Gen Z Proof Your Business!
Generation Z, the new wave of recruits entering the workforce. Let’s look at how to be business ready for the first digitally native generation and the war on talent recruiting. Firstly, it’s perhaps better to understand who Generation Z, GenZers and Gen Z are?
Who are Generation Z?
Generation Z are the latest wave of the workforce after their Millennials counterparts. Born between 1996 and 2010, GenZers are a digital native generation. They are high tech, hyper-connected people yet they yearn for human interaction. Gen Z has grown up post 9/11. They have seen their families struggle through a recession. By 2020, Generation Z will make up 40% of the workforce so, let’s get to it!
Generation Z – Gen Z – GenZers
Gen Z Facts
- Gen Z are the ‘always on’ digital natives with over 10hrs a day connected
- Marketing & Branding – GenZers are visual people who react to short videos – created in Vine. In fact, they spend + 2 hours a day on YouTube.
- Culture Creators redefining the workplace. Feel empowered, connected
- Businesses cannot afford to have conventional assumptions or generational frameworks. It’s a two-way dialogue.
- Elusive and evolving generation.
- Adopters, willing to learn.
- Social Natives
- Use an average of 5 screens (2 more than their elder Milenniall counterparts)
- Watch 2+ hours of YouTube per day
- By 2020 they will represent on average 20% of the workforce
Characteristics of the Generation Z Workforce
Generation Z has just hit or are about to enter the workforce. So, what do you need to know about Generation Z? Well, for a start they are ultra-flexible. So working a restricted 40hours Monday to Friday job isn’t really on their schedule. This workforce doesn’t like restricted hours. For example, a typical day might begin at home before doing the school run and letting the traffic die down. A few hours at the office before a workout ensuring to keep their wellbeing in tune. It’s important for Gen Z to have a work-life balance which isn’t something brand new to be fair. We saw Millennials championed this movement. Remote working is key. In fact, remote working is seen as a necessity now and not as a luxury which Millennials experienced. Not being restricted to the office desk. Where’s the local ‘WeWork’?
As I’ve mentioned, Generation Z are digital natives who have grown up in technology. It’s always been there, they’ve never not known it. It was never a ‘new’ thing for them. While Generation X and Millennials saw the workplace evolve with new technology. Generation Z need it and expect it. They don’t see technology as a benefit or new luxury way to help them do their job. GenZers see technology as a necessary tool to complete their job.
GenZers see technology as a necessary tool to complete their job.
Generation Z has been exposed to some quite serious real-world issues and challenges at an early age. Look at 9/11, the global boom, the global recession, terrorism, etc. I guess this is where their more serious pragmatic side comes from.
What about Millennials?
What about Millennials and Baby Boomers? Well, they are Generation Z’s management now! Millennials, now in their 30’s are advancing and moving into more leadership, more management roles. The avocado and toast generation paved the way for remote working and a work-life balance. Millennials were the first digitally-led generation. Way more tech-savvy than baby boomers having introduced the necessity to incorporate tech into the workplace. They questioned why Social media wasn’t being embraced. And introduced the likes of Dropbox for cloud storage and Slack for real-time communication.
Generation Z Entering The Workforce – what do they expect?
According to Indeed , Gen Z’s were about 4 years old during 9/11 and grew up during the global recession. They are incredibly focused on finding a stable job as opposed to millennials who were known for chronic job-hopping. Fewer GenZers are heading to college education and heading straight into the workforce. So they are hitting the workforce now, and you need to be ready!
As a business, it’s time to shift the mindset from Millennials to GenZers! We need to look at what they want when entering the workforce? What do they expect?
Technology
As mentioned already they are a high tech hyper-connected generation. While you might be toying with introducing software to take over a part of your project management. They expect it! Technology is a tool and a must-have to complete their role. You need to bridge the digital gap and ensure it’s Gen Z ready. GenZers don’t see technology as a flashy new nice to have. They see it as a tool to complete their work. So, they expect you to be paperless as much as possible. It’s a must-have for any digital native GenZer. They have grown up connected. They spend over 10 hours a day connected to multiple devices. As the workforce changes, so do we! It’s inevitable, businesses need to meet the needs of the digital natives. Embrace and you will thrive.
