As more companies push for office returns, one workforce cohort may be more eager than most to get back to in-person work.
Generation Z, the youngest generation in the workplace, want to be back in the office. That’s according to Mark Edward Rose, chair and CEO of Avison Young, a commercial real estate company.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said: “It is the senior people, just below the C-suite, who believe the time they’ve put in gives them the right to not have a commute anymore. We feel that is a terrible injustice to the next generation.”
Edward Rose, whose company manages 283 million square feet of property, claims young people are missing out on opportunities to advance their careers by working from home. “They’re not hearing the verbals, they’re not seeing the non-verbals and they’re not being promoted because they’re not being seen,” he added.
Gen Z has missed out on a lot of mentorship and we need to make up for that
A lack of contact with colleagues is also causing gen Z to feel more isolated, according to Jonathan Haidt, professor of ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of The Anxious Generation. Haidt believes a lack of strong personal connections, especially at work, is contributing to an epidemic of loneliness. “Since Covid, gen Z really missed out on a lot of mentorship and we need to make up for that,” he told the crowd at Davos.
Speaking at the same session, Janet Truncale, chief executive at EY, also voiced concerns about young professionals missing out on development opportunities. “I worry about some of the younger generations that are on their phones all the time,” she said. “They’re missing out on some skills that are important to success in the long run.”
Despite Truncale’s commitment to allowing at least some homeworking at EY, she believes it’s important to provide more opportunities for gen Z to work with their colleagues in person. “This younger generation wants to be social. They want to be together,” she told attendees.
Although she acknowledged that sometimes people can be more productive at home, Truncale emphasised the importance of in-office for innovation and collaboration. In certain instances, she said, office attendance is non-negotiable.
However, not all zoomers agree with these chief executives. Half of those surveyed by Personio, an HR technology company, said they would quit their jobs if they were forced to come into the office more than three days per week. A similar share said commuting is a waste of time and money.
Adjusting to gen Z
Although gen Z and their employers may not see eye to eye on homeworking, companies must give more consideration to this generation’s workplace needs, according to Truncale.
EY employs 400,000 people globally, with a median employee age of 30. One-third of its current workforce is gen Z and this share is expected to reach 70% by 2030. By 2034, millennials, gen Z and gen Alpha will account for 80% of the workforce in advanced economies.
As Truncale put it: “Gen Z is pulling us into their orbit and we can’t resist it.” In response to this demographic shift, her firm is changing its approach to staff communication and learning and development.
Gen Z is pulling us into their orbit and we can’t resist it
For instance, gen-Z workers want any learning experiences to be bite-sized and easily accessible on their digital devices, according to Truncale. So EY invested in digital L&D tools for its staff and plans to develop learning opportunities on its social media channels.
The consultancy has also found that internal-communication preferences differ across generational groups. For instance, podcasts are popular among gen-X workers but gen Z prefer video communication. For this reason, Truncale believes more CEOs will provide company updates in video format.
Edward Rose has also noticed the influence of zoomers on office communication. While picking up the phone was once the norm in his office, messaging is now the most common way for staff to communicate.
“It would be a wonderful thing to get people to use phones again, but how much cost or effort are you going to put into trying to change something that clearly has shifted?” he asked the attendees.
Gen Z’s approach to work has led some business leaders to question their productivity. But Truncale believes their worries may be misguided. “I wouldn’t say that one generation is more productive than another,” she told the Davos crowd. “They’re just doing things holistically differently.”
The most successful businesses in the long term will be those that promote multigenerational collaboration. As Truncale put it to a room of business leaders: “There’s just as much that we can be taking from the younger generations. We shouldn’t be living a life of comparison.”
As more companies push for office returns, one workforce cohort may be more eager than most to get back to in-person work.
Generation Z, the youngest generation in the workplace, want to be back in the office. That’s according to Mark Edward Rose, chair and CEO of Avison Young, a commercial real estate company.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said: “It is the senior people, just below the C-suite, who believe the time they’ve put in gives them the right to not have a commute anymore. We feel that is a terrible injustice to the next generation.”
