Generation Z – smart, diverse, technology-enabled and values-oriented – is on its way its way to your workplace. Are you ready? Here are some opinions about the ways that Generation Z will change things.
If you are finally adapting the workplace to Millennials, don’t get too comfortable. Generation Z is on its way – the first wave of this cohort are turning 21 this year and entering the workforce as full-time employees. You may be old enough to remember when the employee adapted to the workplace, but the new paradigm is the workplace adapting to the employee. If you want a good example of Gen Z flexing their collective muscle, look no further than the recent response to the Majorie Stoneman Douglas tragedy. This generation of smart, tech-enabled young people are independent, highly energized to make change, and unwilling to accept the old rules if they don’t seem right or fair. This is the on-demand generation and they are impatient to wait for change.
In a 2015, Goldman Sachs issued a trend research paper named “What if I told you…” One of the things this paper tells use is that “Gen-Z” is likely to be larger and more influential than Millennials?”
America’s youngest generation, “Gen-Z” or those born after 1998, are now entering their formative years and rising in influence. At nearly 70 million in size and growing, the eldest of which are now entering college and/or the workforce, this cohort will soon outnumber their Millennial predecessors. Raised by Gen-X parents during a time marred by economic stress, rising student debt burdens, socio-economic tensions and war overseas, these youths carry a less idealistic, more pragmatic perspective on the world. Born device in-hand, Gen-Z is America’s first generation of true “digital-natives” and they will be America’s most diverse to-date (first to be majority non-white). Over the past several years, educators, employers, researchers, retailers and the like have spent significant time and resources dissecting the Millennial mindset. But the time has already come to focus to Gen-Z, which promises to be just as, if not more, influential.
How Generation Z will impact the workplac
Jason Dorsey, founder of the Center for Generational Kinetics, gave a TED talk about Generation Z, making the point that generations are comporessing and change is being pushed form the young to the older rather than the reverse. It’s an entertaining talk that will make you think.
Find more articles on Gen Z and research at the Center for Generational Kinetics.
We also found these articles and tools helpful in learning and thinking about the impact of this generation on the workplace.