Posted by Mark Beal is a public relations pro, a college professor – and a tireless advocate for young people. He’s eager for dads of a certain vintage – especially those in business – to get on board with ‘next-gen’ employees. Our kids’ futures depend on it.
Editor’s note: Mark Beal is a great dad and a doting grandpa. As an adjunct college professor, he became an advocate for young people. In rapid-fire succession, he wrote two books, 101 Lessons They Never Taught You In College and 101 Lessons They Never Taught You In High School About Going to College, aimed at helping young people get a grip on the real-world impact of the biggest changes they face in their lives. Now that he’s given them plenty to think about, he’s focusing squarely on the men and women who need to understand this next generation – and what they mean to the workforce. His newest work, Decoding Gen Z: 101 Lessons Generation Z Will Teach Corporate Americha, Marketers & Media, is an important read for employers and the parents who want to get the kids gainfully employed.
By Mark Beal
You started your business with a Rolodex and a pocketful of dimes to feed the pay phone when you were on the road. In the 1980s, you turned the conference room into a climate-controlled home for the massive mainframe computer that got you through the Y2K “crisis.”
Every day since has been a tech snowball rolling down Mount McKinley. You have embraced change at every turn and evolved into a 21st-century business.
One question remains … do you have a 21st-century workforce?
You may lump Gen X, Gen Y and millennials all into the same category. Is “Gen Z,” also known as the “iGeneration,” even on your radar?
Since the dawn of the baby boom generation, identified as those born between 1946 and 1964, new generations have sprung up with blazing speed. Gen X gave way to xennials and millennials, Gen Z (1992-2012) was born during the same period as some of its members’ favorite businesses and brands – Google (1998), Netflix (1997), iTunes (2003), YouTube (2005), Uber (2009), Instagram (2010) and Snapchat (2011). Now, the recent Gen Z college grads are bringing innovation, transformation and value to the workplace, bringing with them an expertise with the brands that are informing, improving and disrupting the ways we all do business.
I am a card-carrying member of Gen X, but I can’t let pride get in the way of business innovation and transformation. I have dedicated nearly 30 years of my life to working at Taylor, one of the nation’s leading consumer public relations agencies, based in New York City. The infusion of Gen Z talent gives the agency a new and refreshing approach to creative ideation and marketing in today’s digital society that is helping the agency grow and transform. Frankly, the things I have learned from them has made me take a hard look at what I have done – and how I have done it. It has driven me to immerse myself in new technologies and ideas that can inform the way I tackle projects in the future. It might scare you to consider what you do in the office, but it’s worth a shot. Just ask your Human Resources team – and then ask your kids to explain it to you.
In a recent LinkedIn survey, more than 91 percent of HR professionals said they believe the skills needed in today’s workforce are different than those required in past generations. It appears that the time to hire and onboard Generation Z is now.
Don’t take it as an act of rebellion, just appreciate that they have a sense of ownership in what they have been asked to do
My weekly collaborations with Gen Z students at Rutgers University and Montclair State University reveals them to be digital natives, entrepreneurial-spirited workers who prioritize speed, immediacy and efficiency.
“It’s just part of our generation’s mindset to adopt technology like Google Drive, Slack and GroupMe that is going to allow us to collaborate anywhere, anytime efficiently,” says Katelyn Woebse, an MSU junior who leads the student-run public relations agency, Hawk Communications. “We intend to bring that mindset to the workplace.”
Employers should be engaging Gen Z workers to seek insights into the tech-based solutions they believe will help them conduct business in a new, more effective and entrepreneurial manner. According to a study by Northeastern University, Gen Z leans towards studying entrepreneurship and designing its own programs. Employers should recognize this entrepreneurial spirit while recruiting Gen Z and embrace it when members begin work.
“We are ‘prosumers,’ Woebse says. “We are consumers as much as any generation before us, but we leverage technology and social media to produce, market and sell products as well. If I am an employer in the state of New Jersey, I would create an incubator that consists of my new Gen Z employees and have them utilize technology that allows them to realize the full potential of their entrepreneurial spirit, while creating new opportunities and potentially new revenue sources for my company.”
We believe we actually can teach senior managers and colleagues valuable lessons and insights
Gen Z is not a just a generation with its thumbs on its phones and its heads in the clouds. Unlike previous generations that took a task and ran with it, Gen Z workers will question you about any task you give them. That might be annoying to leaders of a certain vintage, who grew up in the era of “Because I said so. That’s why” communication with parents and employers. Don’t take it as an act of rebellion, just appreciate that they have a sense of ownership in what they have been asked to do.
However, you are limiting yourself and your company if you exclusively limit Gen Z employees to completing tasks. Turn to them for new ideas and concepts, and ways to challenge the status quo.
Aside from bringing new technology and a business mindset to employers, Gen Z prioritizes collaboration and sharing solutions that will empower the entire team.
“We are so confident that we are more fluent in social media than any other generation and we adopt and utilize technology so rapidly, that a major shift will occur at the workplace as more Gen Z workers are hired over the next several years,” Woebse says. “We believe we actually can teach senior managers and colleagues valuable lessons and insights when it comes to technology, content and social and digital media in a way that delivers measurable business impact.”
As companies, large and small, attempt to transform and innovate to stay ahead of the competition and deliver beyond their customer’s expectations, there is an entire cohort known as Generation Z who is aligned with that mission and eager and ready to proactively lend support. All companies need to do is embrace this group’s tech-smart and entrepreneurial mindset and collaborative approach and engage its members in a meaningful manner as employees who can deliver consistent value in contributing measurable business impact. Ask your kids; it’ll lead to great discussions around the dinner table – and make you feel excited about their place in the workforce.
Mark Beal is a public relations and marketing veteran; Rutgers University and Montclair State University professor; and the author of Decoding Gen Z: 101 Lessons Generation Z Will Teach Corporate America, Marketers & Media. Mark can be reached at markbeal@markbealmedia.com or via his website, www.markbeal.media.
