Younger people’s expectations of work are vastly different – and employers need to get on board

Workplaces have always been multigenerational to some extent so there’s nothing new about managing mixed age groups. What is new is the change in attitudes to work between the generations, who are now separated more by mindset than chronology.

Generation names are arbitrary but broadly based on the age at which people officially become adults. Four generations are active in today’s workforce ranging in age from 60s down to late teens and known respectively as second-wave baby boomers, Generation-X, Millennials and Generation Z. However, these categories don’t give the full picture as the workforce also includes members of the so-called “silent generation” who grew up in the shadow of economic depression and war and continue to work in their 70s.

For most boomers and older Gen X still in paid employment, permanent and pensionable jobs were sought after and sacred. But younger millennials and Generation Z are driven by different things, and those with traditional workplace values have often struggled to understand them.

This is also the group turning away from what was once the holy grail of employment: big tech

Z in particular, but also millennials in their late 20s and early 30s, want more control of how and where they work. They want work to be meaningful and in sync with their wider world view. This may mean doing non-traditional work and having a “portfolio” approach to employment built around part-time or temporary jobs.

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This is also the group turning away from what was once the holy grail of employment: big tech. For many millennials, landing a job with a tech company was their dream and the sector willingly hoovered up thousands of eager candidates prepared to work their socks off. But then the unthinkable happened. It turned out that tech companies couldn’t walk on water: the volatility exhibited by the sector over the past 12 months has seen Generation Z’s enthusiasm for tech jobs wane.

Research from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC – a global association of graduate business schools) published last month shows them to be less interested in working in the technology sector than millennials and far more concerned about work-life balance even before their working lives begin. Money remains a motivator, but so too do fulfilment, happiness and stability. In this scenario, jobs in finance and accounting are seen as potentially stable career paths while tech is associated with turbulence and therefore less attractive.

[ Employers need to tailor job offers to attract younger workers ]

The report also highlighted Gen Z’s strong inclination towards collaboration and inclusivity. They want careers that involve working with diverse teams and that expose them to peers from different nationalities and cultures. They also prioritise workplaces that address climate change and social injustice and are predominantly interested in jobs that make a positive contribution to the world.

“Gen Z are a highly socially conscious and aware generation that manages to balance ambitious future career plans alongside anxiety for the future of their community and the world, and they expect their employers and educators to respond to their expectations,” says Nalisha Patel, GMAC’s regional director for Europe. “From personalised courses and modules in higher education to hybrid work in the professional world, Gen Z want their education and work to really reflect their interests as well as their personal ambitions.”

This may be hard for some leaders to swallow, and there is a view that their hang-up with autonomy and self-determination is fleeting and that if unemployment rises and economies falter, there will be a rapid return to “normal” settings. That seems unlikely.

Employees who have rebelled against a return to the office because technology enables them to do their job perfectly well from home simply don’t find employers’ “better together” argument convincing

Technology and digitalisation have enabled humans to individualise their experiences and customise their lives in a way unthinkable even a decade ago, and this is spilling over into their working lives. Straw polls of employees who have rebelled against a return to the office because technology enables them to do their job perfectly well from home simply don’t find employers’ “better together” argument convincing. They don’t buy into the traditional definition of work or what a career path should look like.

And as this cohort will constitute a bigger and bigger proportion of the workforce as time goes on, businesses that don’t “get” them will face a bumpy ride.

Generation Z can be pretty outspoken about their views on how the world of work is broken, but they’re not the only ones. The fortysomethings who have toed the traditional line for 15 or 20 years while juggling the pressures of careers, mortgages, children and other caring responsibilities also got a taste for how things could be better balanced during the pandemic and unsurprisingly want more of it.

Their rebellion is quieter but definitely happening at scale, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly positive attitude to hybrid working, its rapid uptake and how fast it has become a “must-have” for those changing jobs.

The pandemic was incredibly difficult for many people, but some good may have emerged from the darkness. If the world of work needed a shake-up, it certainly got one and as a result work has become a better place for many people with the arrival of more flexibility, a greater focus on employee development and wellness and the introduction of more family-friendly policies.

Within a few years the next generation will start entering the workforce. The oldest of them is currently about 13 years old and they are already being described as Generation Alpha. At the rate AI is unfolding, they may be facing very different career choices and a profoundly changed world of work when their time comes.