4 Facts About Gen Z You Didn’t Know and How They Impact Your Business
Across the globe, young graduates from Generation Z are already disrupting the workplace. Some employers are taking advantage of these “new kids on the block” and how they think, while others are furious because they don’t understand them. My advice? Don’t get furious. Get curious. Below are four trends Gen Z brings to our world and how they impact us as leaders, teammates and family members.
1. Females are pulling away from males in many ways.
Until now, younger generations tended to be more liberal in their worldview than older generations, and each generation polled similarly between genders. For the first time in history, Gen Z women showed a 30-point difference from men politically and socially according to a Gallup Poll. They’re unlike their male counterparts and feel a sense of agency to act independently. Data from Gallup surveys suggest this is the first time we’ve seen this gender divide from the same younger generation. In fact, it appears Gen Z may be two generations, not one. The diverging beliefs between men and women span across the globe.
What does this mean for you and me?
This divide has impacted teams. Managers report conflict between women and men that, while the social issues are important, divide their team and reduce collaboration. Further, marriage rates are plummeting, as are birthrates in the U.S. Quite frankly, my interactions with women reveal many have lost faith that there are good men to marry and, as women break the glass ceiling in the workplace, they don’t require a partner to support themselves. This is good news for women, but the divide may be bad news for our collective experience of community and the need to replace our current population.
2. College enrollment is down across the U.S.
Today, fewer people are going to college than in recent years. In 2021, 15.4 million students were enrolled in an undergraduate degree program. That's the lowest fall enrollment since 2006, according to BestColleges.com. Further, fewer Gen Z males are graduating from college than the Millennials before them. Historically, each new generation has more formal education than previous generations—but this is changing. Many young adults, especially young men, are “hacking” their post-secondary experience, finding other ways to prepare for their careers. As I survey students, they feel a college degree may not be worth it anymore. While higher education has long been viewed as key to achieving the American Dream, surging tuition costs, a hot labor market, and campus politics may explain a drop in college enrollment in the U.S.
What does this mean for you and me?
First, if your open positions require a college degree, you’ll likely have more women candidates than men. Second, are you open to dropping the requirement of a college degree? More and more Gen Zers bring a tenacity to learn, but not from a traditional classroom. The majority of Gen. Z want to be entrepreneurs; millions are finding a way to do startups and perform side hustles so they can be their own boss.
3. They want to talk face to face, in person.
Even though we’ve stereotyped Gen Z as a population who stares into their phones on the couch next to each other, they overwhelmingly prefer speaking with people face-to-face. An XYZ University poll found that 43 percent of Gen Zers would rather talk face-to-face; 24 percent prefer communicating via text, while 14 percent like talking on the phone, 11 percent want to chat via email, and 8 percent rely on social media hubs. Part of the reason is—they’re the new population entering the workforce as we were quarantined and began to work from home and meet on Zoom. They didn’t have the social capital older generations already have and want to build it. Keep in mind—their desire for face-to-face conversations doesn’t mean they’re good at it. They will need to learn emotional intelligence just like older populations did.
What does this mean for you and me?
First, we should examine our policies. Do you furnish enough in-person time for Gen Z teammates to build social capital? Second, because so many hours of their first two decades were on a screen, do you offer training in EQ and interpersonal skills? This will be a need if you value multi-generational collaboration. I believe success in school is 75% IQ and 25% EQ. Upon graduation into a career—it’s the opposite. Let’s build EQ.
4. They will change the workplace more than any previous young generation.
Every new generation entering their careers brings a little change with them, and that has increased with time. Boomers changed things up by forcing companies to be led with vision over protocol. Gen X introduced the issue of teamwork and informality. Millennials swayed the workplace to become more authentic and vulnerable. Gen Z is able to push changes faster due to the fact that they enter with smart technology and social media. Gen Z often brings lots of knowledge but little experience. Unfortunately, experience usually fosters wisdom and humility, while knowledge fosters arrogance. On top of that, Gen Z is at home with the rise of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics.
What does this mean for you and me?
Since automation and digitization have become the norm for them, they’ll expect work to look different than older generations. Not only do they expect change, they hunger for it quickly. According to the Keystone Education Group, the average attention span for a Gen Z member is 8 seconds. Instant communication is a vital issue to them. Engaging them with projects that feel like startups is important. Effective managers will strike a balance between teaching Gen Z that some projects move more slowly than we’d prefer and at times, allowing them to move quickly, change the pace of projects and even run point on them.
One more thing. We can’t ignore them. They’re going to be around a long time. Compared to the 70-year life expectancy of baby boomers and the 85-year life expectancy of Gen X, Gen Z is predicted to have a life expectancy of over 100 years. Quite literally, they are the future.
I can’t wait to make my new book available to you this fall:
The Future Begins with Z:
Nine Strategies to Lead Generation Z as They Disrupt the Workplace.
Release date: November 4
Subscribe to future articles from Tim.
Book Tim for an event.