Enable Opportunities to Contribute and Collaborate Gen Z Solutions No.5
Do you want to be a dictator? Do you only want to move from the top? Do you want an organisation where it only lives, breathes, succeeds and dies by your word? If that's the case, then good luck to you. But there's no way you can have a workforce that is productive if you do.
Gen Zer
We live in an age of perennial, endless feedback. Comments are invited on every article and social media post (half a million per minute on Facebook alone). Your input is ‘invited’ on every online purchase, printed on restaurant receipts and requested in one email after another.
Generation Z has grown up with this culture. Like everyone else they may turn down the vast majority of opportunities to give their viewpoint, but when they do want to give it they expect to be able to do so. This also applies to the workplace.
This does not always go down very well with their managers and leaders who can have a view that when they want feedback they will ask for it.
Conversely I am also frequently told that their Gen Z colleagues have no interest in engagement. They want to turn up, do their hours and go home.
Leaders and their organisations are going to receive feedback from their youngest employees whether they ask for it or not. Given this, they need to ensure those channels are open and well advertised.
How do organisations negotiate their way through this?
Here’s four aspects to consider.
1. Transparency comes first
I have CEO coaching clients who can be incredulous to receive an unsolicited, informal email (‘Hi FirstName!’) from someone two weeks into their job who has various ideas about how the organisation as a whole could be improved.
“I wouldn’t have dared to communicate with the boss directly in my first proper job at all, let alone that soon” is what I hear. When I ask what they made of the ideas they receive, my general impression is that they have not even read the email let alone considered the ideas.
The world has changed. The old adage that if you want commitment from people then they need to be involved has never been more true.
You have to make it clear that you welcome their input, no matter how much of it there might be. Without a sense of ‘you-said-we-did’ a lot of your potential future leaders will wander off very quickly.
Whether that feedback needs to fill your inbox day in day out is another story. A separate email address or other form of communication can contain it for when you are ready to see it. You might have some form of slack type channel where it can all live, and staff can engage with each other thereby acting as a filter before you go near it.
Even then open channels are not enough. You have to go past welcoming whatever arrives to actively seeking it. The ‘town hall’ meeting, the workshop, the survey, the working party are all key component parts.
In this day and age demonstrating your transparency is a continuous game.
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2. Set your boundaries
If this is making you uncomfortable, then I recommend you go a little further. As I have said elsewhere in this blog series - Always. Be. Retaining.
Your employees may well have chosen to apply to your organisation on the basis of your values and policies. There are benefits to asking them if their experience has lived up to what you advertised. If it has not it may only be a matter of perception but it will also tell you something about your organisation and the people in it that you really needed to know.
Just because they are not happy with everything does not mean they will instantly leave, but they are more likely to go sooner without an opportunity to express it.
This does not mean that you need to be available to everyone at all times to hear what they have to say, but if you do not set some boundaries that is where this leads. As I have advocated elsewhere be clear about the boundaries. For example:
When is your office door open or closed?
What should go to their manager and what should go to you?
Are the feedback channels easy to find (and how do you know they are)?
Who replies, and how long does it take to receive a response?
Will everyone receive a response?
Will others see your idea and what happened to it?
And so on.
When you are clear in this way, and authentic about how you express it, not only will you receive the feedback your employees want to be able to provide but you will also get the ideas you really need.
They may be ones which would not have come up around the C suite table, but add huge value, or the ones which provoke the idea which then does gain traction. Perhaps it could be the potential side-effect which had not been anticipated but would be very pricey to fix.
An organisation which welcomes feedback enjoys the luxuries of both avoiding the most expensive mistakes but also a workforce alert and bought in to the idea they can shape its future direction.
If you want to grow your own future leaders what else could you ask for? This is more than a feedback loop; it is about driving culture change, sharing skills and improving retention. It can be a wonderful tool for the multi-generational workplace.
3. Facilitate participation and action
There is good evidence that Gen Z is more likely to take particular kinds of action than previous generations at the same time of life. It is also more than possible that this will be a habit that sticks as they go through life, not least because the means of doing so in this day and age makes it far easier. This has also led to accusations that electronic activism is actually ‘slacktivism’ or ‘clicktivism’ (although note that this can still be highly effective).
Deloitte’s 2022 survey not only shows the different forms of participation but also that Gen Z are more likely to do so than millennials, a similar trend to that in the 2019 UK general election. The only category, out of eleven, where Gen Z are behind is the one which requires a financial commitment.
Gen Z was ahead in terms of
making choices about the type of work they do (or who they work for) based on personal ethics
posting comments online about news
volunteering with a community organisation, charity or non-profit
creating content relating to environmental, human rights, political or social issues
raising money for charity
attending a public meeting
campaigning
contact an elected representative
There is an argument that the opportunity to participate is greater when you are at a stage of life with more time on your hands, for example before parenthood. As I have said elsewhere the need for multiple sources of income to pay the bills also acts as a severe drain on time so I am not convinced by that argument.
Having said that, the two areas in which Gen Z is furthest ahead are also the ones which require the biggest time commitments, volunteering and campaigning. This is also further evidence of their commitment to their values, and perhaps a tendency towards altruism.
These activities also show how Gen Z can contribute to the success of their organisations if given the opportunity. Attending public meetings, running campaigns and creating content (amongst others) not only shows an inclination to contribute and collaborate but also a set of skills which can be utilised to good effect in the workplace, including in management positions.
4. Ensure strong support networks
Support networks in the workplace also provide opportunities for young staff to collaborate and contribute. The same applies to the social side of work, an important support network in itself. By that I do not just mean the after work drink and the staff restaurant meal (although great ideas can certainly come from those occasions), I also mean the water cooler conversation, the canteen queue and the conversation which strikes up in passing.
The topic of productivity in the remote workplace needs a blog series in itself (this is worth a look). For this blog I will only mention that creativity is a key part of productivity and the scope to collaborate at length over time is a significant aspect of that. This means having access to peers, and colleagues who may not be in the same team but the opportunity for cross-pollination offers much.
On the theme of topics which cannot be covered in any detail here, but which contribute to strong contributions and collaboration, others include mental health, professional associations, professional development, reverse mentoring and employment assistance programmes.
Remember that
On average Gen Z is far less keen on organisation charts, and the hierarchy which exists within, than their predecessors. Collaboration is not just a preference, but also seen as the route to efficiency and productivity. Open source thinking leads to better outcomes.
A company which does not value contributions or collaboration will neither be seen as one they should want to join nor one which is likely to thrive.
How can I help you?
1. Talks, workshops and seminars - I am an award-winning speaker. My talks recruiting and retaining Gen Z, understanding Gen Z, overcoming the challenges of the multigenerational workplace plus those relevant to the topics below. Speaker showreel here.
2. One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps.
3. Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.
