September 19, 2011

Just as companies have adjusted to the demands of generation Y, a new generation is set to graduate from college: generation Z.

William Strauss and Neil Howe set the standard for generational analysis in their book: Generations: The History of America’s Future 1584 to 2069. The basic premise of the book is that generational traits are cyclical, and therefore predictable. The trick with predicting demographic trends based on generational tendencies is to use the research from Strauss and Howe but also the knowledge we have of what teens have been doing as they come down the pipe into the workforce.

Based on that analysis, here are five ideas for how to prepare your recruiting strategy for generation Z:

1. Go mobile

Generation Z buys products based on battery life, and they interact with their favorite brands based on mobile applications. So you can bet that you will be recruiting this generation via their phone. Generation Z is phenomenal at writing short, which means they expect most communication to fit fine into a phone screen. Want to get better at this sort of communication? Check out the book: Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little by Christopher Johnson.

2. Forget e-mail

To generation Y, e-mail is a slow, inefficient tool that you use for work. To generation Z, e-mail is intolerable. Use social tools to get to generation Y. This gives them a way to see context to you and your company right away. Generation Z will also like that you can see a lot about them right away—they will have a lot of self-confidence when it comes to being seen and known. They will not be used to hiding behind anonymity and they won’t feel the need to—they’ll be speed demons when it comes to information processing, and gen z will be smarter than any generation before them.

3. Ditch outdated views about college degrees

Generation Z will be the first to experiment with DIY education on a large scale. This means many of them will say no to paying absurd costs for college. For many kids, it makes more sense to skip college. Other kids will go to a small, no-name community college. It’s likely that for generation Z, these alternative-college types will be the self-starters, the highly educated and the people you want to help run your company in the future. Recruit them by showing you understand why people don’t want to suffer through college any longer.

4. Pitch projects rather than titles

Homeschooling is a huge trend among counter-culture, no-BS generation X parents. Today, the majority of homeschoolers don’t do it for religious reasons, but because they want their kids to be independent thinkers. Current education research advocates individualized project-based learning. That is, kids do not do worksheets, book reports and tests. But rather, months-long projects that have a start and finish. Then the kids evaluate what they learned in order to determine their next step. This is the type of kid that will be best equipped for the workforce. Attract these up-and-comers by talking in terms they understand: constant learning through interesting projects.

5. Be open to new ideas

The key to being attractive to generation Z is to be a lifelong learner. The days of thinking school is for learning and work is for working are gone. Generation Z will be incredulous that those days ever even existed.

Management adapted very slowly to the demands of generation Y. And generation Y surprised everyone by leveraging their demographic power to force corporations to change. Gen Z will have similar demographic power, largely because baby boomers are such a big generation and generation X is so small, so there is a big gap in the workforce that generations Y and Z will fill.

Set your company apart from the competition by being great at hiring young talent before everyone else figures it out.

Join the conversation ( 2 )

• KEN SCHMITT 4 months ago

  

  Great article! As a small business owner of an executive search and career coaching firm, I can certainly attest to the differences in attracting - and contacting - Gen Z compared to the other 5 generations in the workforce today. We just published an article on the importance of knowing who you are communicating with and identifying their style of communication, before interacting - http://www.turningpointsearch.net/resources/articles/ . Effective communication is certainly in the eye of the beholder, and that rings true when it comes to hiring and engaging Gen Z talent as well.
  Ken Schmitt
  President, TurningPoint
  www.turningpointsearch.net

• Robert Maddox 5 months ago

  

  My god! I'm 37 and I'm a dead ringer for the description of "generation z"! I've been shaking my head at the inflexible stupidity of my peers for decades.
  
  You want to attract these types? Definitely be dependable and have integrity. Saying one thing and doing another is the fastest way to lose my respect for an individual or a company. Forget "spin" tactics, those have all been done and are now as transparent as glass. Don't make a promise you can't keep, because the minute you renege without a very compelling reason is the minute that you lose my respect and more importantly, its the minute I start looking for another way to use my life. Every moment of our lives are precious - our "golden years" begin at 18, not 60. Don't waste my time and I sure as hell won't waste yours - so long as I can believe that what I'm doing will matter.
  
  I've never been enamored with the "cog in the machine" approach. Currently, I'm a medical massage therapist who has been practicing for about 6 years. Before that I was a computer programmer. Traditional college education is a waste of time and money, I've actually tried to go through four year programs, but the inane grade-school bull pulled by both professors, administrators and "students" quickly made me decide to leave. Modern colleges provide the same information, dumbed down for an exorbitant fee that libraries provide for free. It's ridiculous.
  
  One thing that you may have to contend with: I've observed that most teens and twenty-somethings today have a large sense of entitlement. Be aware that they'll expect more than just a paycheck. its perks plus pay or they'll hit the road tout de suite.