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For Nordic employers, managing Gen Z at work involves overcoming a unique set of challenges, which arise due to the generation’s distinct preferences and characteristics. This generation believes in understanding the how’s and why’s of their job and workplace and the benefits they bring before deciding if it’s worth their effort and time.
The top-down management style of the past where managers simply used to ‘tell’ their teams what to do won’t work with Gen Z. In addition to the content, these people need to understand the context too, which means employers should mould their communication styles effectively to become successful leaders.
Here are five critical challenges that Nordic employers managing Gen Z at work must address to create a productive and harmonious workplace.
1. Tech-based Communication
Gen Z’s excessive reliance on modern technology for communication and information access in the workplace can create problems with traditional communication methods. This generation prefers direct and quick communication, often leveraging digital platforms and tools like instant messaging, chat on Slack channels, or video calls.
If your Nordic company relies heavily on traditional methods of communication, it’s time to adapt your communication style by striking a balance between the tried-and-tested traditional and the new-age digital methods to honour Gen Z’s love of new technology.
2. Desire for Instant Feedback
Unlike traditional performance reviews conducted annually that were the norm for previous generations, Gen Z desires to get instant and continuous feedback. These young people prefer to experience quick wins and success.
Since Gen Z tends to struggle with traditional review processes, you (as an employer) should encourage regular check-ins by managers to help these people get the guidance and quick feedback they crave.
Making them understand the ‘why’ behind efficiency at work and ‘how’ they can match it with the desired productivity output is crucial to fostering their growth and development.
3. Shrinking Attention Span
With decreasing attention spans, Gen Z prefers bite-sized chunks of information that are easy and quick to consume. For Nordic employers, their short attention spans could be a challenge when it comes to keeping them engaged in longer projects or tasks.
One solution is to break bigger projects or tasks into smaller components and let managers explain precisely what’s expected in terms of the processes to follow, steps to take, and the results desired.
Periodic checks to confirm the task messages and company initiatives are understood and adopted are essential. If your company’s onboarding and L&D programmes feel outdated, redesigning them into bite-sized modules could be a good way to engage your Gen Z employees.
4. Work-Life Balance
Gen Z prioritises mental health and work-life balance. These people have grown up with modern technology and prefer having flexible work arrangements like remote or hybrid work and flexible work hours to balance their professional responsibilities with other aspects of their lives like personal relationships, travel, and hobbies.
As a Nordic employer planning to manage Gen Z at work efficiently, you need to offer these young people flexible working arrangements. Additionally, you should build a corporate culture that prioritizes employee well-being alongside productivity.
As a leader, your company’s success evaluation processes should focus on quality and not merely quantity as Gen Z tends to get more work done in less time without compromising quality. Rather than making your employees stay shackled to their desks for a specific duration, you should encourage efficient work habits and better time management, which will facilitate a better work-life balance.
5. Desire for Purpose
Gen Z prefers doing meaningful work that aligns with their values. Consequently, they seek purpose-driven companies that talk about their mission and vision clearly and focus on helping their employees contribute to larger goals.
As an employer in the Nordic region, you must emphasise your business’s social impact and articulate its mission and vision with clarity while focusing on how your employees can help achieve them.
To enhance your company brand that helps attract and retain Gen Z talent, you should clearly lay out the EVP (Employee Value Proposition) by talking about your corporate culture and business values along with employee career growth opportunities, compensation and benefits, work-life balance, and recognition and rewards. All these things will give Gen Z a compelling reason to work for you.
Final Words
While Gen Z brings its unique talent to the workplace, there exists a fair share of challenges too. However, the solution to “How to manage Gen Z at work?” isn’t elusive.
With a little bit of empathy, along with careful planning and execution as mentioned above, you can become a true leader and overcome these challenges to integrate Gen Z’s talent optimally in your workplace.
If you need help hiring Gen Z for your Nordic company, contact us at InHunt World today!
This article was written by InHunt World