The Kids Are Alright: The REAL Truth About Gen Z Work Culture in 2025
In this fast-paced episode of The People MBA, hosts James and Bryan tackle the essential elements of a successful Gen Z talent acquisition strategy. They break down key differences in how this generation approaches work, communication preferences, and what they expect from employers. From the importance of social impact to micro-learning opportunities, discover actionable insights and practical tips to make your organization more attractive to Gen Z talent. Download the comprehensive checklist mentioned in this episode to evaluate your current approach and identify areas for improvement. Sponsored by Plum.
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Transcript
Alright, well Brian has stopped typing, so let's go ahead and do
Speaker:this podcast thing 'cause I'm sick of hearing Click clack on the type board.
Speaker:Here's the deal.
Speaker:We all know how important Gen Z, I'm sorry, Brian, gen Z for those
Speaker:of you on the other side of the pod, but I'm gonna say Gen Z 'cause
Speaker:that's, you know how I say it.
Speaker:We all know how important Gen Z is the incoming generation.
Speaker:They're gonna radically change tech, radically change work itself.
Speaker:They've been.
Speaker:Born into this technology that some of us are still grappling with on a daily basis.
Speaker:They have completely different ways of looking at what work is, what
Speaker:work means, why they should do it.
Speaker:And everybody loves to pontificate.
Speaker:But not today.
Speaker:No, not today.
Speaker:We're not doing that.
Speaker:What we're doing is we're getting down to brass tax on what are some of the
Speaker:things you need to do to build a proper.
Speaker:Gen Z strategy, talent acquisition strategy, and that is exactly what we're
Speaker:gonna talk about in what I believe is going to be our shortest episode thus far.
Speaker:When we get back,
Speaker:here we go, an episode so fast, even Gen Z won't get distracted halfway through.
Speaker:Welcome to the people MBA.
Speaker:This week's episode is brought to you by Plum.
Speaker:Let's see who called in.
Speaker:Thanks for calling the people MBA.
Speaker:We're probably busy doing paperwork to buy our moon based headquarters.
Speaker:If you're the type to leave voice messages.
Speaker:Go for it.
Speaker:Hi James and Brian.
Speaker:It's Tracy Parsons from Flocky, and I was wondering, what do you think businesses
Speaker:need to do to be more attractive to Gen Z?
Speaker:Let me know.
Speaker:All right, let's be the only podcast who references Gen Z or any generation
Speaker:without having to establish what years those, those people were born.
Speaker:'cause I think at this point that horse is dead.
Speaker:Uh, I don't think we need to establish what that is.
Speaker:You all know the Gen Z are the youngins, the youths, uh,
Speaker:the kids as they were to me.
Speaker:That's, that's, that's what it feels like.
Speaker:The, they're so damn cute.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:But we're gonna have to hire these people, and we all know via TikTok,
Speaker:via Instagram, via reels, via Snapchat.
Speaker:If you're still into that sort of thing, we, this is a very different audience of
Speaker:people, and if we're going to succeed in hiring them, we gotta think differently.
Speaker:And Brian has put together a very nice.
Speaker:CH checklist.
Speaker:Checklist literally isn't, it doesn't do it justice.
Speaker:It's really a sense of how do you think about and what are the
Speaker:things you should be considering when thinking about your Gen Z or
Speaker:Gen Z talent acquisition strategy.
Speaker:How did I do that to intro that, Brian?
Speaker:Does that that sound like what you did?
Speaker:What you built?
Speaker:I. It,
Speaker:it definitely does, but, um, it's definitely Gen ZI mean, I
Speaker:dunno what the Z business is.
Speaker:So if you're expecting a Gen Z checklist, it's not, it's a Gen
Speaker:Z checklist.
Speaker:I'm afraid.
Speaker:I, I will quote Pulp Fiction.
Speaker:Z's dead baby.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:And by the way, we now owe Quentin Tarantino money just for saying that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Alright, Brian, first off, let's talk about, let, let's skip the
Speaker:stuff about why Gen Z matters.
Speaker:Let's talk about how they are different and just some ideas of how
Speaker:you approach changing your talent acquisition strategy to meet this
Speaker:brand new audience of new workers.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I think first of all, the, the sad truth James is, um, they're not the Jins.
Speaker:They, they used to be the Jins.
