To minimise predictive errors, however, it is important to remember that employee expectations are not uniform and may vary among different age groups. While many scholars believe that different generations have more in common than what divides them, it is evident that growing up with varying life experiences inevitably shapes each generation’s values, beliefs and priorities.
Today, the global workforce spans four distinct generations:
Each of these cohorts brings unique experiences and perspectives to the workplace. Generation Z, the youngest generation in the labour market, is going to form a significant part of the workforce of the future. Understanding the new approaches and expectations they bring is crucial for businesses aiming to stay competitive and relevant.
Generation Z is unique in many ways. They have grown up in a world vastly different from that of previous generations, during an era of rapid technological change, making them the first true digital natives.
Generation Z entered the labour market at a time when debates over climate change and global warming were gaining prominence and when sustainability, gender equality and the green transition became matters of everyday discussion.
This generation began their professional journeys amid significant societal shifts, but their entry into the workforce has been anything but smooth. The world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic, which profoundly impacted the world of work. At the moment of their entry, Generation Z felt the consequences of the pandemic more acutely than older generations. In 2022, Generation Z faced a notably high unemployment rate of 12%, compared to just 4% for Generation X and 6% for Generation Y.
Having said that, youth unemployment has been a persistent issue for the labour market, consistently exceeding global unemployment rates. Back in 2000, unemployment for those aged 15-24 was around 13%. By 2010, it had risen to nearly 14.5%, and with the onset of the pandemic in 2020, it spiked to 17%. In comparison, global unemployment rates for the same years were 6.2%, 6.4%, and 6.6% respectively (ILOSTAT).
The high unemployment rate among young people, including Generation Z, can be partly attributed to biases in the labour market. Employers often view younger workers as less costly to lay off compared to older employees, as their dismissal costs are generally lower. Employment protection laws usually require a minimum period of tenure before they apply, and redundancy compensation tends to increase with length of employment. Since young people typically have shorter job tenures, they are more vulnerable to dismissal. Additionally, given that young individuals make up a significant portion of new jobseekers, they are disproportionately affected by economic downturns.
Despite the challenges of entering the labour market, Generation Z has brought a fresh perspective to the workplace. Stanford University scholar, Roberta Katz has described a typical Generation Zer as “a self driver who deeply cares about others, strives for a diverse community, is highly collaborative and social, values flexibility, relevance, authenticity and non-hierarchical leadership, and, while dismayed about inherited issues like climate change, has a pragmatic attitude about the work that has to be done to address those issues.” Dr Alexis Abramson, an expert in generational cohorts, has described the characteristics of Generation Z as resourceful, logical and good problem-solvers. Purdue University Global has described Generation Z as motivated by diversity, personalisation, individuality and creativity.
Understanding workforce motivations can enable employers to adjust workplace strategies to attract and retain the best people. Each year consultancy Deloitte publishes a survey of the attitudes of Millennials and Generation Z in 44 countries. Deloitte’s 2024 report highlights the importance Generation Z individuals place on ‘purpose’ from their work. 86% of Generation Z respondents said a sense of purpose from their work was important to their overall job satisfaction and well-being.
‘Purpose’ can refer to personal, team or corporate wide motivation. In delivering workplace corporate purpose, employers need to align their own values with those of their employees. One value that Generation Z say is important is environmental sustainability. According to the Deloitte survey, 20% of Generation Z workers have already turned down an employer based on their environmental impact concerns, and 26% said that they may do so in future. Other values that Generation Z prize include diversity, equity and inclusion. Work/life balance and flexibility as to where and when work is done are also rated as important. In the Deloitte survey, good work/life balance topped the poll by Generation Z for choosing a particular job, followed by training and development opportunities. However, pay remains an important factor, ranking third in the reasons why Generation Z choose a job and top of the reasons why they leave for another job.
To what extent do the values and priorities of Generation Z merely reflect those of workers in their 20s in any era? Will those values evolve as life circumstances change and those in a particular cohort start families and look to get on the housing ladder? Or will Generation Z retain their values and priorities as they get older and Generation Alpha enters the workforce?
When the Baby Boomers first joined the workforce, their expectations were heavily influenced by the post-war economy. They prioritised, among other things, stability and longterm job security, valuing loyalty to a single employer with the aim of progressing within the same organisation. While they have since embraced other priorities, their core expectations have only slightly evolved. The same can be said for Generations X and Y.
Generation X, who came of age during a period of early technological advancements and significant socio-political shifts, placed greater emphasis on independence and self sufficiency than the previous generation. Generation Y, having grown up at the turn of the millennium, witnessed the transition to a digital world. They prioritised personal growth and often approached employer loyalty with a degree of scepticism. Like the Boomers, Generations X and Y have since broadened their priorities, giving greater importance to flexibility and work-life balance over time, but their original expectations have largely remained consistent.
