As waves of Gen Z enter the workforce, they are facing a common hurdle to gaining meaningful employment. The dominating narrative is that Gen Z is "unemployable". While this term is exaggerated and somewhat unfair, it does reveal some of the challenges that younger workers are grappling with as they transition to their professional lives.
This reputation isn't about political leanings, but rather about communication habits, their supposed lack of self-reliance, their expectations, and overall readiness to contribute to an organization. The question is how much truth is embedded in this perception, and how employers can make changes to not missing out.
Let's review some of the more common reasons this perception and reputation exist.
A Gap in Soft Skills
It's important, and interesting, to note that Gen Z is the first generation to grow up fully immersed in digital communication. Many spent their formative years communicating, socializing, and problem-solving with digital aids. They also had to deal with pandemic-related disruptions to their education and lives, which led to them missing out on years of in-person interactions, job experience, and collaboration.
Some employers feel that Gen Z candidates lack soft skills, including clear verbal communication, conflict resolution, and office etiquette. These underdeveloped skills are considered to be flaws in the workplace, but Gen Z deserves a chance to hone these abilities.
The answer isn't to freeze them out of professional opportunities, but to provide mentorship and experience so they can close these gaps.
Expectations Around Work and Their Careers
Gen Z often carries different values than previous generations. They typically look for flexibility, mental health support, and meaningful work. These expectations may rear their head early in their careers when young employees may not be willing to balance their expectations with the real world.
It's not uncommon for Gen Z to look for or ask for remote work, rapid advancement, or a high level of autonomy before they've gained the experience to earn these perks. Employers need to clearly communicate expectations to their young applicants and employees, and try to find some common ground.
Limited Early Work Experience
Until recently, part-time jobs, usually in retail or the hospitality sector, helped teenagers develop key work skills like punctuality and accountability. Gen Z had fewer opportunities to gain work experience because of economic issues and the rise of online income alternatives, among other factors. Many are applying for their first job associated with their career with a less-than-ideal amount of actual work experience.
This can be misconstrued as a lack of readiness, when in reality, Gen Z is simply learning these skills later than previous generations. Some of this is due to choice, but most can be tied to variables outside of their control. Workplaces can support the hiring of more Gen Z employees by instituting clear and effective onboarding and training.
Gen Z is not unemployable, but the reputation about the challenges of hiring from this generation isn't entirely baseless. They've been forced to navigate a professional landscape without the experience that many take for granted. Employers should stop looking at this as a weakness and see it as the beginning of a skill set being developed, and with the right training and communication, they could have strong workers on their teams.
