5 top benefits Gen Z are looking for when job-hunting
Gen Z has grown up with an utterly different mindset, setting their demands high and prioritizing their well-being.
There’s a new generation of career seekers entering the market. Their number surpassed millennials, reaching 32% of the population, and they’re looking for opportunities that will meet their demands. It’s Gen Z. And, to be frank, this tech-savvy generation differs significantly from what we are used to seeing throughout the marketplace.
Born between the 90s and 2010, Gen Z has come of age during a stable economy, with many countries noting record-low unemployment rates, as opposed to millennials, whose preview of the job market was shaped by the Great Recession.
Related: Career development: Getting Gen Z employees off on the right foot during a pandemic
It’s not that millennials and Gen Z want different things from the workplace. It’s just that millennials simply didn’t have the chance to wrap their head around those issues, as they were more focused on finding a job in the first place. Gen Z has grown up with an utterly different mindset, setting their demands high and prioritizing their well-being. But the real question is what are they and whether modern companies can leverage them?
Let’s analyze what benefits this digitally based generation demands and how employers can answer what Gen Z perceives as a fundamental package in every workplace.
1. Skills development in an attention-grabbing industry
As the first generation to only know life with the Internet, they’ve constantly been exposed to a whole different world of possibilities and unlimited access to all information online. Flexibility and diversity are the keywords to incorporate into your Gen Z-oriented business strategy. When hiring for a specific role, be attentive to the core skills of Gen Z applicants and how those skillsets align not only with job requirements but also with the company’s organizational culture.
How to keep Gen Z employees attracted once you get them on board?
- Once the individual has been onboarded, create transparent learning and career development plan.
- Keep Gen Z busy. But make sure you guarantee their freedom of choice – what, when, and how they want to invest in their development. Propose a course schedule within the company, that way, you’ll meet their needs, gain more knowledgeable team members, and increase the likelihood of prolonging an employee’s stay in the company.
- Give them space to conduct workshops for other team members within the area of their expertise and educational background. Like this, you’ll provide your employees interdisciplinary perspectives on your industry and give an individual a challenge and a chance to express themselves.
One more thing to add: take care of your corporate branding. Research shows that expressing corporate values increases employer’s desirability of interest/innovation value and application value.
2. Prioritizing work-life balance
They have become a more concerned generation with a more open-minded approach and have grown in the utterly new world of opportunities. Being concerned about environmental issues, well-being, self-care, and skill development, it’s no surprise that more than 42% of Gen Z consider work-life balance a priority compared to other job benefits.
Gen Z is facing the overwhelming threat of generational burnout. Employees under a lot of stress are more likely to miss workdays, feel disengaged, and quit their employment sooner than those who aren’t.
COVID-19 has significantly influenced the work environments of all generations, and the benefits-driven young generation was hit hard. Being denied in-person teammate interactions, constant supervisory guidance, acknowledgment, and in-office benefits, can be overwhelming. It can cause Gen Z employees to question themselves and their motivation, lowering their productivity regularly.
How to aim for an efficient work-life balance without compromising the company’s efficiency?
- Offer stress management programs and health cash plans.
- Create a healthy, flexible workplace – refocus from strict working hours to productivity and efficiency of delivered tasks.
- Regularly review workload.
- Organize after-work non-profit initiatives – conduct a voluntary workshop in nearby schools or encourage employees to participate in pro bono organizations such as PeaceGeeks or Catchfire.
The pandemic forced all of us to reassess jobs as they were until that point. Going remote, initially perceived as disorganized chaos, with time became a much better option for many occupations. It allows companies to turn to cost-effective choices of 24×7 office space lendings instead of Apple Park-style offices.
3. Instant recognition and gratification
Have you ever felt like you want something, and you want it now? That’s instant gratification, and that’s what Gen Z expects. It’s human nature to be driven towards success and a sense of accomplishment.
Craving for more is one of our basic instincts, especially nowadays, when our inner reward system is being stretched and spoiled with digital tools, such as social media or web scrolling. Those activities are tackling our dopamine receptors, feeding our brains with worthless content steered towards bringing a sense of instant gratification.
No wonder the completely Internet-based generation is looking for similar feelings in reality, and the workplace is no exception. How to reach their high-paced mindset?
Here are some practical ways to address this problem:
- Implement competitive atmosphere, using corporate gamification platforms
- Ensure gratitude-sharing space for employees, such as an appreciation wall, where employees can leave their thankful notes
- Establish regular rewards for job-well-done
- Have a company-paid lunch/dessert once a week/month
4. Faster growth curve
Gen Z is drawn to fast-track success. In fact, InsideOut Development recently polled 1,000 Gen Zers to learn more about what they expected from a potential job. Its findings highlighted that this generation demands more out of their employment and believes that career advancement should arrive relatively soon, so better to plan ahead your onboarding strategy.
How, as an employer, can you deal with that?
- Be transparent and build in your employees’ sense of contributing to the company’s growth without promising them world-changing instant results. That might be disappointing at the beginning, but being left without any illusions will directly transmit the daily tasks approach.
- Without grandiose ideas from the beginning, there won’t be room for further disillusionment.
- Underline the importance of individual roles within the company, sharing deep-rooted company’s missions and values to establish the gravity of each position.
- Leverage the importance of an individual, getting onboard freelancers and digital nomads. A variety of their experiences might be of great value to you without fostering their growth within company ranks.
Gradual and diverse career construction is something that lures the young generation greatly. Numerous possibilities are opening for upward mobility and career progress in each sector of the modern world. Moreover, as Baby Boomers slowly retire, Gen Z will surely take over their places with pleasure.
5. Active role in decision-making processes
The new work landscape requires qualities such as a will to innovate, flexibility, the ability to take measured risks, and to see beyond the limits of possibilities. Gen Z wants to have control in their hands, having a sense of real contribution to the company’s growth.
They crave a feeling of decision-making thrill and a glimpse of executive-like responsibilities.
How to address those needs without compromising your managing positions?
- Be open to their feedback, give them the freedom to express and test their ideas – if these work well, be a fulfilled employee, and process optimization.
- Consider offering them a mentor or a tutor to provide individual guidance, filled with knowledge and experience sharing sessions.
Top-down decision-making, a well-defined career path, and retiring 60 years later from the same company where you started your first job – that’s no longer a reality. To reach employees’ demands, you need to steer towards a more agile approach, understanding younger generations’ needs and their core values.
Sunny Saurabh is cCo-founder and CEO of Interviewer.AI. He has gathered over a decade of experience in some of the most prominent Silicon Valley companies, such as Google, MySpace, and LinkedIn. As a second-time founder, Sunny guides it towards increased efficiency and optimization of recruitment pathways – from ideation, product vision, sales strategies to hiring itself.
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