If Generation Z follows a similar pattern, their values will not change markedly as they get older. Even if their priorities shift at different life stages, it is unlikely they will abandon their commitment to, for example, diversity, inclusion and sustainability. Some of this may be because, in certain key respects, their expectations are not so different from those of previous generations – and meeting their expectations will also meet the aspirations of the other generations.
Flexibility, for example, is valued across the generations and more so than in decades past, perhaps because of the experiences of working through Covid, perhaps as caring responsibilities across generations increase with both parents more likely to be working and the demands of elder care growing, and perhaps as technology facilitates a greater flexibility as to the when, where and how much of work.
A range of surveys and studies find that Generation Z individuals look for purpose and flexibility, value feedback and training and development. Good pay is important but not as much as for the older generations, probably because priorities shift as workers get older and because of evolving values. Sensing a good alignment of the values of the brand they work for with their own values also features prominently. Crucially, Generation Z are increasingly willing to reject employers with whom they don’t align.
However, The Deloitte 2024 survey finds that Millennials – people approximately between their late 20s and mid-forties today – score similarly in most respects to Generation Zs. Perhaps predictably, Millennials rank pay above training and development opportunities (though still below flexibility and work/life balance), but otherwise there are few major differences. The State of Motivation Report 2024 also considered generational attitudes to various factors and found, in many cases, little difference between generations. One exception was ‘feedback’, which was seen to be more valued by Generation Z than Millennials and much more than by Generation X or Baby Boomers. This report also reinforced Deloitte’s finding that for Millennials, money was more important than for Generation Z. Reward will remain important but paying more than competitors won’t be enough to attract, retain and motivate the best people. The evidence that Generation Z employees value feedback and training and development more than other generations indicates an appetite to develop, which should be welcomed by organisations that need to train and develop workers for a technology enabled world of work where new skills will be in high demand.
Unlike other forms of diversity, age is a characteristic that everyone shares. However, statistics show that within a workplace, people are much more likely to be friends with people of a different gender, sexuality or race than a different age or generation. Cultural standards for what age means to people can enable ageism to persist and create barriers to meaningful connection. The combined effect of divisions in society becoming more polarised and employees being increasingly willing to bring their views and opinions into the workforce, means that there is potentially more intolerance toward the views of others.
Edelman’s 2023 Special Report on Trust at Work found that nearly 8 out of 10 of those in Generation Z (and Millennials) expect to shape the future through work. Both of those generations bring the outside world to work, with over 65% frequently engaging in conversations with colleagues about important societal issues. And 60% of employees say that coworkers in their twenties have influenced their willingness to pressure their employer to change things they do not approve of.
Emerging societal discord is used by some for political gain. Younger generations are denigrated by elements within the older generations as being ‘woke’ or ‘snowflakes’ who lack resilience.
The word ‘woke’ is often used in the media in derogatory terms but is defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as ‘aware, especially of social problems such as racism or inequality’. Many, including most in Generation Z, would see that as a positive characterisation.
As ESG policies come under attack as part of broader ‘culture clashes’ in many places, sustainability, diversity and inclusion remain valued by the younger generations. Conflicts over these issues can easily arise, especially between older and younger workers, and employers need to be increasingly adept at navigating these emerging workplace tensions.
Generation Z may well reflect different political views to those from older generations. In the 2019 UK general election, age was the greatest correlator with political affiliation, with the young typically supporting the left-wing Labour party and older voters supporting a more populist rightwing Conservative party. There was a similar trend in the 2020 US presidential election, with younger voters turning out in much greater numbers for the Democrats than the Republicans and with the opposite trend being seen for older voters.
The UK also saw this generational divide at the time of the Brexit referendum. Age was second after education as a guide to voting behaviour on the referendum, with the young much more in favour of remaining in the EU than older voters. These new political divides could reflect different value sets – with younger voters tending toward liberal, internationalist, progressive values and older voters tending toward more autocratic, nationalist, traditional values – and these different value sets will need to be managed carefully to promote inter-generational harmony in the workplace.
This political age split as just described, has, however, come into question recently in Europe, with the rise of the autocratic, nationalist, traditional far-right parties, as these are reportedly attracting significant support from the young. It will be particularly interesting to see the extent to which age-based politics continues to describe what happens in elections around the world going forward.
There are many reasons to believe that while Generation Z may build on and add to their priorities over time, their core beliefs are unlikely to change dramatically. Although the generations making up today’s workforce share common values relating to flexibility and work-life balance, there are also differences in what they consider important. Therefore, to attract and retain young talent and to avoid conflict between generations, employers will need to become increasingly aware of and skilled at navigating emerging generational differences.
In particular, employers should note the following:
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