How High Will You Jump When Your Boss Ask? Shaping a Thriving Business with the Millennial and Gen Z Influence (Episode 149)

Ready to uncover the secret formula to captivate the hearts and minds of Gen Z and Millennials in your workforce? Dr. Jason Wiggins, your go-to Gen Z and Millennial whisperer, ushers in the New Year with a riveting exploration of the modern corporate landscape. As the tectonic plates of generational expectations shift beneath our feet, this episode is your guide to building a workplace that not only attracts but deeply engages the younger dynamos of today’s professional world. With a keen eye on the defining moments that have sculpted these cohorts and a pragmatic approach to the staggering trend of the mass employee exodus, we dissect what it truly takes for businesses to flourish in this new era.

Harnessing the illustrious Google 80-20 rule as our beacon, we navigate the complexities of fostering a workplace where flexibility isn’t just a buzzword but a cornerstone of culture. Discover why Millennials and their Gen Z successors are rewriting the rules of long-term employment and how you can adapt to meet them where they are—with innovative employment arrangements, a heartfelt commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, and robust mental health support. This isn’t just about keeping seats filled; it’s a masterclass in cultivating a vibrant ecosystem where personal and professional growth are in sync, and where the future of your organization becomes as promising and bright as the generations leading the charge. Join us for a transformative journey that will leave you equipped to turn the great challenge of generational integration into your greatest opportunity.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Hello friends, welcome to another podcast. My name is Dr Jason Wiggins and I am the host of your motivational and Gen Z and Millennial Expert. First and foremost, thank you very much for listening. It's great to be here. This is our first podcast of the new year and so I hope everybody had a terrific new year and kind of able to refresh and get started, get motivated, get re-acclimated to what is now the year 2024. So, thank you very much. I'd like to ensure that, if you haven't had the chance already to view our previous episodes 147 of them and so if you enjoy the episodes, you'll have plenty of content to continue listening until our next podcast, which will be next week on Monday. Again, this is a weekly podcast that is typically submitted on Mondays and usually you'll be able to listen to it by the end of the day.

Speaker 1: 1:18

And, as most of you know and if you're new, our podcasts are related to Gen Z and Millennials in the workplace and anything that is relevant to the professional and personal well-being of being a Gen Z or a Millennial, and we always have a motivational impact, a push, a call for duty within our lives that we'd like to extend as well. And so, again, thank you very much, and today's topic is how organizations address workforce expectations for Gen Z and Millennials. We're going to explore the transformative impact of Gen Z and Millennials on the corporate landscape, while diving into how their evolving work expectations are and along with organizational demands, and we'll also gain some valuable insights on how these organizations and generations can adapt for mutual success. Meaning success is not one way driven. It is like a train that has different stops along the way, but the end goal is to get the passengers to the end of the trip. The end of the trip is our future within our career expectations and with our organizations, and how do they meet those demands that we have? How do they meet the ability to ensure that we're receiving the tools and resources that are available for Gen Z and Millennials? We're going to talk briefly about the backgrounds of each generation. If you're new, then we're going to talk about what crisis situation that we have, and then we're going to go talk about into how we retain and attract and motivate Gen Z's and Millennials and how that all encompasses, as it wrapped up into a nice bow tie with how we can be effective, retaining and motivating, and then how the organization can ensure that they're providing the tools for our talents within the workforce. And then we're going to wrap it up with a couple fantastic quotes, along with ensuring that when you leave this podcast today, you will feel motivated and you will be ready to continue to push and exceed towards your goals in 2024.

Speaker 1: 4:12

As everybody knows the generations or? If you don't, this is a great refresher. The generations for baby boomers started in 1945 until 1964, and then the forgotten generation, generation X, was born in 1965 until 1979, and then the millennial generation from the years of 1980 to 1996, and then our newest generation in the workforce is the Generation Z. Generation Z is from 1997 until 2012, and now we have the generation Alpha, who is not in the workforce as of yet. They are at the highest age. They are at 11, as the generation is from 2013 until they determine what that cutoff is, and the cutoff is usually due to significant events within the generation. For example, the generation for Vietnam War was the baby boomers, generation X. Since they are the forgotten generation, they don't really have any significant events, so they just decided to cut it off in 1979. And then the millennials. We know everything about them. They were the born into the tech savvy, and then we talked about you look at what was inspiring throughout that time period, with all the innovations. And then after that, you had the generation Z and unfortunately they are signified by the 2000.

