Generation Z

#Z

There are about 983,000 people aged between 10 and 24 in New Zealand, compared with just over a million Millennials, 929,000 Generation Xers and 817,000 Baby Boomers, according to Statistics New Zealand

The Age Of Digital Transformation

For many decades we have followed the traditional method where the support functions were steered to deliver on operations for strategic decisions best thought out at a corporate level. We have got better at delivery and presentation, but paperwork has largely been replaced by emails. Many employees at the support level utilise their expertise to deliver on information that is repetitive and mundane as their KPIs are structured around departmental performance. As digital technology has advanced support functions require a reorganisation of activities and greater inclusion to be prepared for the future of work.

The Business Landscape

A business case carefully considers the macro and micro environment identifying competitors, evaluating strengths and weaknesses and validating ideas. A company can align itself from outward in or vice versa while building resources. Careful considerations are given to financial plans and the vision, mission and goals are well articulated. At the crux is the ability to have co-workers that are cohesive and can move forward diligently and prudently.

Mind The Gap

The best summary of a team I have heard is a bunch of people trying to do the very best given the resources and the direction chalked out. I like this observation as it mentions of delivering on the best; for an individual to deliver their very best the environment needs to be conducive and he/she needs to feel valued. According to Stats NZ there are just under a million Gen Z and research indicates they place a very high value on flexibility. The Business case needs to dig deeper on how best to acquire this new talent so that a team can deliver on its best and create an environment to adopt to a changing world. The traits of Gen Z below highlight the need for organisations to engage the new workforce so that a vast majority of them stay beyond a couple of years.

The Impact Of Doing Nothing

One can still follow the traditional business model, make incremental changes towards a digital future and hope all on board put in their very best. The environment however demands a change, as one of my professors aptly put it, we need to derive value in use and not value in exchange. The exchange of goods or services provides a deterministic value however once we begin to touch on the intangible benefits the value in use is exponential.

Productivity

Among OECD countries NZ does not sit well in terms of productivity but the direction of the arrow will be upwards if teams give their very best in a conducive environment. Attracting new talent on board especially Gen Z will require us to go beyond the norm. Digital tools like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not only assist in increasing productivity but will allow for flexibility of resources. As projects gets varied and complex these digital tools deliver on ROI if planned properly but also deliver on intangible benefits; employees performing value adding activities and remaining engaged in the workforce.

The infographic below taken from the world economic forum highlight the skills of the future, this is aligned with research on Gen Z where they need assistance from businesses to develop soft skills. If we want our employees to engage meaningfully with one another and with clients, then being busy is the catchphrase we need to avoid. We need to upskill and educate how to better action mundane and repetitive tasks with the aid of Bots (a software program that can run scheduled or unscheduled tasks autonomously).

Conclusion

If you are looking to increase the efficiency of your team evaluate the task at hand and the tools for consideration, evaluate the workforce and create a conducive environment. Peter Drucker once said, “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”