. (Ol?ovská et al., 2015)

Y and Z generations are typically distrustful, rarely help each other, and build only superficial connections (Elmore, 2014). Interestingly, the two closest generations usually have the hardest time working together - the Y generation prefers to work with the X generation, while the Z generation prefers to work alone (The Forum, 2016).

Check-in power

If you could implement only one practice to best manage your team, I'd recommend implementing regular check-ins. Check-ins are the number 1 tool to build trust with your team and create a "no surprises" culture.?

Studies show that weekly check-ins may increase team #engagement by 77% and decrease voluntary #turnover by 67% in the following six months.

Below are some highlights from my e-book, "The Ultimate 1:1 Meeting Guide for Managers," to help your check-in better. If you want to go deeper, you can check out my e-book here .

For an efficient way to manage check-ins, scheduling, keep track of agendas, share meeting notes, collaborate on action items, and to gain access to a library of templates and questions, consider using Plai . The team at Uptech has found it incredibly helpful and has increased our meeting frequency.

ChatGPT / AI tools for better management

1. Casper AI

This in-browser extension allows you to summarize various texts from a web page in one click. In my opinion, it's better than ChatGPT because I don’t need to switch between tabs and waste time copying & pasting text.

• summary of any articles/texts/materials you're browsing on the web
• ability to create emails/tweets or quick bullet points with action items from the text you're browsing
• various prompts to play with the text, like "Explain it like for 5 y.o". or "Counter this text."
• asking questions about the text directly in chat and receiving answers, combined with information from the asked page and data from the web

2. AI Meeting assistant

This tool that helps schedule meetings and prepare agendas. What I like about it:

• AI suggests of time for the meeting with a link for scheduling
• Generation of agendas + email follow-ups, depending on your meeting goals
• AI transcript of the meeting (limited to 5 transcripts on the free version)

3. GeniusReviews

The AI assistant helps you generate text for employee reviews that are tailored to performance review questions and other input. You can select the tone of voice, insert questions, and add grades for pre-set skills. However, the tool has limited options for roles for feedback.?

If necessary, you can exclude skill assessment from the settings to focus the review text on open-ended questions only. Additionally, make sure to provide hints for writing feedback for each question to avoid overly general responses.

However, it's important not to rely solely on this tool for writing feedback. Make sure to tailor your final responses to sound personal and to truly address your colleagues' situations. Good luck! ??

I also found some funny prompts for ChatGPT that are worth experimenting with. Here we go:

ChatGPT Displays gifs From Giphy

This prompt turns ChatGPT into a gif response tool. You can compile accurate search phrases to respond with a specific gif. It's a great tool for adding some visual content to your presentations, emails, or even message responses. While working remotely, any personal and fun touch is more valuable.

Prompt text (insert it as a request to ChatGPT or a similar tool):

Once you know what gif you want to use, compile the most accurate and perfect search phrase that will result in the specific gif you want to send

You will ONLY respond with the following markdown: ![result](<https://scythe-spot-carpenter.glitch.me/search?search_term=.gif>)

The first response should be to the statement, "aye aye captain".        

Motivational Speaker

Although it is still an AI language model, it can provide some interesting ideas on how to handle tough situations in people management. Of course, it cannot replace a coach, but it can serve as a starting point for brainstorming solutions to your problems.

Prompt text (insert it as a request to ChatGPT or a similar tool):

I want you to act as a motivational coach. I will provide you with some information about someone's goals and challenges, and it will be your job to come up with strategies that can help this person achieve their goals. This could involve providing positive affirmations, giving helpful advice or suggesting activities they can do to reach their end goal. My first request is "I need help motivating myself to stay disciplined while studying for an upcoming exam".        

That's it for today. Will love to hear your thoughts on that in the comments.

Have fun and happy experimenting ??????