Speaker 1: 6:09

One, 9-11, along with the recession and the boom that we've had, so they've experienced many of the elements of disaster. And then you have Generation Alpha, who was right in the middle of a pandemic. The employers now have a big problem on their hand, a big problem. That problem, it's a crisis Because employees are leaving in mass exodus Going back to 2022, we had the Great Resignation. The Great Resignation had 4 million people that left their jobs. They left their jobs because the organization wasn't meeting their needs, and now it's not necessarily the organization's fault, because they just haven't been able to keep up with Generation Z and millennials. As there are constant changes, corporations need to stop rolling over dead. They must get their hand head out of the sand.

Speaker 1: 7:25

As we mentioned in previous podcasts, 70% of Generation Z and millennials plan to switch their jobs within the next year. Over 65% are updating their resume or it may be 11 o'clock right now, but in one more hour after lunch break, they may have already found another job. This is real. And the money that is involved. When you lose Generation Z and millennials, it takes two to three times their salary annual salary on average to replace not only that individual through job posting, hiring, interviewing, time spent away from other duties and we haven't even gotten into the lack of losing the knowledge retention and the customer service and the hit to the culture of the organization. I mean the cost for a large organization can be in the millions. So this is no joke.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Again, over 70% of Generation Z and millennials plan to leave their current job within the next year. Are you one of them? If you can ask yourself that question, why is it? Is the company not providing all the benefits financial security, mental well-being, security, diversity, inclusiveness, climate control, environmental. We have seen organizations say they're going to do one thing but then they do another. That means organizations need to embrace walking the talk. Walking the talk they need to improve the current working conditions.

Speaker 1: 9:32

Look at Google. Google is a great example. Google has the 80-20 rule. 80% of their time is spent on Google projects, but 20% of the time is spent on whatever they want, whatever project that is inspiring to them, how they want to work, what they want to do. So that means that's one day a week. They get to work on their personal projects. That has nothing, again, nothing to do with Google, and that, right there, tells you they were able to understand what Gen Z and millennials wanted way before organizations understood that.

Speaker 1: 10:26

Guess what? These are not the baby boomers. Gen Z and millennials are not the baby boomers. You cannot ask a baby boomer, excuse me. You can ask a baby boomer to jump and the baby boomer will say and ask the question how high? How high should I jump? While a Gen Z and millennial, if you ask them, I want you to jump, I want you to jump, and the Gen Z and millennial will say why should I jump? What's the reason why I should jump? How does this help me in my career on how I jump? How is this going to be beneficial to the organization on how high I jump? So see, what you see is a clear, defining understanding that questions are going to be asked.

Speaker 1: 11:30

Everybody saw what happened to the baby boomers, especially Generation X. Generation X saw their parents working for organizations 25, 30 years and they put their heart and soul. Many were buried with their jobs, meaning they passed away because all they did was work. They had heart attacks. They just only worked Well. Generation X saw this and said wait one minute, wait one minute. Why should I work that hard for an organization that will throw me out like a rag doll? Why?

Speaker 1: 12:18

And if you ask yourself that question and look at the organizations today that don't care about you as an employee, go to Glassdoor, go to Indeedcom, and you will find organizations that have low evaluations from their current and past employers. Why is this? Because those organizations do either two things they either don't walk the talk, meaning they don't follow through with what they say, or sometimes, even worse, the employees will see this. They will do things on the back end, have the employee or leadership team push it out there. Push it out there via social media and content and say look at what we do, look at how good we are, look at us, promote diversity, inclusion or whatever. Maybe, for example, maybe we did something great for a weekend, but guess what? That's all they do. They don't do anything else for the employees. They don't have the proper employee engagement. And guess what happens? The employees see this. They see that the organization is being hypocritical and that's why, as leadership executives, c-suite, wherever you may fall in that spectrum it is vital I mean vital that if you're not doing the right things to encourage, to motivate, to get the most out of your Gen Z and Millennial employee, you will lose them.

Speaker 1: 14:04

Remember Gen Z and Millenials they actually believe and this is not incorrect. They believe that long-term employment lasts longer than one year. So less than one year is considered short-term employment for a Gen Z and Millennial, but long-term employment is considered over one year. If you have a Gen Z and Millennial employee currently and they are working for over two years with your company, be on alert. Do not be status quo. They are brushing up their resume. They are looking for opportunities.

