Hiring Millennials and GenZ - infact anyone at any age.

Since 2020, life as we know it has become relatively expensive for everyone across the world. The price of fuel, food resources, electricity & gas utilities, our costs for housing have skyrocketed. Overall, the past 3 years have been a period of time that has been difficult for many people, particularly younger generations , affected by lay offs, lock downs, and housing markets.

This got me thinking about the attitudes of employment agencies, HR departments and management teams who work through the recruitment process. When i hear people talking about younger generations, with multiple jobs on a resume over let say 3 years, there is an apparent attitude by employers that these generations are not loyal. Suggesting that they chop and change, or statements that the younger generation do not want to work. At best, these are purely assumptions made by recruiters who clearly haven't had any issues themselves since 2020.

Somehow, the loyalty card has been thrown up by employers and recruiters as a means of describing the younger generation, as not being loyal.

That would suggest that organisations believe that by employing a person of any age, the employee will be with the company for the "infinite" future or until the employee retires.

While this may be unpopular,

I Just need to call this one out,

Are companies loyal

to their employees ?

Those loyalty days were over and out during the 1970's. CEO's in public listed companies started getting paid 700 times more than the average wage earner in some organisations, with bonus structures based on the business profits. The only people who were loyal, were CEO's and managers who made bonuses, and those bonuses were gained however they needed to be. (bring forth the hate mail)

Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X have all seen their parents displaced in either mass lay offs or redundancies, when companies need to make their bottom line look good for shareholders. While we can't paint a brush over all organisations in the same way, I think it's fair to say that employees of any age are well aware of how some companies work, big or small. If you ask most companies who comes first in their organisation, it certainly has not been its employees in the majority of cases. In recent times we can look at how many big companies made employees redundant in 2020, in some cases those companies didn't need to stop trading at all, and made record profits. So, what's that telling the working class?

For the workforce, it tells us that depending on who you work for, what industry you work in, and what sort of values an organisation may have, could be the difference between being ok, or living in devastation as your world crumbles.

Imagine you are 18-25 yrs old, you moved out of home, moved in with a partner, got a job and life as an adult was taking its course. Then, the pandemic turns up in March 2020.

Apart from media fear campaigns orchestrated to drive bragging rights on who had the best story to tell, in a very short amount of time, life as we all knew it started to change. The tourism and hospitality industries were first to see the pain ahead. Apart from the government shutting down business, there was also the "the Jab?"

What unfolded around each country was different based on how many people caught the virus, hospitals were over whelmed and sadly, people were dying. We all know how the past three years have played out, but, in recruitment world, it appears that some companies and organisations have not understood the change in mindset by workforces all over the world. In fact, the alarm bells have straight up made people look at the world through a different lens, regarding who they work for, how much they get paid, and how they feel about the industry they are in. The list goes on, but overall, workforces have eyes wide open and are looking outside the square.

Economy next comes to mind, while it is clear that the pandemic triggered financial issues for governments around the globe, inflation and a looming recession is once again making life in the workforce a difficult proposition as costs for everything continue to rise.

Example

If fuel in 2020 was a $1 per litre and today it approx $2, that equates to an expense that is now double.

If rent in 2020 was $450, and today its $650 per week, thats an $800+ increase In living per month in rent alone. Mortgages in Australia have risen significantly with inflation, in some case home owners are paying between $500 and $1k a month more than what they were paying in 2020 on say $300k to $500k loans.

For the renters as an absolute bare minimum, fuel and rent alone are now nearly $1000 more than it was in 2020, (in some cases, the rental market has blown up and people have been moved out of their homes due to soaring demand for property) if we add food and living expenses, that number keeps rising.

Are millennials and Gen z earning an extra $12k to $25k per year in 2023?

Are any generations earning extra money inline with inflation?

Pre Covid, in my three decades in business, there has always been this old school thought process, that people who have had several jobs over a period of time are summarised as unstable. Some would say that these same people were good when calm waters were the norm at work, but then when things got tight due to slow downs in sales, product or service popularity, or financial market pressures, these same people just jumped ship and changed jobs.

The assumptions about employees are endless and so forms part of a "programming" by recruiters, HR departments or managers about a candidates employment history. One example alone here, is when interest rates go up, and all expenses go up, what are employees supposed to do?