Speaker:I, I don't want, I don't want to make you feel really, really old here, too late,
Speaker:but, but actually we are very close to Gen Z. Um, running the universe, like being
Speaker:in charge of all the things, you know.
Speaker:Uh, the fact is the vast majority of the most valuable jobs, uh, globally.
Speaker:You're probably trying to convince a Gen Z to take the role.
Speaker:You know, it's, it's a big, it's a big percentage of most people's
Speaker:talent acquisition strategy.
Speaker:And the fact is, if we just look at like, what is branding for
Speaker:us from a, for a second, it's.
Speaker:The idea of differentiation, it's the idea of being more relevant to, to
Speaker:your audience than your competitors.
Speaker:And it's finding some way of being memorable, uh, because if you're
Speaker:different, uh, and relevant, but instantly forgettable,
Speaker:then that kind of doesn't work.
Speaker:But, um, so, so let's just, let's just hone in on one of those three.
Speaker:Let's just look at relevance for a second.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Gen Z want things differently.
Speaker:They want things a certain way.
Speaker:They are impatient and inflexible about certain amount of things.
Speaker:Love it or hate it.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:But it's the reality and it's not changing anytime soon.
Speaker:So if you want to win and you want your strategy to work, then we can't
Speaker:just treat your talent audience.
Speaker:As one homogenous sea of potential talent, it's just not gonna cut it.
Speaker:Or at least if you wanna be more competitive, the smarter thing to
Speaker:do is to segment your audience.
Speaker:And if Gen Z is is important, it's probably time we just
Speaker:ran through a checklist to say, okay, are we as relevant?
Speaker:As we could or should be if this talent is really important to our organization.
Speaker:So there's the premise for this.
Speaker:Um, I think it's definitely on the mind of a lot of TA leaders I talk to.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:So I wanted to put a, a tangible list together so people can download this
Speaker:and just very quickly at a glance grade how you are showing up against
Speaker:how relevant you are with, uh, with this segments of your audience.
Speaker:So that's, that's the premise.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:No, it's a great, it's a great document.
Speaker:I'm, I'm staring at it right now.
Speaker:Uh, by the way, I forgot to mention, this document is brought to you by Plum.
Speaker:Thank you Plum for sponsoring this week's episode.
Speaker:Uh, thrilled you could be a part of this.
Speaker:And yeah, obviously Gen Z is, is important.
Speaker:So Brian.
Speaker:I'm looking at the list.
Speaker:Everybody who's listening to this podcast or watching this video has
Speaker:already downloaded this, this guideline.
Speaker:I know they have.
Speaker:'cause of course they have.
Speaker:Why wouldn't they have?
Speaker:And they're looking at it and they're going and they're seeing things
Speaker:like clear pur purpose and value alignment, transparent communication,
Speaker:real employee voices and stories.
Speaker:Dive in.
Speaker:Where are some places you have most commonly seen?
Speaker:People assuming their communication, their.
Speaker:Brand work is aligned to Gen Z. When you're saying, well,
Speaker:actually, actually just a minute there, friends, it's really not.
Speaker:Where are some obvious mistakes people are making most commonly?
Speaker:Well, um, the format and the way in which organizations are dictating how
Speaker:you engage with the, with, with the organization, um, can be a big mistake.
Speaker:Uh, a big issue for, um.
Speaker:F for being relevant to Gen Z straight out the gate.
Speaker:Um, you know, they want fast, short, micro, iterative communications.
Speaker:You know, they, they, they want instant feedback.
Speaker:Um, not filling out forms, sending emails, watching long videos.
Speaker:You know, we think video, you know, it's all about video
Speaker:and this, that and the other.
Speaker:So, actually.
Speaker:Gen, gen Z would prefer a quick slack message, actually.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or, or a DM in, uh, Instagram or, you know, wherever they are, uh, TikTok.
Speaker:So, so just, it's, it's not even like what the message is.
Speaker:It's, it's how you're delivering the message and how you are
Speaker:facilitating a two way engaging conversation that is just expected.
Speaker:Yeah, so what you're really talking about is breaking down some of these
Speaker:behemoth monolithic platforms that we're so used to building like career
Speaker:sites that are just four pages of, okay.
Speaker:One is the why work here.
