Dive Brief:
- Employers are making hiring and retaining Generation Z a priority, according to an analysis by global HR and payroll company Deel.
- For example, in 2024, Gen Z employees saw a 9% increase in salaries, the largest change compared to other generations, Deel found. Gen Z also had the lowest percentage of contracts ended by termination of any generation that Deel measured, it said.
- Despite the challenges new career hires have reportedly faced adjusting to the workplace, they bring skills companies need, including two key selling points: familiarity with emerging technologies like AI and a focus on learning and development, Deel noted in a February post.
Dive Insight:
With managers reporting a host of concerns about Gen Z workers — such as needing more feedback and resources and lacking soft skills like communication, time management and reliability, according to Intelligent.com — employers may be hesitant to bring them on board.
But those shortcomings can be addressed, studies have indicated, and Gen Z’s contributions are well worth the investment, Deel suggested.
“Gen Z brings digital-native skills, a focus on purpose over pay, and a demand for career personalization and development,” Alice Burks, Deel’s director of people success, stated in the post.
These traits “translate well when it comes to distributed work, which often enables a high degree of personalization in when, where, and how people work,” Burks said.
Managers can address Gen Z’s deficiencies while nurturing their strengths by providing more structural guidance and being more of a coach than a boss, Intelligent.com’s chief education and career development advisor previously stated.
By focusing on meaningful feedback and clear direction — particularly for Gen Z, who place a high value on flexibility, career development and feeling connected to their work — leaders are likely to see positive results, according to research published in February in the MIT Sloan Management Review.
In particular, strategies such as providing employees with clarity, autonomy and space to work in a way that suits them will lead to gains in ethical behavior, innovation and long-term commitment, the research found.
When it comes to recruiting and hiring, an October 2024 report from Symplicity reminds employers that Gen Z job candidates highly prioritize job stability and work-life balance. Along these lines, early talent is wary of certain company cultures, specifically employers that call their workplace a “family,” which may signal blurred work-life boundaries, a survey showed.
For its report, Deel analyzed data from more than 1 million contracts and 35,000 customers across 150 countries, it said.