Speaker 1: 14:51

If you haven't done some of the following and that is, these are the ways that you can improve it's flexibility, flexibility on how they work, if you're currently at nine to five, five days a week, punch in the clock with a 30-minute lunch break and that's your standard for all your employees, and you have no hybrid, you have no remote and you're not doing job sharing or any of these things that basically are required again, are required by Gen Z and Millenials, then you are behind the A-ball and you will continue to lose employees to organizations that understand they have a diversity manager, they have an engagement manager, they have an HR that understands onboarding, virtual onboarding, check-ins, updates, all of those important concepts. They get that. But if you're not doing that, then I would suggest reaching out to a Gen Z and Millennial expert or somebody as a consultant that will help direct you within your organization, because flexibility needs to be a number one fixture within your organization. That means provide potentially four-day work weeks, have remote and hybrid opportunities. It is important to keep in mind that Gen Z and Millenials may have different times of the day that work best for them. Millenials will work, maybe they'll work 6 am to 9 am and then they'll take a three-hour break, or they'll go surfing, or they'll work on their side hustle projects, and maybe they won't start up again until 3 am, 3 pm to 9 pm, but they still put their 8 hours, 9 hours, sometimes, just because they're concerned that you as a leader, or millennial, as a leader of millennial and Generation Z employees, maybe they think that you don't think that they are working hard and that is why sometimes they will work even harder. And it's important that you demonstrate that they are valued by you, valued by the organization, because if you don't demonstrate the value that they're bringing to the organization, then again, you're at risk for losing them. As we mentioned earlier, 70% of employees, specifically Gen Z and Millennials, will leave within the next year and 65% of them are brushing up on their current resume.

Speaker 1: 17:44

So we talked about flexibility. That also includes job sharing. Maybe your Gen Z and Millennials employee doesn't want to work 40 hour work weeks, as I mentioned. Maybe they have a side hustle project, side hustle projects. There are other things that they're passionate about that they want to do. So what you can do sometimes is hire two employees for one job, and what I mean by that is two 20 hour employees that will enable them to work but have time to do extra curricular side hustle projects, and in many cases, these side hustle projects can be very lucrative, while you still will get the same impact with two individuals at 40 hours a week, and you may or may not still provide benefits. Typically, benefits are for those that work over 30 or 32 hours a week in the United States and if you're in Europe which we have some great listenership there you're probably thinking wait a minute. We already have four day work weeks. We get eight weeks of vacation a year, while in the States, two weeks of vacation is considered the norm, while I've even seen organizations go with one week up to five years. So right now, flexibility is key.

Speaker 1: 19:08

We talked about walking the talk. Well, you got to walk the talk and embrace culture, values of an organization, values of a Gen Z and millennial. You need to ensure that you're diverse, you have equality, inclusion, engagement, employee engagement is something you have to harness as an organization and to do this, you do it by doing things the right way, by communicating, by getting them involved, by even having reverse peer mentoring. Reverse peer mentoring is when you have a Gen Z and millennial mentor, maybe your Gen X or BabyBroomer. Why? Because they have a lot of intelligence. Again, gen Z and millennials are the most intelligent generations to date. Why? Because they have all the resources growing up. They have YouTube University. Youtube University allows you to learn anything you wanted. Now, again, it's important to ensure that whatever you're getting from YouTube University is actually legitimate and verified and is something that is trainable and teachable and actually something that they should consume. But the reality is is most of the information that they have learned is through social media and all these different training and development and key things that continue to drive the tools and resources that they had.

Speaker 1: 20:45

And we talked about one year being long term employment. Well, here's another way of looking at it. They tend to think, as in Gen Z and millennials, they tend to think that that if they continue to learn all these new traits up to one year, they can take those traits, those tools, and move them to the next organization and utilize those tools there and when they're not growing and developing within the organization, if they're not receiving transparent benefits and salary and the overall well-being by performing at a high level. Let's not kid ourselves. It is important that the well-being, the mental aptitude of individuals is at a high perceived level by the organization. Why? Because if the organization demonstrates they care about the well-being of Gen Z and millennial employees, that right there will show that they care more about the Gen Z and millennial. In return, then that mutual obligation by the Gen Z and millennial, they will care more about the organization because the organization is meeting their needs from salary, benefits, well-being, continued growth and development, learning, reverse mentoring, embracing the values.

Speaker 1: 22:25

Talking the talk or walk, excuse me, walking the talk. And this is just a great intro because guess what, folks, it's not going to be any easier in the future. As new generations come on board and Generation Alpha comes up in the next five or six years and starts working, with the oldest being 16, 17, 18 years old, you are going to continue to see a focus, a driven focus, of employee first and then the needs of the organization. What I mean by that? It doesn't mean the work is not going to get done, but if an organization is going to be successful, they need to implore all resources that are available to continue transformational leadership and that transformational leadership demonstrates and continues to evolve how you put that leadership skills and you implore those Gen Z and millennials to want to do more, to excel by meeting their needs and then they will meet the needs of the organization.

