Sunday April 7, 2024

Executive Briefings Business And Management: Gen Z

Adit Jain, IMA India

April 2024

Different primacies

When Abhishek Mitra drove home on his last working day, following a successful 40-year career in the corporate world, he felt as if his identity had been taken away. He struggled with the thought that he was no longer his job, because that is really all he had been for the greater part of his life. Whilst he agreed that retirement would allow him to do the things that he had yearned for over the years, like travel, photography or social service, he no longer felt that they were as appealing as they had once seemed, during his active years struggling up the corporate ladder. He wrote to your columnist inquiring about possibilities on board appointments, as that would still provide a platform for professional engagement and social respect. Mr Mitra is hardly unique, as most bosses in the business world identify themselves and their lives predominantly with their professional roles.

But Gen Z are different. Their job is only a small part of their identity and they make that abundantly clear in the work place. That is not to say that they lack commitment or the challenge of accepting difficult tasks, but they are able to compartmentalise diverse aspects of their lives with a greater degree of distinction than their bosses. Gen Z workers, value empathy at work and frequently consider it a precondition. Their bosses, on the other hand, do not place as high a value on this attribute.

Youngsters want to feel respected rather than solely measured for productivity, which is what most companies prefer to focus on. The second issue is the need for empathy on mental health, where surveys suggest that employers lack the ability to provide support through a healthy work life balance. Often overwhelmed, Gen Z seek engagements in purposeful conversations about careers, interests and skill development.

Contrary to popular perception, studies have shown that Gen Z do want job stability and financial security. Many are active investors in financial markets as the primary platform for wealth creation, as opposed to the brick-and-mortar investments in homes and real-estate, preferred by their bosses. They are in fact a critical constituency targeted by banks and fund managers, in a sort of grab-them-early way. The success of trading platforms like Zerodha was made possible on the back of a younger breed of investors that includes Gen Z and millennials.

But perhaps more pertinently, for HR Heads, Gen Z seek exposures towards the acquisition of new skills and consequently, learning and development benefits are either important or essential, when evaluating a job opportunity. When they switch jobs, the outright assumption is simply because of better pay. This is inaccurate. Gen Z workers look out for new opportunities that bring with them greater learnings and the ability to work on more complex projects, where they believe they had also played a significant role. As financial security is an imperative, they like the idea of employers providing them with financial literacy programmes. Subjects including role specific courses, L&D stipends and outsourced mentorship programmes are becoming crucial.

In terms of work processes, Gen Z, many of whom entered the workplace during Covid 19, prefer the idea of working remotely, at least some of the time, to enable a hybrid of being with people but also work remotely. Therefore, work life balance becomes vital to their career definition. Salary still remains important and the first requisite to apply for a role in the first place.