Millennials and Gen Z – Challenges for HR and L&D

Both Millennials and Gen Z grew up with technology around them in their daily lives, both at home and in the classroom. These cohorts are receptive to learning and development experiences but easily become disengaged if the learning content and delivery is not personalized and relevant to them. Although organizations are aware of the tech-savviness of these generations, many are still limiting themselves to using outdated learning and development delivery tools and platforms. HR and L&D must offer relevant skills development and training that will best engage the younger generations, and in turn, help move the business forward. HR and talent managers are challenged to stay ahead of technology and ensure their learning content is truly tailored to meet the needs of their diverse work forces.

Millennials want meaningful jobs that align their professional capabilities and their ethical values. They also favor social enterprises and organizations with meaningful missions and commitment to giving back to the community, doing their part to protect the environment, and companies committed to providing their workforces with positive employee experiences. This generation is looking for roles where they can do meaningful work and develop their careers. Millennials also want flexibility and do not view their careers in the same way as the generations that came before them, they demand more than just a 401k and casual Fridays. Training is key to Millennial engagement.

Gen Z is however more focused on loyalty and speed. They have a strong need to feel appreciated in the workplace and expect brands and employers to provide feedback on a regular basis. They want to advance rapidly, and most of them are also known as early-starters, meaning that they are more likely to begin their careers earlier than millennials, as soon as from 16-18 years of age. 

Millennials were mainly born between 1977 – 1995, although it has been agreed that some people may belong to this cohort even if they were born four years before or after. Generation Z (also known as Post-Millennials, the iGeneration, Founders, Plurals, or the Homeland Generation) is widely considered to be made up of individuals born in the mid to late ’90, succeeding the demographic cohort consisting of millennials. Gen Z had grown up with digital technology and social media, making the way they interact and behave both in their personal, as well as professional lives, very different. 

Favored more than paid vacations and high salary packages, learning and development opportunities are the top valued job benefits in the eyes of this cohort. These generations are keen on continually learning, doing meaningful work, and steadily advancing their careers. They are eager to continue learning and develop themselves further. They also appreciate new technology, having been exposed to technology since childhood, and are typically eager to be the early adopters when it comes to new software and tools.

Training is key to millennial engagement and this generation highly values training opportunities. Being that millennials are highly committed to developing their careers further and value opportunities for ongoing training, they also enjoy flexibility and learning at their own pace in order to maximize efficiency of time management. This group of workers likes to squeeze bits of learning time into their schedule throughout the day, perhaps while commuting or eating lunch. Allowing your employees to use their own mobile devices and set the pace for their learning, can help them to be more enthusiastic about completing their learning and training requirements. and at their own pace. They are tech-savvy and enjoy learning with the latest e-learning technology. Engage millennials through digital learning, social learning, microlearning, personalized content, gamification, and provide them with regular feedback.

Unlike their predecessors, Gen Z learners value financial incentives and career advancement. They are willing to put more effort into learning when there is a monetary benefit coming out of it, or a new career opportunity. Employers need to strongly consider introducing micro-learning and self-paced learning strategies if they want to get Gen Z on board. Considering they grew up in a very fast-changing world, this generation is aware of the fact that their current hard skills might become redundant or unnecessary within the next one or two decades. This can also be a highly motivating factor when it comes to getting them to learn.

There is still a lot of confusion when it comes to millennials and Gen Z, especially when trying to distinguish them. However, the differences are already quite clear. Having grown up with digital devices all around, fast connections to the internet and an overflow of information, this new generation can often seem like they are easily distracted, with limited attention spans and not really able to focus. At the same time, they are also able to multi-task much better than their predecessors, the millennials. Individuals born in the late ’90 have grown up in a more connected world, so they are generally more global oriented, but with an individualistic focus, characteristic that often displays in the workplace as well, where they can be perceived as not being “team-players”.

This year, millennials are starting to take over the Baby Boomer generation in the workplace, so successful training and learning delivery is paramount for equipping this group with the right technical and soft skills needed to achieve business growth. Either you provide this cohort with a personalized learning experience or you could risk losing your millennial talent. Millennials value digital learning, social learning, gamification in learning, and personalized content. Aside from their learning preferences and values, they believe in flexible working models (and flexible learning opportunities – like mobile learning at their own pace) and highly value regular feedback sessions (this way they can continuously improve and stay on track with their career development). They also enjoy working on diverse teams and highly value inclusion and diversity – they want opportunities to learn from both their peers and upper management.