Generation Z workers won’t stick around. Make the most of them while they are with you
We’ve got a great feature coming up in the next issue looking at the wants and needs of Generation Z (for want of a better name – some prefer to call them Homeland Generation. However your brand them, these are the guys born after 2000, who are too young to remember 9/11).
The youngest of that generation are going to be entering the labour force next year, and you’d better be ready. I spent an instructive 45 minutes on the phone yesterday with a senior source who has been doing in-depth exploratory work on what the ascent of this new cohort of workers will mean for the world’s managers and leaders.
Among her many superior insights, one really stood out: Gen Z aren’t going to hang around much – job stability is not much of driver for them, because they believe that, if they are talented, they can work wherever they like. They can and will move about.
Rather than masterminding HR strategies designed to keep them forever – which are doomed to failure – the key is to make darned sure you get the most of out of them for the relatively short time they are with you.
So what’s the secret? You’ll have to wait for the December issue of Dialogue to find out.