Lucas Isola | January 31, 2023

Managing a Gen Z Workforce

Millennials generation, Generation Z (Gen Z), and other age groups coexist in today’s workforce in the workplace. A logical business owner or manager looks forward to knowing them as a workforce and understanding how to manage them effectively. The ultimate reason is that the workforce is an essential resource for the company.

The following are topics highlighted in this article.

Benefits of having Millennial and Gen Z staff Best ways to manage Gen Z and Millennial staff Options for finding good employees Requirements for management How to prepare and train younger staff FAQs

Benefits of having Millennial and Gen Z staff

According to USA Today, Millennials, or Generation Y people, are born from 1981 to 1996. The oldest millennials are age 41 years old. Generation Z, or Gen Z, were born from 1997 to 2012. The most senior Gen Z individuals are age 25 years old.

These are two different generations with a substantial age gap between them. These two generations in the workforce will make your organization a bit diverse, especially if you combine them with other age groups. Diversity is vital in an organization, and research shows that team diversification can boost productivity by 35 per cent or more.

Millennial workers and Gen Z workers are eager to contribute positively to the organization. This is another perk of having these two generations. Their presence will provide the necessary growth possible for a particular company.

In addition, both generations expect to use technology, clear communication, and feedback. These factors fuel an organizations advancement, and various companies find these critical requirements to ensure efficiency, productivity, and growth.

Best ways to manage Gen Z and millennial staff

Understanding the characteristics of Gen Z and Millennial employees is the key to effectively managing them, leaving the next steps and ways to follow smoothly.

Millennials are emotionally driven, so every manager should tap into their emotions, like in the form of an appreciation, to bring the best out of them. Millennials love appreciation, and a simple tap on their shoulder would mean a lot to make their day and get their hard work paid off.

In reality, both age groups love instant gratification and to be acknowledged for their hard work. Recognizing their hard work is one of the best things a manager can do. As a result, doing this to them can strengthen their loyalty to the company.

On the other hand, Gen Z workers are likely to quit a job if that hinders them from enjoying their lives. Their loyalty is fickle, one of the reasons why they are vulnerable to switching jobs or companies compared to other age groups. Employee retention is relatively low. They love to move around in their careers and find something they believe is worthy of their time and focus.

Millennials want flexibility over stability Gen Z would wish to. Millennials prefer work-life balance, while salary and career advancement attract Gen Z employees. Furthermore, the former would choose encouraging feedback and written and visual communication. The latter would be okay with direct feedback and short-form video communication, like coming over from social media and other apps, because they are technology natives.

Understanding these essential characteristics of these two generations, managers must be flexible in dealing with them to win their trust, support, and loyalty.

Options for finding good employees

Quality standard operating procedure for hiring processes is essential. They say the best way to fire employees is not to hire them to give way for the best slot to the best one possible. Finding good employees starts with the hiring process and not only that. Part of the hiring process is the ability of the management where to find the best talent or employees who fit the requirement.

Another way to find good employees is to offer benefits that are not just monetary but socially and emotionally rewarding. Remember the two generations of employees, Millennials and Gen Z. Each of these age groups has diverging needs and preferences for them to stay in the company and perform well. Every organization finding an employee must know what their human resources want.

Engage employees or team members in the decision-making process. Some companies survey their employees, and they value their voices to help them in their decisions towards employee productivity, understanding their needs, and the normal evaluation process and feedback mechanism.

Requirements for management

One essential requirement for management is managing human resources and keeping updated. Many experts believe that human resources are the most complicated entities in the company or organization. This insight means solving problems with the workforce is equivalent to addressing already at least 80 per cent of the issues in an organization.

Part of the requirement for management is an organization’s ability to set the vision, mission and objectives or goals consistently and with all focus and clarity. With the right set of human resources to lead to the attainment of the vision, an organization will surely be on the right track. Engage employees in this area.

Finally, a company must be flexible in today’s world, where organizations have diverse employees, especially in their generation. A manager must understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to management. Adjustments are necessary from time to time while the world around us changes.

How to prepare and train younger staff

There are many practical approaches to preparing and training younger staff in management. It is quite an experimental approach for some, but others remain on the edge of practicality.

Train your younger staff not to be afraid to fail for as long as they learn from their failures. Many find failure positively impacts growth because that leads to positive actions for improvement.

Patience is a virtue in training or grooming younger workforce to be who they are in the future. Every manager should have considerable patience in dealing with the newbies who are just reaching the top of the basics.

Allow the experienced employees to mentor the freshmen, especially those aged 20s and below. Experience is the best teacher, and there are practical insights that the younger staff can learn so much from the experienced ones.

Make the training fun and challenging for the new and younger employees. Make it emotionally motivating and rewarding. They love that.

Before you evaluate if the training process was a success, provide feedback and mentoring to your younger workforce. After that, ensure effective follow-ups.

FAQs

Why do companies manage seasonal employees?

Seasonal employees help the companies save on the employment cost because they do not have to employ and include them on the payroll during the off-season.

How do you attract younger staff/millennials/Gen Z?

Younger staff, Millennials and Gen Z have diverging preferences. To attract younger staff and Gen Z, you need to offer something they would value as part of stability because their loyalty is somehow fickle. However, Millennials are just fine with flexibility and social and environmentally rewarding offerings.

What is the difference between millennials and other age groups?

Millennials are the ones who witness the boom of technology and the change of things in the post-modern era. They can deal effectively with the generations before and next to them, making them work well with flexibility.

How can I manage effectively?

The first consideration on how you can manage effectively is managing your human resource effectively. That is part of effective employee engagement, which will help you solve the other complex issues and problems facing the organization.

References

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/09/02/what-years-gen-x-millennials-baby-boomers-gen-z/10303085002/

https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter