Generation Z in the Workplace: How to Onboard Them

Members of Generation Z are people born between 1995 and 2010. They've never known a world without the internet, social media and new technologies are their natural habitat, and they aren't indifferent to diverse development or the problems the modern world is grappling with. Is the labor market ready for young workers, and does it know how to meet their needs, starting with onboarding? Let's look at how Generation Z is faring in the workplace, what's worth getting right to find common ground with zoomers, and — last but not least — how to onboard them.

What is Gen Z looking for at work?

Entitled, disloyal, or maybe just focused on a fast career? Generation Z in the workplace stirs up a lot of emotion, often tied to the myths and stereotypes circulating among employers. Yet when you look at solid data, you can see that a large share of these received opinions have no basis in reality at all.

Stability

Zoomers are a generation that has experienced economic uncertainty. Some researchers, characterizing American Gen Z, even call them a wartime generation that came of age in the shadow of the attack on the World Trade Center and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This generation was also touched by the 2008 global financial crisis, when many zoomers' parents struggled with money problems. As a result, this is a generation that values stability. According to the Deloitte report ("First Steps in the Labor Market 2021"), as many as 64% of respondents indicated that they want a full-time employment contract with a single employer.

Feedback

72% of zoomers expect substantive feedback on their work. Young people want to grow and learn, and honest feedback is an important pillar of that process. Especially when taking their first steps in the labor market or at a new company, they need concrete pointers and information on what they should improve and what they're doing great.

Besides, Generation Z — immersed in social media — has giving feedback in its blood. Liking, commenting, sharing opinions about products, places, or services is a natural activity for them. No wonder, then, that they value it in a professional context too.

Values and company culture

Organizational culture and its values are a very important factor for many job seekers. Which values do zoomers identify with?

• An organization that excludes no one is a place where Generation Z would like to grow professionally. 92% of young people would appreciate an employer guided by inclusion and diversity in terms of gender, nationality, age, and so on.
• Contrary to stereotypes, Gen Z isn't focused solely on fast promotion and a high salary. It turns out that work, for them, is about more than individual growth and success. Zoomers think more globally and reach far beyond their own perspective. 82% of respondents in the EY and JA Worldwide study "Generation Z — the Entrepreneurial Generation" would like, by 2030, to have a job that not only gives them satisfaction but also helps solve civilizational problems and challenges facing our planet.
• In the same study, when asked about the traits of a dream job, respondents most often mentioned "innovative concepts," "collaboration with people around the world," and "the chance to solve complex problems." Members of Generation Z seek challenges that demand an innovative approach, rather than reproducing well-worn patterns.

A leader who supports

Members of Generation Z also have clear expectations of their manager. For 44% of them, a true leader is one who supports their employees' development. That's another data point showing how important it is for Gen Z to refine their skills and acquire new ones. On top of that, they approach it consciously and — we'll even venture to say — maturely. They know that for development to be effective, the support of an experienced leader comes in handy, and — importantly — they're open to accepting that support.

Onboarding — what role does it play for a Gen Z employee?

Generation Z is sometimes associated with a lack of loyalty and frequent job changes. Yet the research shows a rather different reality. According to the ATERIMA HR report "The Professional Alphabet of Generation Z," 35% of this generation are willing to work at a single company for 2 to 5 years, and nearly 40% even for their entire lives, if the job were appealing.

Appealing — meaning what? That term can of course hide many things, depending on the role, industry, and organization. There is, however, one common denominator that applies to every job, and without it, building an attractive employer image is hard: effective onboarding. A properly prepared onboarding process is a reliable way to build a positive employee experience (Gen Z included) from the very beginning, even just before someone formally joins the company.

Is preboarding the cure for employer ghosting?

Actually, how can you be sure a new person will show up at the company at all?

In an Indeed study, 28% of job seekers admitted to a practice called "employee ghosting."

What's behind the term? It means cutting off contact with an employer while the recruitment process is still underway, or not showing up on the first day despite having accepted an offer. What can cause such behavior? Above all, a lack of proper, consistent communication during recruitment and onboarding.

For Generation Z, a company's authenticity and values matter. So if, during recruitment, a zoomer hears that communication and partnership are pillars of the employer's culture — and then HR or the manager goes silent for several weeks... that's a ready-made recipe for multiplying doubts. Behind them, dissonance forms in the newcomer's mind, and the result can be backing out of an accepted offer. To avoid this, it's worth keeping a finger on the pulse and staying in touch with the employee even before the official welcome at the company. That's the role of preboarding — the part of onboarding that begins right after recruitment wraps up.

To learn more about this, read our article "Preboarding: how to use its potential?" >>

How do you build an onboarding process for Gen Z employees?

