Gen Z and Job Hopping: Adapting Your Company Culture
According to a survey conducted by Revelio Labs, traditional career trajectories are being disrupted by a younger workforce. Gen Z treats first jobs as a tryout rather than an entry to a career for life. First-job tenure has been reduced from about 10 years for baby boomers to one year for Gen Z, with most of them having two jobs within their first three years in the workforce.
This has profound implications for how onboarding and ongoing work are conducted. If the average new hire will only be with you for one to two years, you have to rethink how to get the most out of them for the time they’re with you and how you can entice them to stay.
When Do Job Jumpers Stay Put?
Technically, you can implement practices such as only hiring candidates who say they want to work with your business for an extended period. Still, even then, they may decide to leave after a year or two for different reasons.
The Revelio Labs survey found that Gen Z tended to stick around more with nonprofits like Teach for America, large consulting firms, and educational technology companies such as 2U. These organizations offer a strong sense of mission, early career development, and structure. While a private firm may not offer a strong sense of mission, it can offer structure and a clear pathway to promotion and professional growth.
Review Onboarding Practices
The benchmark for most onboarding is a few months to a year. This has to change if your new hire may only be there for a year.
Review your onboarding materials when you post a new position. Since most positions take at least a few weeks to fill, you should have time to modify anything that will help ensure access is granted to all of the right systems quickly. You can pre-schedule meet-and-greets for new hires with longer tenured employees and get required training meetings on the calendar before the new hire’s first day.
Mentorship programs or buddy systems are great ways to quickly integrate new hires into the company culture and work processes. Identifying which existing team members would be the best fit to mentor someone coming into the open role will speed up their acclimation.
In addition to potentially only keeping your new hire for a year or two, 70% of all employees decide to stay or leave within the first month. So, the more robust and simple your onboarding process, the more likely they will stay on board.
Once you’ve handled all the preparation before your new hire starts, think about ways to train and ramp them more quickly and effectively. Consider a week or two of intensive training and familiarizing them with what they need to do the job, instead of training them on all of the company software solutions and practices before assigning their first project. They can learn most of the skills they need on the job. Everyone can agree that learning by doing is much faster, and almost nobody retains information from training videos.
Once a Gen Z hire is onboarded, gather feedback about the onboarding process and make adjustments for future hires accordingly. Just as importantly, set clear expectations and goals from day one and emphasize opportunities for skill development. Even if the tenure is expected to be shorter, showcase potential growth and learning experiences within that time frame so they’re encouraged to stick around.
Fostering a Positive Company Culture
While a business may lack a nonprofit's direct, altruistic mission, it can build a positive, employee-centric culture. If the culture is positive, your people will likely stay engaged and stick around. This means going beyond the basic perks and creating a truly inclusive and supportive environment.
For younger employees, this could include regular events they’re included in, like team-building activities, social gatherings, or skill-sharing sessions. It could also include the opportunity to attend industry events and conferences, show investment in their professional development, and have a clear path to promotion and career growth with transparent performance reviews and opportunities for advancement.
Creating a positive company culture also involves recognizing and rewarding achievements. Implement a system for acknowledging hard work and milestones through public recognition, bonuses, or other incentives. This shows employees that their contributions are valued and appreciated. Finally, consider initiatives to promote work-life balance, like flexible working hours or remote work options, which Gen Z highly values.
This type of culture and inclusion improves engagement for all employees, not just younger ones.
Managing Gen Z
Building on these principles of engagement, it's also crucial to understand the nuances of managing Gen Z employees. They prefer honest and frequent communication and coaching, having a set of clearly defined goals and expectations, and the autonomy to make decisions on their own. Complete transparency will get you further with this cohort than any other.
If you’re considering an employee productivity monitoring solution for this group, look at one like Prodoscore, which is non-invasive, transparent, and employee-centric. It allows them to self-coach and identify a clear path to improving their performance. A surveillance-style solution will not go over well with this cohort.
