Are the companies ready to adapt their functions according to the generation of technology’s sons and daughters? Being honest I am not sure about it and I am tired of reading articles about what millennials want. I even did not know that I was part of the Gen Z until I received a class of this topic las year. This is the level of less importance that the internet put into us or that is what I believe.
I got highly inspired by Christine with her blog post “Gen Zers: is the world misunderstanding our love for internet?”. It is about the passion that we have with the technology and digital networks, but I have read studies which support the idea that we mainly go for the face-to-face communication. Also, she mentions the professors’ struggle of keeping us engage with the classes after all the distractions we have with different devices. After reading her blog I got the idea that the main way to gain Gen zers’ attention is being an inspirational person for us.
As part of the technology’s sons and daughters’ generation which is interested in receiving a good wage, the opportunity of getting good experiences at the workplace... despite I receive such a good education at Hotel Institute Montreux I still worry about not being good enough to reach the expectations of everyone about the generation that should be part of the digital-first workforce. A different reason for this worry is because I am not really into technology, I prefer to have close communication with colleagues. will this characteristic affect my professional future?
I do have work experience and these experiences showed me what I don’t want in the workplace. The first characteristic which I don’t want is leaders who don’t care about their team and they are only looking for making a profit and take the credits of the team when something goes well. Secondly, is when I could not see a future within the company. There were elderly people who have been working in the same position for many years and for sure I don’t want this for me. Technology’s sons and daughters need clear professional objectives at the workplace and inspiration from leaders who make us believe that we are going to be the managers of our dreamed workplace.
I don’t want a boss I deserve a coach. A coach who can support me with advices in those moment that I have to be innovative at the same time with his\her experience can be a self-motivator to make me want to stay in the company. I think this is how companies can reduce turnovers and recruit more digital-first workforce.
Feedbacks are a topic matters for Gen Z. I highly understand this tendency to listen to what the leaders think or what they want for us because my main reason at the workplace is to improve skills and being efficient for the company. For example: during my last internship the team had frequent meetings and the director of the company was highly involved with all our daily activities and because of this the manager could give us effective feedbacks and everyone was engaged with their assign task. I consider that everybody tried to do their best and general team’s performance was great and this is thanks to the excellent communication that we had with the manager.
Thanks to the increase of digital-first workforce people of my age are expecting to work in friendly environments. I deserve a FUN place to work. I don’t mean I want to party at work what I really expect from my future workplace is cozy workspaces where we can do our tasks or take breaks with available high technologies. Spaces where we can share ideas and increase professional relationships with colleagues. I have read that this kind of designs helps the company to improve productivity. Also, in this kind of companies, the main reason for this initiative is the employees’ well-being this characteristic says a lot of the companies’ value and this is what I am looking for.
People describe millennials as the generation of the “me me me” in another word the “selfish” generation. But my generation is all the contrary. I know that we want everything RIGHT NOW, but this is how we are used to. With all the advances in technology we don’t even need to wait to download any type of files how happened with past generations for us everything happens fast and everything is on our hands so I defend my generation by saying that we are not selfish because we are the first ones to support workforce diversity more than previous generations.
Caring about diversity is caring about my own professional future.
Being from Latin America (Panama) put me in a closer position to understand how important diversity and inclusion are. I grew up looking to people from different countries trying to get new opportunities in my country and I understood that with their culture and hard work they added a new perspective at the way we saw our life. If I think a bit deeper, now I am part of the diversity living in a different country and getting educational preparation to have the opportunity to live important and good experiences in different countries. Caring about diversity is caring about my own professional future.
Yes! Gen Z has a huge passion for technology which solves many of our problems by sending a single text but at the same makes me value the importance of personal communication. I notice it in my little experience in nowadays workplaces because of there I nothing like asking your supervisor for advice or help when is needed.
I deserve a coach who can motivate me to improve my abilities and knowledge, a good wage because I will be well prepared to add values to the company, I deserve a workplace which care for other and can offer me security and professional advancement.
And you, what do you deserve? Leave a comment and let me know what the expectations of your dream workplace are and do not forget to share.
Author: Ms Mitsue Gomez, Hospitality Bachelor Student at Hotel Institute Montreux from Panama