How Millennials and Generation Z Think About the Workplace
Generation Z refers to those who are born after the year 1997, officially outnumbering the millennials and accounting for almost one-third of the world’s population. Generation Z is all set to start their careers by 2020 and studies state that they are expected to make up to 30% of the global workforce and further represent an influx of 60 million job seekers.
Today, the younger generation is initiating their careers when the pandemic has had its share of effects, where we rethink well ahead before proceeding for a physical work environment with them in mind.
Many researchers have found that the younger generation looks up to their workplace quite differently than the previous generations.
Why will Generation Z go to the office?
The younger generation including Gen Z, millennials, gen X all has agreed that the primary purpose of a physical office is to collaborate with team members. But soon after the initial alignment, the generational preferences start to diverge. While the older generations have a clear black and white approach to their work, the younger ones have a more holistic approach to how to interact in their workplace.
For example, Gen Z ranks maximising individual productivity to a great extent since they lack access to a home office space or have been sharing homes with roommates and find their office to be a much better place to focus on individual tasks.
This generation considers promotion as important and prioritises their access to senior leadership and decision-makers. With this, they tend to initiate the workforce, while most of them may be having their first job and seeking guidance from company leaders to develop their skills for a long-lasting career.
Given the physical workspace scenario, Gen Z highly rank their desire for office to inspire creativity and innovation, while millennials prioritise and focus on accessing specific spaces, materials, resources and sharing basic knowledge and best practices at work
Millennials matter:
Gen Z might alter the workforce, but employers value millennial preferences as well.
Millennials maximise individual productivity as an integral purpose of the office. They also could lack access to a good workspace at home or may have young children and require attention during the workdays.
Not only for office but Millennials also focus on fostering their professional and personal relationships at work and Gen Z believes in building their social connections and fostering camaraderie in the workplace.
Younger officials tend to find their workplace anywhere:
Both Gen Z and the millennials can work anywhere as long as it’s fruitful for them. Researches show that 90% of them prefer to work at home while only two-thirds of Gen Z officials agreed to the same. The younger workers tend to find physical work locations apart from office and home and prefer places like coffee shops, coworking spaces or other alternative locations to meet clients, conduct meetings etc.
The companies should consider having such locations nearby for the employees to utilise and provide them with a variety of options to work with.
What do you prefer – working from the office or working from home? Let us know in the comments.
Also, read our article on “TIPS TO CREATE A ZEN CORNER IN YOUR HOME“