No Group is a Monolith, Including Gen Z
In a recent Intelligent.com survey, 21% of employers, one in five, said that new graduates can’t manage the workload and are unprofessional. Before you go nuts over that data and start painting groups in broad strokes, understand that the same data point is simultaneously saying that almost 80% of employers did not observe this issue. Why don’t we report that first?
It is because problems often grab more eyeballs than positivity. In addition, it’s easy to lump groups of people together while it takes more effort to see people as individuals with individual needs, aspirations and habits.
We have to stop shouting the bad news about the Gen Z’ers or the Boomers, and instead think more about the skills they bring to the workplace as individuals.
It is not big news that emerging professionals, fresh out of college, need guidance beyond graduation. Most of us floundered a bit when we were in our first big jobs after college. This is not new.
Yet, the media still relishes in any opportunity to report that all of Gen Z are bound to act, work, and think the same way.
Below is a chart showing the top reasons why employers say recent graduates have not been successful. Yes, the new grad you hired may be one of the 30% who has difficulty working in a team versus one of the 70% that doesn’t. Yet, that same employee may be the one of the 65% that has good problem solving skills.
My perspective is that no group is all bad. Sometimes we have to shift our thinking to look at the specific employees we have hired and do what we need to do as employers, to meet new graduates where they are.
Instead of pointing the finger solely at the supposed character of all Gen Z’ers – employers should reflect on what they can do as business administrators to mitigate shifts in generational approaches to work.
There are plenty of administrative factors that impact new grad success. Employers don’t just make bad hires all the time, but also have flawed job descriptions and interviewing practices. Interviewers oversell where they work and sometimes mislead new graduates about the availability of training, mentorship or personal development. So, I am often not surprised to hear from graduates who say that a workplace is not living up to their needs.
Ultimately, we have to figure out how to get better alignment between what we want as business operators and what we have. Ultimately, challenges in onboarding talent fresh out of college is a business issue that comes as a result of a series of processes that can evolve.
Here are some ways that businesses can improve their operations for better onboarding of Gen Z’ers:
Try to tailor your onboarding for individuals - a lot of companies onboard by talking at people for long periods of time and expecting them to retain most of the information. Have you considered asking new hires if they prefer reading materials first? Do you have visuals to help explain concepts? Or, do you have opportunities to learn in a hands-on fashion? Follow up with people individually to see what their needs are and you’ll find diversity.
Be honest about your organizational culture. Gen Z can spot a lie in a minute. Don’t be afraid of tough questions.
Are you writing accurate job descriptions or is some of it aspirational? Or, are you leaving out key functions of the role all together? Keep job descriptions as close to the actual functions of the job as possible.
As HR pros, we have our work cut out for us 😊.