An onboarding app

Generation Z never parts with its phone. An onboarding app available on a phone or tablet will be a big plus for this kind of employee. They're digital nomads, so even when they work on-site, they need a digital/remote experience — digital onboarding via an app will meet those needs.

Microlearning

A common term used to characterize Generation Z is the "8-second attention span," meaning that for this group, the span of attention is just eight seconds. After that, zoomers decide whether they want to keep following a given piece of content or not. Applying this to onboarding, let's deliver knowledge in smaller, more "digestible" portions instead of flooding young employees with lots of information at once. Actually, this is one of those tips that applies to employees of every generation — millennials and Gen X will appreciate being fed knowledge in small portions too.

That's exactly how microlearning works. A series of short video tutorials or mini-texts paired with quick quizzes is a far more approachable way for zoomers (and not only them) to absorb knowledge. A long PDF handbook or an endlessly dragging PowerPoint presentation won't hold their attention enough to follow the training from cover to cover.

An interactive format

Zoomers are an internet generation. For its members, using interactive solutions is a natural way to communicate and gather information. Stories, video animation, push notifications — all of this is their everyday reality. So when designing onboarding with Gen Z in mind, let's bet on solutions that mesh with their daily experience. Traditionally delivered content isn't their world. And that's not likely to change, which is why investing in interactive solutions is essentially a must today.

Community

Gen Z is the first generation that hasn't experienced life in a time without the internet. From their earliest years they've been steeped in social media. According to World Economic Forum data, zoomers spend nearly three hours a day on social media.

How does this relate to onboarding? Exchanging knowledge and experiences and building relationships in an online community can also be part of onboarding young employees. Access to a closed group of newcomers on a shared onboarding platform will be a unique space for them to share their own experiences, doubts, and successes. Because how else can you talk with other employees going through the same thing when onboarding happens remotely or involves colleagues from different cities? There's strength in numbers — in a new job too!

Gamification

A gamified onboarding process is nothing more than onboarding tailored to the natural needs of our brains. Instead of absorbing dull content delivered the traditional way, an employee completes missions in an interactive format, collecting bonuses each time for a task done correctly. Every such reward is a pure hit of dopamine that makes learning new things enjoyable, engaging, and — consequently — effective! Although gamification draws on mechanisms deeply rooted in all of our minds, Generation Z has a special soft spot for it. Just look at the story of "żappka" — the loyalty app of a well-known Polish convenience-store chain, which has become a genuine pop-culture phenomenon among zoomers.

Agency in decisions

We like having a choice, and members of Generation Z do too. Decision-making as an element of onboarding is a great way to build unique experiences for young employees from the very start of the relationship. How to do it? Create as many opportunities as possible for a new employee to make an independent decision. In the Gamfi Onboarding app, for example, a new hire can independently choose and order their work equipment or workwear. Everything is presented in an interactive and easy-to-use format, instead of tedious forms sent to several departments or the need to pay an in-person visit to the IT department.

Besides that, let's allow zoomers to onboard at their own pace. Let's provide them with interactive solutions available at any time: online knowledge bases, HR forms to fill out online, or the microlearning mentioned earlier.

A buddy

Everyone took their first steps on a career path at some point, and those beginnings weren't necessarily easy. It doesn't always have to be that way, especially when it comes to softer matters, like team communication or the informal know-how of office life.

When onboarding young employees, who are often only just entering the labor market, a buddy will be invaluable support. Behind-the-scenes knowledge sharing and conversations in a less formal tone than with a manager increase a zoomer's comfort from the very first days at work. The feeling of joining a team where you can count on a "pal" for help eases stress and helps a newcomer build a sense of belonging to the organization right from the start.

Find out why a buddy is a key component of your onboarding >>

Mental support

Caring for employees' mental health is one of the more important trends in the HR world. It's an especially important topic for Generation Z, which, according to research, is the loneliest generation compared with earlier ones. What's more, as many as 68% of adult zoomers (aged 18–21) have trouble sleeping because of stress, and the share of teenagers (14–17) with depression rose by 60% in just the last eight years.

Awareness of what young employees are dealing with makes it easier to address their needs. Rational, effective mental support is a process that should begin at the start of the relationship, starting with onboarding. It's enough to take care of a few things, such as regular pulse-check surveys, to keep tabs on how satisfied a young employee is with their work and whether they're struggling with any problems. Let's combine this with a clear onboarding plan, available to the employee in an individual dashboard where they can track their progress in real time. This way the young newcomer knows how they're doing and what successes they already have under their belt, which clearly minimizes stress and the sense of being lost during the first weeks at work.

Onboarding young employees? Want them to quickly "stand on their own two feet" and be able to fully support the rest of the team? We have an onboarding app your zoomers will love! Let's talk about rolling it out in your organization.