Generation Z are very quick learners. So, don’t panic. Generation Z will adopt new software in no time ready to streamline processes and work efficiency.
Marketing & Branding
Marketing and Branding can be crucial to Generation Z. They want a connection with your culture. Attracted to short videos as their attention span is about 8 seconds. So you know that Gen Z spends about 2hrs a day scrolling through YouTube?! Selfless plug to Hub Planner’s YouTube Channel.
Learning
Generation Z see the workplace as a place to learn, not just to work. In order to retain GenZers, you need to develop them. Encourage them to be ‘intrapreneurs’ within the workplace. Give them space and responsibility to do that. Constant feedback is also imperative to their success to grow. It’s important to see a company that has good values. That their role is making a difference and they’re not just a number.
Independent Team
Independent Team – whilst they love a collaborative team effort approach. They are also more of an independent worker. The driven GenZers are competitive by nature but also collaborative. As long as you are interested in the same goal that is. So working as a team is great to share skills and knowledge. But, they work even better on their own.
Flexibility
Working remotely is becoming more and more evident. Together with a work-life balance. Generation Z have this as a high priority. So be prepared for remote set up. Flexible working hours.
How Hub Planner’s Resource Scheduling Tool helps you be GenZ ready
Time and time again we are reminded how digitally fluent Generation Z are. How they expect technology. How you need to be elusive and evolve your digital offering within the workplace. So, how does Hub Planner help? Well, firstly it’s digital! Instead of going from spreadsheet to whiteboard to documents and wall planners trying to organize your project planning and team scheduling. We do that for you. We make you look good!
Hub Planner offers a dynamic scheduling experience for project and resource management. The smart UI allows for slick scaling and adjusting bookings, schedules and projects.
Generation Z – The future of Contact Centres, Agencies, IBM’s, Googlers, Deloitte’s, Oracles and PayPal and Amazon workers. Resources can use the dynamic drag and drop interface to quickly alter schedules, bookings, and projects. Staff can customize their available hours to suit their schedules. Perhaps work a base number of hours, and schedule themselves on more customizing the allocation range. Resource Planners can use the Scheduler Filter to locate resources skill sets to projects. The ability to track time and provide instant analytics.
Let’s take a look at the characteristics of Generation Z and see how the features of Hub Planner will match and help you be GenZer ready.
Collaborating Software
Collaborating Software – developments of Gen Zers show that tech apps in the workplace are going to be the driving force. Hub Planner strives on “Tech Collaboration”. We have been constantly evolving our feature offerings over the years to stay ahead of the curve. Influenced by market trends and customer suggestions we love a challenge. We have a great form our users utilize as an interactive bridge to vote and suggest new features. ‘What’s Next for Hub Planner’.
We are directly implementing features into the Hub Planner interface that collaborate and integrate with the resource scheduling workflow. For example, we have Timesheets Time Tracking, Vacation Leave, Billing and Financing, Approval Workflow and of course not forgetting API. We have a direct inline integration to Basecamp and also connect with Zapier too. For API itself, we use GitHub which allows you to connect other software with Hub Planner. The benefit for you is that with integrating software, there is less downtime which means higher productivity and profits! Overall, we’re really at the forefront of ensuring we collaborate and connect with multiple software tools together with our own feature creations – CEO of Hub Planner
API / Integrations = Beef up and adapt more technology frameworks and working arrangements. It needs to be seamless and collaborative. Multiple technological solutions are required more than a ‘nice to have’.
Competitive Advantage
While they are great collaborators, they are also very competitive and prefer to be judged on individual performance. Resource scheduling software allows you to track performance levels. Tracking data provides the basis for reward giving. The proof is in the pudding. Timesheets and Reporting are huge benefactors in tracking performance levels. Use Smart Groups with Custom Fields as they improve their skill sets.
“58% will work nights and weekends for a higher pay” https://online.csp.edu/generation-z-in-the-workforce
Real-time developmental feedback
Hub Planner Reporting provides real-time analytics providing the basis for instant feedback. This allows teams to quickly and smartly change focus from report trends. With an excess of 60+ templates and counting, users can delve into reports on projects, resources, groups and clients. Reports contain an abundance of information that allows you to gauge and make quick, smart decisions.