Speaker:One is the DEI page, one is the list of jobs, one is the culture page and
Speaker:it never hasn't changed in three years.
Speaker:'cause let's be fair, getting that thing out the door the first
Speaker:time was such a pain in the butt.
Speaker:So you're like, I never changing that again.
Speaker:Which is fairly monolithic that we have a single LinkedIn
Speaker:channel meant for everyone.
Speaker:Got a single TikTok or whatever, that it is meant for everyone, and
Speaker:you're saying, no, it's gotta be shrunk, broken down, not spoonfed.
Speaker:I think that's, that's obviously pejorative, and I'm not trying to say
Speaker:that, but what I'm saying is I and I, and it makes sense to me because this is
Speaker:an audience who is getting, I. Perpetual streams of information at any given time,
Speaker:trying to make them read Moby Dick while they're listening to four albums at the
Speaker:same time, may not be a winning strategy.
Speaker:It may be.
Speaker:Instead, you boil it down to core ideas, feed them as they need them, and
Speaker:over time they'll start to absorb 'em.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Is that a fair assessment?
Speaker:It absolutely is.
Speaker:It absolutely is.
Speaker:And that's just one example of a, a tactic of how you show up and
Speaker:dictate the terms of engaging with your organization, your brand.
Speaker:Now, um, let's take the conversation somewhere else and look at how
Speaker:your brand shows up and how you are assessed by Gen Z. Um.
Speaker:What's your, uh, I call it citizenship, but Gen Z is really, really, really
Speaker:conscious of an organization's ethics and social impact such that
Speaker:this used to be a nice to have or a cherry on the cake, or, you know.
Speaker:Something peripheral in an organization.
Speaker:You know, like Patagonia is a great example of like, their whole
Speaker:organization is focused on making, um, the world better than they found it.
Speaker:There isn't many of those organizations.
Speaker:There's a lot, um, there's, there's, there's a lot, but there's, there's,
Speaker:there's more organizations who are just money oriented, just all about,
Speaker:here's what you get in terms of your career path and all the rest of it.
Speaker:Gen Z want to know that they can go to sleep at night.
Speaker:With a clean conscience or also they've got the opportunity to
Speaker:contribute to making the world a better place in some way, shape, or form.
Speaker:And this used to be so low down on the priority list of somebody
Speaker:making a career decision.
Speaker:It was almost not really worth investing any time or effort thinking
Speaker:about not the case with Gen Z.
Speaker:Yeah, not the case with Gen Z such that it's now, um, a competitive opportunity
Speaker:to introduce some sort of social impact just to be relevant with this generation.
Speaker:This episode is so short.
Speaker:There's hardly time to tell you to subscribe on YouTube
Speaker:or wherever you get podcasts.
Speaker:I think there's a level of, and I'm gonna use a term that is.
Speaker:Again, o obviously pejorative, but not meaning it to be.
Speaker:There's this sense of signaling, right?
Speaker:We all know it's virtue signaling or whatever.
Speaker:That's all it's, you know, stupid and it's performative and all that stuff.
Speaker:I think very often this is a generation where everybody's signaling all
Speaker:the time, but they're aware of what they're signaling used to be.
Speaker:I. People didn't notice that they all wearing the same shirt, the same tie,
Speaker:and the same dress, and the same shoes.
Speaker:Like they didn't notice that they all kind of fit in these boxes, and
Speaker:it was just a natural assumption.
Speaker:Oh, we'll, we'll tribal up a little bit.
Speaker:But now it's a, it's a, it's a audience that says, I'm trying
Speaker:to tell the world who I am.
Speaker:I want people to understand me, to see me, to, to understand what I'm about,
Speaker:and I wanna find like people and that because people are more than one thing
Speaker:and they're not just gay, they're not just black, they're not just college educated.
Speaker:They're not just anything that they have this.
Speaker:Internal diversity of who they are and things they care about, that when
Speaker:they talk about, when they want your company to say, we stand for this,
Speaker:that is the signal they wanna hear.
Speaker:To say, at least you care to understand that you are part of a larger system.
Speaker:That you are aware that being a company comes with baggage, that you
Speaker:have a responsibility to give back.
Speaker:You have a responsibility to be part of the larger universe and that.
Speaker:This is an audience that wants to know.
