Credit Ben Taylor on Flickr
I have never been a big fan of articles that try to group people by age. It feels about as credible as horoscopes; however research sometimes provides us with important insights about each generation. Gen-Z describes people born after 1995 (roughly). As Business Insider states, “Generation Z is the youngest, most ethnically-diverse, and largest generation in American history, comprising 27% of the US population.” This means Gen-Z will dominate the workforce, and we need to understand how to work with and provide great tools for them.
Gen-Z is passionate about inclusion; 49% identify as non-white. Gen-Z has never known a time without the internet but did live through the pre-IPhone era (before 2007) and pre-social media era (before 2004). They are comfortable with digital technology but surprisingly prefer face-to-face interaction. Gen-Z doesn’t need to be “always reachable” as much as millennials. They use their smartphones more than any other device for 15.4 hours a day. Gen-Z responds more to videos (YouTube is their favorite app) and images (Accenture). Gen-Z doesn’t have an attention problem; they have a highly trained eight-second filter. As digital natives with innumerable information streams coming at them, they had to develop a fine-tuned filter.
What does Gen-Z want from work? Their top three must-haves for a first job aren’t very surprising:
- 70% Health insurance
- 63% Competitive salaries
- 61% A boss they respect and trusts them
Their career priorities also aren’t very surprising:
- 89% Stable career path
- 87% Competitive Salary and benefits
- 84% Work-Life balance
However, their intolerance for certain work practices is very surprising. There are some things Gen Z won’t tolerate from employers:
- 35% Being forced to work when they don’t want to
- 34% Inability to use vacation days when they want to
- 30% Back-to-back shifts
To summarize, Gen-Z wants work flexibility, prefer smartphones for digital interaction, demand quick interaction, have a keen sense of equality, and demand trust. ShiftX provides smartphone delivered, self-service, work flexibility tools that provide the transparency and trust Gen-Z requires to manage their schedules.
ShiftX Smart Scheduling Platform
Credit: ShiftX
Shift and vacation bidding allows employees to have more choice and transparency in their schedules. Self-Service Shift Swapping and the ability to express Overtime availability give employees more trust and say in their schedules. Employees can clock in/out, request absences, and check in/out equipment all from their smartphones. To learn more about ShiftX visit https://shiftx.ai.
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