Gen Z Wants Skills-Based Careers, Not Job Titles
The traditional career ladder is broken, and Gen Z knows it.
Previous generations climbed predictable hierarchies and waited patiently for their turn at promotion (often whether they wanted it or not)
Today's youngest workers are entering organisations where those pathways are collapsing.
The rise of AI is eliminating many entry-level roles that once served as crucial stepping stones, leaving Gen Z without the foundational experiences that built careers for Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.
Meanwhile, demographic shifts mean five generations now compete in a workplace where succession pipelines are thinning.
The percentage of 65+ still in the workplace continues to rise, causing a further issue in the job market for young professionals.
If you're struggling with gen z retention, the answer isn't a new table tennis table.
It's recognising that Gen Z needs a fundamentally different approach to career development, one based on tangible skills rather than time-served title changes.
And not just Gen Z; the multigenerational workplace demands that HR leaders recognise these generational differences and adapt accordingly.
What does this mean in practice?
Here's four aspects to consider.
TL;DR
AI is eliminating the entry-level roles that once built careers, leaving Gen Z without traditional stepping stones. They need visible skill development, not time-served progression. Skills-based models solve both retention problems (Gen Z can see tangible progress) and succession planning challenges (ageing workforce). This isn't accommodation; it's strategic workforce planning for thinning talent pipelines.
1. Early entry skills are disappearing
When Boomers and Gen X entered work, they started with menial tasks.
I could get all nostalgic about filing cabinets and the day I saw my first colour photocopier.
These tasks weren't glamorous, but they provided essential context about decision-making, office politics and how work actually gets done.
Gen Z has been denied this foundation.
What happens when someone joins your organisation today?
They're likely using AI tools to draft emails, conduct research and produce reports from day one.
Brilliant for productivity, not so good for learning from the small mistakes that teach critical thinking.
Efficient usually, but often with hidden costs.
Empathy, reason, wisdom, learning from failure and so on do not come from a set of AI tools.
Skills-based career paths acknowledge this reality by deliberately creating opportunities for Gen Z to gain the contextual knowledge that technology has inadvertently removed from their development journey.
In short, what does the first 90 days in your organisation need to look like so new employees can really learn the ropes?
2. The Skills Gap is a mapping problem, not a talent problem
Most organisations don't actually know what skills they have, where gaps exist or which capabilities they'll need in 18 months.
Traditional systems were not built to track skills.
When you can only see job titles, you can't spot internal mobility opportunities.
A project manager in marketing might have excellent stakeholder management skills that would transfer brilliantly to an operations role, but if your system only sees ‘Marketing Project Manager’, that connection never gets made.
Gen Z suffers most from this blind spot because they're the ones trying to move and grow. And without ‘learning the workplace’ (see number 1) they have less of a chance to see it.
Organisations which map core skills across the company support internal mobility. This means people can pivot, because they see the framework that make these pathways visible.
The real breakthrough (Deel) is cultural - it is when people view their careers as portfolios of skills rather than ladders of promotions.
Your Gen Z staff may have got there before you.
For everyone else this shift requires investment.
You need to map competencies, define what good looks like at different levels and maintain these frameworks as roles evolve.
This all takes time, but the pay off is in the agility of your organisation.
When employees can see exactly which skills they need to develop for their next move, development conversations become concrete rather than vague.
HR and L&D leads can plan a workforce and what they need much more effectively. People don’t stay in jobs the organisation doesn’t need because the alternatives are clearly laid out.
They can plot their own path. Can they do this at your organisation?
3. Skills-based models solve the succession planning crisis
The percentage of 65+ in the UK population is estimated to grow by 40% in 20 years.
And if the percentage of them in the workplace continues to grow as they have (more than doubled in last 20 years) you can see where this is heading.
Older workers are staying longer, which is positive for knowledge retention, but it also means fewer openings at senior levels.
Meanwhile, thinning talent pipelines (and lower interest in moving up the ‘ladder’) mean there are fewer people ready to step up when those experienced leaders finally do retire.
