Management Tips for Gen Z (Part One)

Gen Z is a growing concern. They are vastly different than older generations and will soon have greater buying power and become a huge part of our global workforce. If managers are not prepared, they will experience excessive turnover as well as have a hard time attracting talent.

Today I’m going to cover the topic of managing employees, specifically Gen Z. This is one of a two-part series on the topic.

To start, let me be honest with you… I’m not perfect and am still figuring this out. So, feedback is welcome and appreciated!

Let’s start with a salacious statement. If you are a Gen Xer, that is 42 to 57 years old, then you recall the disruption to the hiring, training, and engaging of Millennials as they entered the workforce.

A whitepaper published in November 2011 by PWC said, “The millennial generation, now entering employment, will reshape the world of work.”

This report started out on the right foot by answering the question, “Why Millennials Matter”. It then covered how Millennials are different from their predecessors. Some examples:

• Loyalty-lite
• Importance of work and life balance
• Faster advancement
• Importance of corporate responsibility

Let’s follow that framework.

Why Gen Z matters

As Gen Z joins the workforce, their income is predicted to rise more than fivefold to $33 trillion by 2030 according to studies done by Yahoo Finance. They are predicted to make up about 27% of the workforce by 2025.

But, even more surprising, their income is expected to exceed that of Millennials by 2031.

So, if you are a band or employer, you have to care.

Gen Z differences

At HubUX, I launched a survey asking generations why they use social media against our panel. Some of the results surprised me.

Gen Z is far more likely to use social media to entertain themselves when they are bored as well as make friends than any other generation.

Meanwhile, Millennials and Gen X are far more likely to use social media to interact with family members.

According to our participants, Gen Z is spending far longer on social media than other generations. In fact, Gen Z spends about 5 hours a day just on social which is two and a half times longer than older generations.

Why is this important for employers?

According to Brittney McNamara, a blogger at Teen Vogue, there is a lot of science behind how social has a hold on our mental health.

Brittney boldly states, “This is a problem probably as big as climate change.”

Why? Because social media is basically a slot machine. As you scroll, you look for that thing that’ll get you the dopamine release. And, like all drugs, the more you scroll the harder it is to get that dopamine release.

Additionally, the dopamine release you get from social media is far greater than that of in-person interactions. This enforces spending time on social media over other forms of interaction like in-person.

Please note, social platforms are not addictive by accident, they are addictive by design. It is simple economics. And, unless major social platforms like Meta (which has 97.8% of its revenue coming from ads) change their terms of trade. then the primary objective of these platforms will continue to increase users’ time on platforms.

Obviously, this is a bigger problem than I’m capable or qualified to address.

The primary point is that social media has impacted our expectations for feedback. This feedback serves as attention and validation.

So, how does this relate to work? Because the ideal work environment will try and mirror a similar feedback cadence.

Creating a culture of faster feedback: Slack

Slack is an easy first step. When someone posts an idea or update, it takes only a moment to use an emoji as a way for a quick response. You can even go further and codify your emoji usage. For example, a clock might mean
“I’ll get back to you in an hour”. Using emojis like this can help enforce a unique language for your teams and a better culture.

Gifs are another way to quickly give an engaging response that costs literally nothing in terms of brainpower.

For further consideration

My next post will cover how the Gig Economy is impacting Gen Z and employers.

If you’d like to learn more about HubUX, please feel free to reach me on social or via email.

Lastly, you are always invited to attend the MRxPros’ Virtual Lunch. This is a group of UX, CX, and market researchers that meets every week for 30 minutes to do three things: learn one new thing, make one new friend, and have fun.

Happy researching! 😊