If there is anything the pandemic has taught us, it is how quickly we can learn, especially when rolling up our sleeves and getting busy is the only option, an article in Forbes magazine1 read in 2021.
Working on skills, whether technical or transversal, means, today more than ever, finding ways to affect employee motivation and satisfaction, work quality, process efficiency and thus organizational competitiveness. This is well known by companies that invest in training to improve their business, focusing primarily on people development to prepare for an increasingly uncertain future. In this regard, it is interesting to note from the latest LinkedInLearning report2 how almost half of business professionals, globally, expect to see an increase in the budget allocated to theirL&D (Learning & Development) department during the coming year, reaching a peak compared to the last six years, one of many signs that the value of training-and of trainers-is increasingly recognized globally.
But it is not only the world of corporate training that is growing and changing face rapidly. The people who join organizations are also evolving fast. According to the World Economic Forum3, by 2025, 27 percent of the total workforce in OECD countries will be made up of members of the so-called Generation Z, namely young people born between 1995 and 2010, currently 32 percent of the world’s population.
While the literature on the subject is enormous, and the risk of getting lost in myriad data and research is more than realistic, the risk of falling into dangerous generalizations is even more so. We often read about a generation that is technological, hyper-connected, multitasking, creative, open to change, enterprising, and with an entrepreneurial spirit unprecedented in comparison to the previous generation, but also “scarred” by recent events, such as the pandemic and the economic crisis, prone to be easily distracted and demotivated, with levels of anxiety, stress, and burnout that we have not been used to dealing with in the past.
Whatever the “correct” version of the story-if there is one-it remains crucial for companies to be ready in the face of the specific needs, desires and requirements of younger people, not only to be attractive to the most attractive talent, but also to offer them the chance to grow professionally once on board, by nurturing their potential, incentivizing them to bring out the best in themselves, to perform and, above all, to be healthy, if not happy, workers in an age when well-being and work-life balance, along with flexibility and adaptability, are real – and recurring – themes.
And so it then becomes essential for professionals in the field not only to understand what “new” skills the very young are bringing into companies and what their levers are, but also and above all the tools, techniques and methods to generate quality, attractive learning that can stimulate them to steer them toward solid and continuous growth.
But how to achieve this goal? Some ideas:
Targeting cross-skillingand cross-training, and thus the development of skills useful in multiple functions, may be the key to improving retention in the era of major resignations, as a process capable of motivating people to acquire knowledge useful on multiple fronts and to equip themselves with the right background to face a future in which the implementation of agile organizational models, management of work by objectives and the hybridity to which traditional roles and ways of working are heading seem destined to become the norm. Cross-training represents an indispensable piece to encourage new recruits to see their professional and personal growth, an aspect young people are particularly fond of, take concrete form, as well as the possibility of certifying their skills so they can “spend” them independently.
Focusing on the digitization of learning processes, with an eye toward those platforms that favor a usability of content on mobile devices, both in the design and delivery of training. This is an approach to bridge the famous gap between the skills of the old and the new generations and meet the latter’s need to address the most relevant topics with the language of speed of fruition, exploiting the micro-learning paradigm to capture the attention of a population known to be saturated with stimuli such as Generation Z. The future therefore sees trainers increasingly engaged in identifying innovative ways, technologies and content, with a social slant and devoted to interactivity, to make themselves ready to face the enormous challenges that digital transformation is bringing with it.
Ensure a certain margin of “customizability” of the educational experience, people-side, giving them the opportunity-and responsibility-to be guided by curiosity and personal interests to move independently through the available content, in a self-development perspective, and more freely identify both the educational goals and the path to reach them.
L&D professionals side, investing in cutting-edge tools, such aslearning management system (LMS) or e-learning platforms, that can enhance internal know-how and facilitate the delivery of targeted training as it is calibrated to the needs of the individual or the team, a move that sees its impact increase when supported by performance management systems that provide for the definition of development goals set by people together with their managers.
Consider tackling new topics and developing new skills, as long as these are designed for a population that, according to McKinsey4, more than any other in today’s workforce is likely to see its basic social needs unmet, and that expects training to go beyond that which is strictly necessary to perform the tasks required by the role. According to Mark Perna5, author and expert on Generation Z, that of touching on topics such as mental health, increased life-skills and social skills is perceived by this population as a strategic choice and highly functional – on par with classic evergreens such as managerialism and leadership – to affect stress management and resilience, as well as to find their own, much-desired work-life balance by being able to rely on a wider range of tools.
In short, although the sketch of the Generation Z member tends to look like a nuanced picture, there is no doubt that educating this population will require an ad hoc strategy, to be implemented with creative approaches that combine social interactions, technology, and the opportunity on the part of L&D departments to come up with themes, leverage channels, and use innovative and cutting-edge tools.
It is essential, in any case, to start bylistening to people, to avoid the risk of offering a one-size-fits-all model that is incapable of producing real and concrete improvement, not only for people, but for the entire organization.
And your company, what is it doing to figure out how to stimulate this target audience?