Speaker 1: 23:49

It is important to also note that Gen Z and millennials typically don't leave the organization, they leave their boss. So if you have a high turnover rate within the division of the organization or within the organization as a whole, it's important to look at the leadership. Are they doing the right things? Are they doing the daily and weekly check-ins? If you're a new hire, are you doing the 30, 60, 90 day check-ins? How is the overall onboarding process? Do you have a virtual onboarding process that is streamlined.

Speaker 1: 24:36

So Gen Z and millennials feel like when they're coming on board, they're valued, they're getting the most from the beginning of the organization and can have a great career there. Are they getting the support, the tools? These are important resources that an organization must ensure are in place. Why, guess, if they're not, your Gen Z and millennial employee will not be there very long. Not because they didn't want to work hard, not because they were entitled, not because they didn't have the skills and tools. It was because, as an organization as a whole, you failed. It may sound harsh, and it is, but Gen Z and millennials are not going to put up with organizations not providing the tools that are necessary to perform, and that's why Gen Z and millennials understand they have enormous tools, enormous talents. They have been brought up with the most resources. Think about Baby Boomers and Gen Z. We grew up with phone books, we grew up with Help, one of the Ads in a newspaper. We grew up with a telephone, you with dial and now all the resources available from social media, youtube. Everything is at the tip of your fingers, and now work is a mutual consideration and communication is key to the success of Gen Z and millennials that are employed to receive the rewards that they desire from the organization.

Speaker 1: 26:39

Now, part of our podcast is about motivating and the important concept, what I want to talk about. We're going to start a new segment. What would you do? What would you do in this case if your organization continues to ignore diversity, inclusion and some of the important aspects that are important to you? Will you quit? Will you go to your leadership team and ask them to help you out with improving? Or would you just say, you know what? There's another organization that would help me, but this is 2024. If you're unhappy in your current role, then my suggestion or recommendation would be to go up to your immediate supervisor manager, whatever it may be, and let them know what your thoughts are, let them know what your concerns are and how you can better provide a conducive atmosphere that provides the resources and tools for you to do your job better as a Gen Z and millennial employee. And if that doesn't work, then you can continue to look for another opportunity that increases your skillset, increases your monetary worth and that will help you align your goals with the organization that is also aligning their objectives with your goals, and there is no stopping what you can do. The only one that stops any one of us from creating greatness within our career or our personal well-being is our own inner demons. Our own inner demons keep us from pursuing and capturing the great prize and reward at the end of the day.

Speaker 1: 28:54

To wrap up, we discussed the background of the generation and we noted the crisis that is imperative for organizations to understand how to retain and attract, motivate and onboard employees the right way. They need to get their head out of the sand and start understanding that Gen Z, millennials, generation alpha and the next generation after that will continue to challenge the way we work as an organization. So all of these important concepts and tools that an organization needs to employ, then this is a great start. It's a mutual process where organizations and Gen Z and millennials meet to ensure that success is created for everybody, and I'd like to provide two excellent quotes about expectations in the workforce. The first one is by somebody some of you may know, bruce Lee, and he is a notable martial arts karate expert, and his quote was I'm not in the world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. Again, I'm not in the world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. And the second quote is by Jonathan Huey a wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect. A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect. And this goes to an organization. Everything may not seem as it is. It may look like one thing, but it tends to be another, and that's why it's important to walk the talk. If you say you're going to do it as an organization, then do it and you will earn the great respect of your extremely intelligent Gen Z and millennial employee.

Speaker 1: 31:13

I want to thank everybody for listening. Happy New Year. Please feel free to reach out to me via Gen Z and MillennialExpertcom or JasonWigginsPhDcom. Feel free to continue to subscribe and share the content. And again I want to thank Feedspot. Feedspot oversees all of the calculations for podcasts and this podcast is in the top 30 as the Gen Z and MillennialExpert podcast. So again, it is in the top 30 for the genre. So thank you everybody for continuing to listen. We have listeners from Egypt, germany, canada, england I mean so many different places. I could sit here for the next minute and go over why, because I hope that this podcast provides you the tools, the motivation, to ensure that you get what you want. Again, thank you very much. My name is Dr Jason Wiggins and I am your motivational and Gen Z and MillennialExpert. Thank you, we'll see you next Monday, that's January 10th, and look forward to talking to you then Take care, bye-bye.