By | Mikaela Cohen | www.cnbc.com
- By 2025, Gen Z will account for one-third of the workforce, according to the World Economic Forum.
- Attracting, managing, and retaining these younger workers will require companies to take a different approach.
- Gen Z workers are well-versed in technology, but not fluent in softer skills such as in-person communication and interpersonal dynamics, so companies will need to adjust how they train these younger workers.
As companies continue to grapple with an uncertain economy, layoffs, and the push and pull of return-to-office plans, they’re facing another, potentially larger challenge: figuring out how to engage and manage new Gen Z workers.
By 2025, Gen Z will account for one-third of the workforce, according to the World Economic Forum. Yet attracting, managing, and retaining these younger workers will take a different approach, according to Tara Salinas, a professor of business ethics at the University of San Diego. While this generation has well-honed technological skills, she said organizations will need to accommodate a decided lack of other competencies that are necessary to be successful.
“Gen Z are digital natives and they’ve always communicated online, so their interpersonal skills, or soft skills, have suffered,” said Salinas. “They took an even bigger hit because of Covid-19, and it has shifted the way that we need to interact with them in the workplace.”