Independent Worker
Generation Z workforce are less micromanagement and more employee empowerment. Whilst keeping the structure of a team, you need to provide a more independent environment.
Hub Planner Settings holds a multitude of roles and permissions for each resource type. This means that you can empower resources in many levels of Hub Planner. Of course this allows you to do the opposite too and restrict what users can and cannot do. For example, you can allow resources to schedule themselves on projects they are a part of. Again, live reporting analytics are available for an instant view of real transparent time tracking.
Technology needs to be seamless and collaborative
Timesheets and Vacation & Annual Leave extensions allow for resources to submit their own timesheets. They can also request their vacation leave giving them that great responsibility and independence. Set up the Approval Workflow to ensure that all requests and bookings are monitored.
Multitaskers – So tech savvy and quick learners.
Generation Z are so tech savvy and incredible quick learners. GenZers can and will adopt multiple roles. They will not like to be pigeonholed into one group. Using Smart Groups with Custom Fields will allow for accessing multiple groups seamlessly switching between their varying skill sets.
As Gen Z are so tech savy, you need to have a strong interactive and cool-looking interface. UI and UX is very important to Generation Z. You’re UI and UX game must be strong. With Hub Planner the interactive elusive interface is smart and intuitive. In fact many of our design customers tend to comment on how much they like the interface and how smart and easy it is to navigate around.
Flexible Working
Generation Z want flexibility and control within their schedules. Like millennials, they want a work-life balance. The Millennials have already tackled this with flexible scheduling and remote working, but flexible working will likely to accelerate with Gen Z. Hub Planner provides you with customizable options to allow you to create a base global settings as well as a customizable feature for each resource. This allows resources to have a flexible schedule and not be defined to the global setting.
Remember, Gen Z, have always been online. They have always been connected and are known as digital natives. They are independent, private and will expect to work on their own terms. Gen Zers are also innovative entrepreneurs who more and more are turning hobbies and passions into a job. Create a learning evolving workplace that allows resources to feel more empowered and connected.
The Generation Z workforce are remote workers, they are local and global. Custom Fields allow you to set your filters such as location, languages, skill sets. In turn, Hub Planner enables you to search for resources who can meet the project requirements regardless of where they are in the world. You can set Custom Fields in a project level also.
On-Demand Information – Real-Time Analytics
For GenZers, information needs to be on-demand. It needs to be correct and transparent. A truly digital environment needs to be business imperative. The Hub Planner tool is 100% real-time. The Scheduler is a live interface. As soon as a booking is created or requested, the scheduler updates. Make changes to bookings, resources or projects and the schedule will update straight away. Not only the scheduler, but all elements and features of Hub Planner is real-time. For example, The Dashboard. Resources can view their schedule as well as their analytics and stats in real-time. A one-stop shop. Have a look to see many hours are they scheduled this week? What’s their capacity and utilization rate?
Billing and Finance is also another important feature where it’s imperative to have up to date information. I need to see my scheduled versus actuals. Budget status, forecasted spend, resource spend, etc. The same goes for the Reports feature. Reports contain the information we need to asses to forecast and make decisions. In turn, that allows for project planning and resource scheduling to be optimized as efficiently as possible.
Gen Z are an engaged, curious and empowered workforce. Their innovative entrepreneurial spirit allows them to constantly strive to improve and create a better, faster and smarter product offering.
Unassigned Work – grab those extra hours that suit to supplement or enhance their schedule
Unassigned Work is also a smart and dynamic way to allow resources to grab those extra hours that suit to supplement or enhance their schedule. Working as a supply and demand method. The work is requested or scheduled, subsequently, the resource planner or team can allocate to resources. If access is granted resource can assign themselves to the booking right away.
“58% will work nights and weekends for a higher pay” CSP
Zero hour contracts. Look at the Amazon workforce. Their resources are delving in for hours.
Conclusion
Whilst we are still learning about Generation Z, we do know we need to embrace the basic fundamentals. Provide technology that allows them to do their job. This is a tool and not a nice to have. Create an environment for learning and evolving, they are not just a number. Start practicing your feedback skills!
Hub Planner offer a free 60 Day Free Trial of the Resource Management and Project Planning software. See how you can bridge the digital divide between the varying generations within the workplace.
