What Gen Zs and millennials want from you at work
Australian millennials and Gen Zs expect jobs to offer more than just a steady salary. Jobs must feel meaningful and provide opportunities for skills development, without encroaching on wellbeing.
The demographics of the workplace are undergoing a major shift. Gen Zs are entering the workforce in growing numbers while millennials are increasingly embedding themselves in management positions. By some estimates these two generations are projected to make up around 75 per cent of the global workforce by the end of the decade.
In Australia, as elsewhere, understanding the mindset of these generations is a vital strategic priority for businesses. CFOs and other business leaders who know how to respond to their concerns will be better placed to attract and retain top talent, drive innovation, and cultivate a resilient, future-ready workforce.
But as it stands right now, there is an emerging expectations gap between millennial and Gen Z employees and their (often older) management around the issues of work-life balance and opportunities for advancement and skill development.
According to Deloitte’s latest annual Gen Z and Millennial Survey, younger Australian workers believe their supervisors are failing to provide them with the guidance, support and mentoring opportunities they expect at work.
For example, 58 per cent of Australian Gen Zs expect their managers to teach and mentor employees, yet only 36 per cent said this was happening at their workplace. Similarly, half of Australian millennials expected managers to set boundaries to support a healthy work-life balance, but less than one-quarter said this was their current experience.
Overall, 92 per cent of millennials and 89 per cent of Gen Zs consider on-the-job learning and practical experience are the most helpful tools for career growth. A similar number of both groups consider a sense of purpose to be very or somewhat important to their job satisfaction and wellbeing.
The through-line for leaders is that Australian millennials and Gen Zs expect jobs to offer more than just a steady salary. Jobs must feel meaningful and provide opportunities for skills development and advancement, without encroaching on wellbeing.
This doesn’t come from a place of entitlement, but from a place of circumstance. Younger Australians – and particularly Gen Zs – arguably live a more financially precarious existence than previous generations: 64 per cent of Australian Gen Zs and 59 per cent of millennials say they live pay day to pay day and around 40 per cent of both groups worry they won’t be financially comfortable in retirement.
The motivation to get ahead is clear – but unlike previous generations, millennials and Gen Zs don’t see traditional tertiary education as a ticket to career advancement. Some feel locked out of pursuing it altogether - Gen Zs cite financial constraints as the leading reason for not pursuing further education, while millennials point to family and personal responsibilities. The high cost of tuition is a major deterrent for both generations.
This explains why on the job learning is so important to younger workers. So, how can C-suite leaders best provide crucial training and mentorship to their employees? Respondents to the survey identified three top ways employers can help support their development beyond formal on-the-job training.
The first is providing one-on-one mentorship opportunities with subject matter experts. Gen Z and millennial workers know that in today’s knowledge economy, subject matter expertise is an important asset.
One-on-one mentoring also provides opportunities for individualised feedback across a range of non-core skillsets that are nevertheless important to professional development. Gen Z and millennials realise this – almost 90 per cent of them rate soft skills like communication, empathy and networking abilities as necessary to career development.
The second is for an employer to offer financial compensation for external learning opportunities. This doesn’t necessarily mean paying employees to complete a course – offering paid study leave is a great way to remove financial and resource barriers that may be preventing your people from seeking out learning and development opportunities.
The third way Gen Zs and millennials believe their employers can help them grow is by creating opportunities for job rotation. Just as one-on-one mentoring provides the opportunity for deep learning in a specific area, job rotation or shadowing provides the opportunity to learn across the breadth of a business unit or entire organisation.
This kind of experience is particularly valuable to both the employee and the employer. By exposing the employee to a more fulsome view of what your organisation does, they will accrue additional skills outside their remit and gain a clearer view of the horizontal opportunities available to them with their current employer, boosting employee retention.
Encouraging talent to move horizontally is also important to attracting and retaining younger talent: around a quarter of Australian Gen Z respondents who recently changed their industry or career path did so for career growth opportunities or because they discovered a new interest or passion.
Gen Zs and millennials are just as ambitious and hard-working as previous generations. But with career progression pathways less linear and accessible than they were in the past, employers who proactively actively invest in their workforce’s skill development while providing meaningful work and opportunities will boost employee satisfaction and retention, ultimately to the benefit of the business.
Pip Dexter is Chief People and Purpose Officer at Deloitte Australia.
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