"With Gen Z … we have to show them rather than just talking about it," said Michelle Jordan, an assistant vice president of HR development and college recruiting.
Move over, millennials. The next generation is just starting to make its way into the workforce, and employers are taking note.
The first wave of Generation Z, those born after 1996 and more than 60 million strong, will start moving from college to career this year. These newest workers come from the first post-Sept. 11 generation, one that's grown up with social media and smartphones, watched their parents go through the housing bust and a deep recession, and come of age amid political polarization and soaring college debt. It's little wonder they are pegged as anxiety-ridden, but experts say they are also independent, pragmatic and super-connected.
Gen Zers are expected to make their presence known in the workplace, distinguishing themselves in multiple ways from millennials, those roughly in their mid-20s to late 30s. That older group, born from 1981 to 1996, now makes up the largest chunk of the labor force, having surpassed Generation X and baby boomers, according to Pew Research Center analysis. By next year, though, members of Gen Z are expected to account for a fifth of the workforce. And those workers will have a different outlook on the world.
"They grew up in a dramatically different era," said Roger Casey, president of McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., and an expert in generational issues. "We're just beginning to see transitions that are going to make them distinctly different from the younger people in the workforce."
Gen Z workers will want what everyone else wants, he said, but "they will ask for it. It's true of millennials, and we will see that even more with this next generation."
They are expected to place more emphasis on financial security, flexibility and workplaces that reflect the growing diversity of their schools and peer groups.
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, a 22-year-old math major who will graduate this month from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, called her generation "vocal."
"We say what's on our minds, and we say it loudly, maybe too loudly," Opoku-Agyeman said. "We're not keeping our heads down and doing what's in front of you and if there's a problem ignore it. No, if it's a problem, let's address it."
The Columbia, Md., resident said her age group may appear obsessed with tweets and "likes," but there's a flip side in that "we're able to use the digital space for our benefit."
To woo young talent, employers are offering flexible career paths, virtual internships and tuition assistance. Increasingly, employers also are tailoring recruitment and training to appeal to a group accustomed to learning from videos and online.
AT&T employees looking for new roles or promotions can earn fast-track "nano" degree certification in areas of company growth such as artificial intelligence or data analytics, or enroll in online master's degree programs with company help. Ruby Tuesday trains kitchen staff with YouTube-style videos. The Army has turned to YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to reach new recruits with a hip-hop recruiting video featuring dancing soldiers rapping about the benefits of enlisted life.
For Gen Z, YouTube is not just for fun — video and visual media is the preferred method of learning, said Asha Choksi, vice president of global research and insights for education publishing company Pearson. Studies show about a third of Gen Z members spend four or more hours a day watching videos online, she said.
"This is a generation that has only known the internet through their whole life," Choksi said. "It's shaped their view of the world and how they interact with others. … They're very much self-starters. They know where to find things. Rather than dig through information in a textbook, they'll go and find it online."
Gen Zers tend to be more independent than millennials, McDaniel's Casey said, maybe because they were less likely to have been brought up by the type of "helicopter" parents that shepherded millennials into adulthood.
Research shows they believe more than older generations that sexual orientation is irrelevant. And, because the internet and social media have always been there, they are more skeptical of it.
"You don't hear, 'Facebook will change the way we connect,' " Casey said. "Now it's, 'What's Big Brother doing to me?' "
Job security and flexibility to move within a large company attracted Poojan Shah to a job at Northrop Grumman, where the 21-year-old senior from Frederick, Md., will start work this fall. The mechanical-engineering major at UMBC will enter a three-year, entry-level rotational program for recent college grads that will give him experience in three different departments, "then you can pick which department you want to work for," he said.
He applied to other companies that offered similar rotations as well.
"I wanted a lot of flexibility. … I want to explore what I really like and didn't like," Shah said. "I think our generation believes that we don't really want to go into the first thing that gets offered. If we don't like it, we're going to look for something different pretty quickly, not just putting our heads down and keep doing it."
Shah also found the company's tuition-reimbursement program for advanced degrees appealing.
"We know that undergrad is not cutting it anymore," he said. "We're going to need a higher degree eventually to go higher up, and tuition is crazy expensive for grad school."
UMBC student Opoku-Agyeman minored in economics to go along with her math degree and wants to attend graduate school as well, to specialize in labor economics. But first she plans to work as a research assistant for two years in a research scholar economics program at Harvard University. She sees the transitional period before returning to school as a way to boost her résumé, gain additional skills and make connections with people in the industry.
"I think there are multiple paths to getting to the same outcome," she said. "In a world that's rapidly changing and innovating, it's really important for you to be flexible."
Ultimately, she wants a job that offers security, the ability to support a family and a way for her skills to make a difference.
"We live in a digital age and when we see people making a difference, it's amplified and spread across platforms," Opoku-Agyeman said. "We see people our age making a difference, and it's influential to us."