Speaker:We may not always agree on everything, but I wanna know that you are playing
Speaker:the same kind of game that I'm playing.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And you know, uh, if, if you do have enough to be relevant to Gen
Speaker:Z, so such that they join your organization, then that's great
Speaker:and you've achieved something.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Really fundamental with what we're trying to do here.
Speaker:However, however, uh, gen Z won't tolerate not having their expectations met, um,
Speaker:once, once they're working for you.
Speaker:So keeping hold of this talent has never been harder.
Speaker:I. Yeah, it's never been harder to keep hold of, to satisfy Gen
Speaker:Z and it's not, they're entitled and then they're not sort of, um,
Speaker:unreasonable and all of these things.
Speaker:They just have a better structural
Speaker:reasons for that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They, they just have a better sense of what they're willing to
Speaker:sacrifice and commit to, and they have a much more clear and focused
Speaker:idea of what they're in it for.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, you know, these are the, these are true digital natives.
Speaker:They're not gonna tolerate.
Speaker:Terrible technology, inferior resources, uh, when they know that
Speaker:there's something better out there.
Speaker:Um, you know, they expect seamless technology experiences.
Speaker:Um, they wanna learn on their own terms.
Speaker:They, they want options and a say in how they build their own skills and
Speaker:personal and professional development.
Speaker:Um, you know, so all of these things.
Speaker:Are really important.
Speaker:Uh, and if they're not there, then you risk losing this talent, um, faster
Speaker:than, um, faster than the time it took for them to join in the first place.
Speaker:So this isn't just a talent acquisition checklist, this is a how
Speaker:relevant are we as an organization to Gen Z from a, an acquisition and
Speaker:a retention perspective as well.
Speaker:And there's lots of obviously inroads to things like learning and development
Speaker:where learning development is so classically like, okay, everybody, you're
Speaker:a manager now let's go take a four day class on how not to get sued by people.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You're a manager now.
Speaker:You've been trained.
Speaker:Uh, this is an audience that.
Speaker:I once referred to this audience as the, um, the Keanu generation, the matrix
Speaker:generation, because everything they ever wanted to learn was a YouTube video away.
Speaker:Like it was 10 minutes away from I know, kung fu.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It was the all, it was like almost downloaded into your brain,
Speaker:and that is the expectation.
Speaker:But companies are still acting like, okay, everybody.
Speaker:Now let's open our textbooks to page four and we're gonna read aloud and.
Speaker:That, and that's just one instance, right?
Speaker:Anything HR does from paperwork and claims and uh, you know, just how
Speaker:you're providing benefits and what those benefits are and what they look like and
Speaker:who they're for and who they're framed for, all of that has to be reinvented.
Speaker:And so it is not just a recruiting thing, you're right.
Speaker:It is com.
Speaker:It is the reinvention of understanding what culture at a business truly means for
Speaker:this audience, because they perceive it and think about it very, very differently.
Speaker:It's a wake up call because let's be super real and honest here.
Speaker:It's far easier, quicker, and cost effective to change the shop window just
Speaker:to be more shiny and attractive to Gen Z.
Speaker:But if you, if you are successful in hiring all of these people.
Speaker:And you have an organization that is just not willing to shift and cater for them.
Speaker:They will leave faster than, you know, it's just, and it's just not conducive.
Speaker:It's just, it's not smart, you know?
Speaker:But, um, all the generations.
Speaker:For example, open to structured training programs, gen Z, they
Speaker:prefer micro learning, self-paced content, social learning.
Speaker:I'm gonna push
Speaker:back on that.
Speaker:I'm gonna push back on that.
Speaker:I think part of what's changed is the demand, what people
Speaker:expect, what people want.
Speaker:And I think when you're surrounded by how Amazon, Netflix at all work and
Speaker:everything is on demand, and everything is a button, and everything's trackable
Speaker:and everything understands that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You realize that the standard learning class of four days
Speaker:worth of bullshit was, is.
Speaker:Exactly that bullshit.
Speaker:Look, I'm Gen X, you know, I. I didn't know there were options.
Speaker:I didn't demand that because I didn't think companies would ever listen.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:And I think part of it is, it's not that I wanted it that way.
Speaker:I hate every second of that training and that approach and how things work.
