I was inspired to write this article because I personally experienced how employers face challenges when trying to balance the preferences of different working generation by creating a successful multi-generational workforce.

You presumably clicked on this article because you're interested in learning how Gen Z (anyone born from roughly 1997-2012 ) is reshaping the workplace. So, let’s get into it!

In this post, I'll talk about how Gen Z is influencing the future of work and the workplace and how understanding the needs and experiences of a new generation can help build a culture of retention and productivity.

Why Is Gen Z Important?

By 2025, Gen Z employees will make up 27% of the workforce, bringing their expectations and values with them. In the last company I worked for, 90% of the employees were members of Gen Z and many of these employees experienced the shift to hybrid work during the earliest years of their career. This means employers will have to meet a certain level of flexibility to retain their best talent.

And according to an Ernst & Young survey, Gen Z are more interested in doing work they love than just making money; are not as focused on marriage and family, and prioritize activism and environmental issues. The values-driven approach from this new generation will require your business to take a deep look into how you’re creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment.

Personally, I feel people have struggled for generations to balance the work and life. Gen Z is pushing this even further because they tend to be more social at work and are making friends with co-workers of the same age group. Honestly, it’s something I love about my generation.

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Are You A Gen Zer? Do You Relate?

I am a part of Gen Z, my father is a Gen-X parent. He said Gen Z are pretty insightful to prioritize work-life balance and certainly more kind, accepting, and compassionate than previous generations. To me, Gen Z seems to be more open to different ideas and enjoys more latitude to be themselves compared to older generations. We’ve pretty much accepted we won’t be getting rich right out of school, so we are living and experiencing life as we want - playing ukuleles, writing songs, and posting performances on YouTube.

Many Gen Zers find this freedom to be themselves and do what they want to do for work and play very rewarding. It’s not to say other generations can’t embody this same mentality, it’s just seems to come easier for young generations than more experienced ones.

The Relevance To The Modern Workforce

Gen Z wants to work for a higher cause and rightfully so, I feel called myself to step up and make a difference. It’s not easy and it won’t be easier in the future. In general I know that everyone now sees the Gen Z generation caught in the juncture of finding meaning and a world that values busy work.

But I think it’s about understanding the shift towards the future of work which is less centered around busy, pedantic work that is repetitious and trivial in nature. So how exactly is Gen Z changing the workplace? Let’s get into it.

1. Workplace Environment

While Gen Z shares many workplace preferences with their millennial counterparts, such as access to technology, schedule flexibility, and modern office spaces, there are some distinct differences, too. Unlike millennial employees who prefer digital communication such as email and Slack, 53 percent of Gen Z chooses face-to-face communication using different mediums.

Since Gen Z is the first generation of truly digital natives (92 percent of them have a digital footprint), employers may need to get creative to balance their need for personal attention with their digital dependencies.

2. Core Values

I place high importance on a healthy work-life balance, which strongly influences my core values and the overall core values of Gen Z which are:

Career development prospects: Gen Z will be looking for opportunities to attain professional development and improvement. Employers can ensure greater success with Gen Z employees by providing them with internships, classroom-based consulting projects, and other learn-by-doing activities.
Meaningful work: They won’t be satisfied with “busy” work; they’ll want to make a difference. 60 percent want to make a difference in the world.
Company culture: This younger generation will seek opportunities to help change company culture and will generally want to be instrumental in the process.
Health-conscious: About one in three Gen Z’ers feel stressed about their health and well-being. They’ll want to work for companies that won’t be detrimental to either their health or Earth’s environment so they look for solutions that will make them happy at work in order to have a work-life balance

3. Top Desired Benefits

Generous vacation time: More than half of Americans don’t use up their earned vacation time, but the tide is changing. Gen Z will be taking their vacation days. However, they’ll also be more likely to take work along with them during their allotted time.
Remote work options: I think Gen Z views remote work as the norm, not as a perk as previous generations do, they find pride in it at the same time attractive, personally this is one of the work options I ultimately prefer, so these make companies wanting to attract the top talent of this generation will have to keep this in mind as they fill positions. A work from home option could involve gamification and developing ways for colleagues to compete with one another to reach goals because they prioritize work-life balance.

Lastly…

It took me months in my professional career to learn that no one was going to help me thrive even in the most difficult circumstances. Some people, and prominent figures within the company, are talking of a productivity-creativity inversion. A world not too far in the future where creative work will be the need of the hour as Artificial intelligence and automation rapidly weed out skill-based workers.

A world where people will be valued upon their originality and integrity of character over their ability to conform to institutional settings or game the system. Like many of my peers in the Gen Z generational cohort, I follow hustle culture, working as hard as I can through as much of the day as possible trying to get ahead.

We want challenges, we want continual growth, and we want meaning beyond the fancy cars, houses, and friends that our culture has conditioned us to pursue. We have learned to see past all of that superficiality the older generations had come to embrace for much of their prime. The newer generations are not shallow-minded anymore and evolution truly seems to be doing justice to the human race, finally.

We are not lazy, we love work. Meaningful work. Work that makes us feel alive. Work that connects us to the essence of who we are. Work that has a transcendent purpose other than to ‘make a living or to be able to settle down.

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Meet The Writer!

Hi! I’m Christian James. I am a freelance writer, copywriter, and editor, with a data-driven and analytical mindset. I have experience writing on a wide range of topics in diverse fields. I have a B.Tech. in Computer science from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University and Currently pursuing an Online Certificate in Data Science: Inference Modeling from Harvard University School of Professional and Lifelong learning. As a freelancer, I offer services such as blog writing, copywriting, web content writing, speechwriting, article writing SEO writing, creative writing, and editing. Feel free to explore my medium blog or connect with me on LinkedIn.

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How Gen Z Is Changing The Workplace: What It Means For The Future