We are referring to millennials and Gen Z, but we are referring to all generations who may be on minimum wage, and not in management positions. Really, it doesn't matter what age group you are, bills are bills, they have to be paid and decisions have to be made. Sometimes that means a change of job, or even taking on multiple jobs.

Let me run a different angle.

What if your boss is an asshole? As a person with solid values you quit and find alternative employment. Is that called quitting because life got to hard? Or, is it because the workforce has had enough of leader/managers who simply dont care about people, and their sole focus, is on profits and bonuses.

If you are are Baby boomer or Gen X, would you want your kids to deal with the sort of managers you have had to deal with, just to keep your job? The fact is, leader/managers are always the reason why the majority of employees leave their jobs, yet business owners overlook toxic managers because many of them are still purely focussed on profits, and the manager is delivering on the KPI's.

In my experience, a lot of business owners think it is naive to measure success, on anything but profit, people are numbers and they will always be replaceable. (but they won't say that out loud or post it on social media) On the flip side, employees live in fear of being jobless, and find them selves in a situation they would rather not be in when volatility is in the air.

When a resume just can't tell the full story,

agency's, HR managers and employers make assumptions.

Weather you agree with the concept or not, millennials and Gen Z are different, just like Gen X was different to baby boomers. We were all born in different times. But the days of expecting people to hang around in a job for a decade or more with managers or boss’s providing toxic cultures are over. As a Generation X myself, my values were different to my parents, (baby boomers) they believed they were lucky to have a job and excepted that it's just how business operates. You work hard and stay out of trouble, be respectful and do what is asked of you, start early, work late, and that's how they were programmed.

When I first became a manager for an organisation in the automotive industry, my thoughts were enveloped in the word 'team', I just didn't see any reason to be anything but fair, honest, aware of my actions and to be accountable for them. It was my hand that was raised if there was a failure, it just didn't seem right to blame a team member or the team as a whole. Without your team, there was no possible way to achieve success. There was no "I" in team.

Predominantly, all of my employers were baby boomers or their parents generation, age groups familiar with wars and depressions. Values were extremely important to them and knowing your place was intrinsically stamped into young people back then. What I personally found odd in my mid twenties as a manager, was that nearly all of these organisations had completely different values when it came to the workforce, how people were hired and how people were fired. It was a brutal learning curve and very much the only thing that seem to be a priority in any business, was straight up profit.

Looking at todays workforce and the challenges faced by both employers and employees across multi generations, there are societal changes and expectations that are constantly evolving. But one thing that still drives decision making processes on both sides of employment, is money.

If the financial system decides that we all have to pay more of our hard earned tomorrow, for goods and services that we paid a dollar amount for today, then interest rates, & inflation control what we can or can't afford based on the reality, that our pay packet does not change. Therefore, change in employee behaviour is inevitable in matters concerned with personal finances.

The Covid 19 pandemic changed the worlds mindset, we all know who the winners and losers were during lock downs, it certainly wasn't the minimum wage earners or people in certain industries like hospitality or tourism. A lot of those people were millennials and Gen Z.

My point is, organisations and their leaders need to restore their empathy and human skills. Employees are fed up with the old school ways of doing things when it comes to people management and outdated opinions that include job changes in there past.

The world has changed, mindsets have changed, and now technology has completely changed how we do life, as we know it. All generations have had enough of the normal way of how things are done in workplaces and employers, well, they are on notice. In 2022 a McKinsey report showed that 40% of the current workforce were looking to change jobs and or industry over the next three to six months. In some cases, employees were going to leave even if there is no job to go to. So why are people leaving the workplace?

Henry ford once said, "A business that makes nothing but money, is a poor kind of business."

(Hoffman, 2012) p.398

Employers today are constantly complaining about many challenges, like getting employees back into the office, for those that had to return to the office, some decided they simply didnt twant to return to their office and organisation. It is also believed that talented employees are leaving and many in the workforce are changing industries in an effort to realign their life after the pandemics controlled lock downs. Apparently, "there is a severe shortage of talent", however, I would challenge that the word talent be re-defined and reconsidered. Let's have a look at the recruitment process and consider what has changed there.