Speaker:I just felt like the only person who would be like, this sucks.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And looking around people going, oh, I'm taking my notes the way I'm supposed to.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Gen X specifically is the transition from baby boomer to
Speaker:something very, very different.
Speaker:And we only got pieces of it.
Speaker:We only saw, you know, some change, but we could see how it was going to change.
Speaker:And Gen Z is really starting to, to take that promise and expanding
Speaker:on, opening up, making it bloom.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But you know, that's a really good example and.
Speaker:You and I want those things just as much as Gen Z.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But we're willing to tolerate different and Gen Z are not.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Say says, one business owner to another who clearly rejected the entire
Speaker:process and mass as hard as they could.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I, if we coil it and asterisk get thusly, yes.
Speaker:I will accept the
Speaker:premise.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:But you know.
Speaker:I was gonna give another example, but maybe we're getting, uh, we're, we're
Speaker:giving given too much away here, but, uh, career pathing is a big one that I
Speaker:think, um, is something that really needs to be interrogated and, and assessed.
Speaker:And I think all generations, you know, often focused on
Speaker:climbing a defined ladder.
Speaker:You look at Jen.
Speaker:I nearly said Gen Z, then you nearly got me.
Speaker:Ah,
Speaker:welcome,
Speaker:welcome.
Speaker:Um, gen Z, you know, they do value skills, they do value title, um, what,
Speaker:you know, what, what's on their, uh, their email signature, but they want
Speaker:multiple career experiences early on.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Multiple opportunities, um, to take their career path in, in a
Speaker:weird and wonderful direction.
Speaker:If, if, if, if something is attractive or gets their attention, um,
Speaker:yeah, they, they have a better, stronger sense of their own autonomy
Speaker:and willingness to learn and willingness to try new things where, you know, my
Speaker:dad was on a career path from the day he started at his company and it's,
Speaker:it, you know, he was smart enough to shut up if he didn't like it.
Speaker:Like that's just where you live and.
Speaker:This is a place where they say, look, I can invent myself 17 different ways.
Speaker:I wanna be my authentic self.
Speaker:And there's all sorts of coded language around what that looks like.
Speaker:But yeah, they do have that sense of why can't I spend a year over
Speaker:in that team because it's going to make me more valuable, more
Speaker:interesting, more well-rounded, and I can bring ideas from multiple.
Speaker:Uh, functions, multiple, uh, domains and bring them together
Speaker:to find something brand new.
Speaker:And that's really what businesses should be investing in.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And if they're not gonna get growth impact and recognition where they are,
Speaker:they're less likely to stay long term.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:You know, so the tolerance for, um, putting up with less than satisfactory
Speaker:conditions is, is way lower.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:I promise the shortest episode in our history, in our long and
Speaker:exalted history of 14 episodes.
Speaker:Yeah, let's call it 14.
Speaker:This is definitely it.
Speaker:We definitely hit that and I, 'cause I just wanna avoid two old dudes talking
Speaker:about these young kids and, and their existence on our proverbial lawns.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I think definitely go check out people NBA go download the the checklist.
Speaker:Go download the guide.
Speaker:It is incredibly valuable helping you score and kind of giving your sense,
Speaker:giving you a sense of, uh, how much work do we really have to do here and
Speaker:how far have we fallen behind because we've not quite paid attention to this.
Speaker:So go check that out.
Speaker:The download and this episode is brought to you by Plum.
Speaker:Thank you Plum for sponsoring this.
Speaker:And that is what we have.
Speaker:We have, uh.
Speaker:Some plans for what's next, but we're not gonna spill.
Speaker:We're not just, we're not there yet.
Speaker:So thanks for listening.
Speaker:Thanks for being a part of this.
Speaker:And, uh, tell people about the people NBA, let 'em know.
Speaker:They can get it on YouTube, on podcasts, or just subscribe.
Speaker:So Brian, any last words about Gen Z?
Speaker:Yeah, it's Gen Z. Thanks everybody.
Speaker:No,
Speaker:it's not.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Alright, thanks everybody.
Speaker:See you later.
Speaker:Well, they promised quick and they delivered.
Speaker:Sometimes just meeting expectations wins the day.
Speaker:Anyway, make sure to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts, and if
Speaker:this episode was useful, tell a friend.
Speaker:Until next time, later, tater.
