Gen Z's Employability Struggles: Why the Responsibility Isn't Theirs Alone

It appears that the news cycle has found yet another way to gripe about our newest generation in the workforce today. Several articles have appeared on my radar talking about Generation Z in the workforce, and not in a positive light.

A recent article from HR Digest has highlighted that employers have hit their limit of tolerance with some of their Gen Z employees, resulting in their termination of employment. The article even states that some employers have gone so far as to state they will not even hire more Gen Z to replace them! Hardly the singular source for reporting this recent phenom (see here, and here), the implication seems to be that a growing amount of employers are souring on Gen Z's employability.

Citing HR Digest, the problem with employing Gen Z includes:

"[the] lack of professionalism, poor organizational skills, poor communication skills, challenges with accepting feedback, lack of relevant work experience, and poor problem-solving skills."

While many employers have found ways to navigate thhose challenges, it appears that there has been a straw that is breaking employer's backs:

"the primary reason for firing Gen Z in companies is said to be lack of motivation among the employees—50% of respondents cited this as the main reason."

If that is the attitude that employers have towards Gen Z, than we have a problem. But the problem doesn't just lie Gen Z: the problem lies with employers as well.

What irks me is the notion that it is solely the work of the new generation to adapt to the working world. We hardly ever talk about what employers part of the mess is, and always lead with blaming the newest generation of workers for their inability to adapt. The author of the HR Digest article certainly seems to agree with this, as they claim the mass firing issue can "only be solved" be Gen Z themselves.

Pardon my Boston, but that is a bullshit answer.

Every generation entering the workforce has eventually changed what the workforce looks and operates like. The Silent Generation was mostly responsible for the push for a 40 hour work week. The Baby Boomers helped solidify what much of the latter 20th century/early 21st century work culture looked like in terms of technological advancement, shaping workplace policies, women entering the workforce, etc.

Did these previous generations just adapt to what employers want? Of course not! Their demands, ideas, and innovations helped drastically change the workforce over the last century. Without the workforce changing from the new generation's input, we would not have the quality of life we are so used to today.

The work that needs to be done is not solely on Gen Z's doorstep: employers have to do work on their end if they except to survive the rest of the 21st century.

So what work needs to be done, and by whom?

I see it possibly playing out like this:

Gen Z needs to adapt by developing their technical skills and their soft skills. In short, they need to know what it takes to do the job as well as how to communicate with other people (ex. customers, clients, coworkers, managers and subordinates) in a way that everyone can benefit. I'm not suggesting Gen z simply conforms to what is being asked - but they need to go through the discovery process of what they need to change, as well as what they need to drop and add to their professional skillset in order to be successful.

Employers need to adapt by meeting Gen Z where they are. In other words, start where Gen Z currently is versus where you would like them to be. You may aspire the new generation to meet certain requirements in order to be employed by your organization; but the current reality suggests there is a sizable gap between the two. This means employers have their own discovery process to go through in order to determine some hard realities - like the skills gap from college to employment, or the large gap in staff when Baby Boomers retire. The biggest example I can think of came from the HR Digest article: how do you close the gap of motivating Gen Z to want to do the work?

Lastly, society needs to determine who is truly responsible for skills training - both soft skills and technical skills. It seems that every institution/system has passed the buck on who should take responsibility for the job readiness of the new generation. Parents assume it is the school's job to teach their children. Grade school passes the buck to college for . College appears to be passing the buck on employers for job-ready skills. The employers now appear to be raising their hands in defeat, and subsequently firing Gen Z for the lack of adequate technical and soft skills!

The fact is that the work still needs to be done to get children ready to be adults in the working world. They need to learn to read, write, and do math ... along with other STEM components. They also need to learn how to communicate, and dare I say build emotional intelligence skills as well to better handle their own emotions as well as that of others. Finally, the job-ready skills need to be taught prior to the on-the-job skills. The question of who is teaching the soft and technical skills is up to society to determine.

The Takeaways:

Gen Z is not solely responsible for their own development. They are not without work to do, but the work that employers and the rest of society have to do gets ignored far too often. Let's figure this challenge out together, and have the tough conversations that need to happen in order to make progress. Once we figure out who needs to do what work, then we can see what adaptions Generation Z will bring to the workforce - adaptions that may change the way we work for the better!