If employers are still going about the recruitment process the same way they always have, and they haven't had a good hard look inside thier business, it's leaders, and the vision they have portrayed to their workforce, then nothing will change.

Starting with leaders and managers, how do you measure their impact on the employees who work under them. Do you expect thier traits and behaviours are to be aligned with the vision of the organisation? Have you thought about how you will measure and analyse the people who are in charge?

What leadership style have they been employing, and is it relevant for that industrys workforce? Is the leader/manager living and breathing in a fixed finite mindset, where they are scared of change, or they just don't see any reason to change, or that someone may have a better idea to help a process deliver a better outcome? Or, are they a growth mindset person who is willing to listen, willing to consider iseas and willing to thin with optimism?

I'll say it again, if people are leaving your organisation you need to look at your leaders and managers carefully and either retrain them or find leaders/managers that want to be trained.

It's the same for the employment process, I believe some employers have fallen into a trap of following an old outdated way of employing people. If someone has too many jobs on a resume, they are either not considered, or there is an assumption they are not stable, often automatically sent down to the bottom of the list, or even cast off the process altogether, even though they have the skills for the job. Why? because that's how many HR departments have gone about it, for them, technical skills, then loyalty come first.

Employers are still looking for the perfect candidates, you now, the employee that never made a mistake in life, never changed jobs, and never had a run in with a manager with poor people skills. In most cases the assumption is that there is something wrong with the employee when multiple jobs are listed.

How did employers and recruiters end up with a system built on assumptions?

There are many ways to look at and measure candidates, with academic surveys, practical assessments, role play and so on. However, i believe recruiters are looking at employees who are really good at building resumes with excellent PC skills, great references and those who interview exceptionally well. I'm sure this will be a point of criticism, but I really believe that we need to challenge the profiling of future recruits. Are you still using abstract shapes tests on a new employee, does the job in question require abstract shapes? I remember doing an "algerbra" test for a sales manager position, failing it and then then discussing with the owner of that business, why he used algerbra to test people. His response, because the recruitment agency has a psycologist who said this was the best way to find out if I would be any good at critical thinking. Failed the test, but still got the job, and that that folks is part of the problem.

Whilst I understand there is no perfect process, you have to hold some common sense in regards to human skills.

Start asking “Why” people change jobs instead of making an assumption based on experience from the past. We don’t live in the past, millennials and Gen Z live for today and look forward to tomorrow? Baby boomers and Gen X, while not all can be painted with the same brush, it is time to stop looking at the past and how things were done in the past. The world has changed ! Change the recruitment process.

Is your organisation appealing to the workforce? Do you have a culture problems, people leaving, minimum wages and toxic employees?

If you're an employer who cant seem to find employees, ask yourself this. How many people have worked for your organisation and then left over the years, and then ask yourself why they all left?

Until you take action on why people leave your organisation, you will continue the same cycle.

Change the leadership style !

Change the process !

Train your leader/management teams in people management, human skills, empathy and emotional intelligence.

Give employees a reason to work for you, make your workplace a fun and collaborative environment, be kind and treat people with optimism. Learn new skills about self development, self awareness and how to handle challenging people and their emotions. If you still have the “I am the boss mentality” then you need to change your mindset. If you don’t, just keep doing the same thing and see how that works out for you in the future.

What sort of employees does your organisation really want?

A - High Skill and a great attitude with high trust

B - Low Skill and a great attitude with high trust

Don't employee these people

C - High Skill with a poor attitude and low trust

(C) are the toxic employees, they will mingle with your (A) employees and bring them down to having poor attitudes just like them, they will create culture problems.

What price do you put on a toxic culture, talent and workforce retention?

Ask your employees who the asshole is in their team or department. They will tell you !

There is bucket loads of talent out there, but employers, Agency's and HR departments are looking at technical ability as the most important skill. Human skills, behaviours, attitude, trust and employee value alignment are central to building a workforce that will contribute to the beneficial growth and sustainability of any organisation.

It's time to consider what sort of employees you really need for the future, the resume only tells us a snippet of the story, whilst assumptions are seeing you miss talent left, right and centre.

Look forwards, not backwards, train your leaders and managers in human skills and watch them change the organisations culture and workforce purpose.