Who We are At Work: Gen-Z and Young Millennials

For the first time, there are four and sometimes even five generations in the workforce. More people are working well into their 60s, 70s and beyond. At the same time, Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – have begun entering the workforce.

 

This great multigenerational convergence brings new challenges as well as opportunities for employers already grappling with fundamental changes at work.

 

In-office or hybrid? Email or messaging apps? “There's just a lot more choice and confusion and fewer rules about how to work than when the workplace was more dominated by Boomers," says Lindsay Pollak, a workplace expert and New York Times best-selling author of The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace.

 

In Deloitte’s 2021 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 70% of organizations said leading multi-generational workforces is important or very important for their success. Just 10% feel well prepared to do so.¹

 

Getting it right will be a prerequisite for success. To fill the roughly 10 million job openings in the U.S. amid one of the tightest labor markets in recent history, employers will be leaning heavily on young Millennials and the first wave of Gen Zers entering the job market. Understanding this diverse, values-driven demographic will be key to attracting and retaining talent in the years ahead.

 

 

So who are these young workers?

 

For starters, they're the most ethnically diverse generation in history – 52% of Gen Zs living in the U.S. are white, compared with 75% for Baby Boomers. They embrace flexible notions of identity and relationships. They're also the first cohort to grow up not knowing a time before smartphones and the Internet. These digital natives are steeped in social media and global culture, and accustomed to having a say.²

 

Where a company stands on social and environmental issues has a significant impact on Gen Z and Millennials' decisions to stick with an employer, according to a 2022 Ernst & Young survey. ³

Every generation has suffered from stereotypes. And Gen Z, being new to the workplace, may also be misunderstood.

 

Gen Z employees are still making up for the curveball they were thrown and worry they are being judged. Steven Gakos, a 24-year-old from Hoboken, New Jersey, had graduated from college and was looking forward to starting a prestigious training program at a big accounting firm when COVID hit. Instead of immersing himself in the corporate culture and bonding with fellow first-year recruits, he logged in remotely from his parent's basement.

 

“Companies need to realize that we started in this weird environment, and we might be a little behind compared to the people before us, but not due to us not working hard," says Gakos. “We were given a slight disadvantage, but it's something we can overcome.”

 

Now he goes into the office at the Fortune 500 company where he works for three days a week – an arrangement that provides both the flexibility and the deeper connection he craves. “Going into the office gives you more of a sense of purpose,” says Gakos. “You feel like you're accomplishing something together more when you're in person.” He says he is also able to pick up the broader context of projects he's working on from conversations in the office.

 

Like Gakos, the majority of Gen Z and young Millennial workers prefer a hybrid work environment. In Morning Consult's State of Workers 2023 report, Gen Z workers led their cohorts in preferring to work in-person. A survey of more than 11,000 high-performing high school and college students backs that up: 67% expect in-person training from their prospective employers. And, while work-life balance and a flexible schedule score high, unlike their older workforce counterparts, just 8% cited the opportunity to work from home as a key perk.¹¹

 

 

The pandemic and ensuing Great Resignation present an opportunity for organizations to reassess the work environment and provide a more fulfilling experience for all their employees. Baby Boomers may be working longer, but the old conventions and top-down hierarchies that may have characterized some workplaces are giving way to a more flexible, transparent and balanced approach. There is no one-size-fits-all template, but listening to every cohort of workers can lead to changes that benefit employees across all age groups.

 

“Some of the things that Gen Z and Millennials seem to want from work and from their employer, well, lots of people want those things," says Delottie's Mallon.