Traditional career models exacerbate this problem by assuming a steady flow of people moving through predetermined levels.
Skills-based approaches offer a solution.
When you map the skills your retiring executives possess, you can identify multiple people who hold portions of that capability rather than waiting for one perfect replacement.
A Finance Director might have deep technical accounting knowledge, strategic thinking, board-level communication and team leadership skills.
In a skills-based model, you might develop those capabilities across three different people rather than expecting one successor to have everything.
This approach is particularly valuable for the multigenerational workplace, where different generations bring different strengths.
Gen Z might lack the years of experience but could have superior technical or digital skills. Millennials might excel at collaborative leadership. Gen X might bring crisis management wisdom.
When you focus on skills rather than seniority, you can assemble complementary teams rather than searching for impossible unicorns.
This benefits Gen Z specifically because it removes the gatekeeping that says ‘you need 15 years' experience’ when what's actually needed is a specific set of capabilities they might already possess or could develop rapidly.
4. Technology is the enabler for skills-based careers
Manually tracking skills for hundreds or thousands of employees was functionally impossible with spreadsheets and annual reviews.
Modern platforms, learning management systems and competency tracking tools change this equation.
They can maintain real-time visibility of skill distributions across the workforce, identify gaps, suggest development pathways and enable internal mobility matching that would have required armies of HR coordinators previously.
What’s more, it is in your employee’s interest to keep it up to date (but don’t let go of the ‘approval’ button).
For Gen Z, this technological enablement is particularly significant because they're comfortable with platforms that track and visualise their development. It plays well to Gen Z characteristics.
They've grown up with progress bars and achievement unlocks in gaming and education technology.
Translating that experience to workplace development feels intuitive to them in ways it might not across the full range of age diversity in your workplace.
When they can log into a system and see their competency profile, identify which skills they need for their target role and access relevant learning resources, it matches their expectations for how development should work.
The challenge for HR is selecting and implementing systems that actually deliver this vision.
The opportunity is to use the young experience you have in the room.
Then combine it with that of your managers so that everyone engages with them rather than viewing them as another layer of bureaucracy.
Remember that
Traditional career ladders are broken because AI eliminates many of the entry-level roles that once built foundational skills, leaving Gen Z without the stepping stones previous generations used.
Gen Z prioritises development speed and transferable skills over tenure-based progression because their formative experiences taught them that loyalty doesn't guarantee security.
Skills-based models solve retention problems by making progress visible through continuous competency development rather than annual review cycles that feel arbitrarily slow.
This isn't accommodation for ‘difficult’ young workers; it's strategic workforce planning that also solves succession challenges and enables internal mobility across all generations
Are you a Learning and Development or Human Resources professional looking for a Talent Intelligence platform that can help you implement the ideas from this article?
Take a look at https://mayamaya.ai/
It goes beyond resumes, personality tests and static assessments to create a living, multidimensional understanding of your people. It evaluates 84 soft skills, emotional intelligence, behavioural traits and job skills to reveal true human capability.
When the resignation letter you dread the most wouldn’t you prefer to know the skills succession plan was already in place?
FAQ
Q: Won't skills-based career paths mean we have to promote people before they're ready?
No. Skills-based progression means measuring readiness through demonstrated capability rather than tenure. You're not lowering standards; you're making standards explicit and measurable. If someone can demonstrate they have the skills required for a role, they're ready. If they can't, you can identify precisely which capabilities need development rather than giving vague feedback about "needing more experience."
Q: This sounds expensive and time-consuming to implement. Is it worth it?
It’s an investment but the alternative is more expensive. Calculate what turnover costs you in recruitment fees, lost productivity and knowledge loss. Compare that to the investment in mapping competencies and implementing skills frameworks.
Q: How do we handle situations where someone has the skills but lacks the maturity or judgment for a senior role?
Judgment and maturity are skills too. They should be explicitly included in your competency frameworks, particularly for leadership roles. Decision-making under uncertainty, political navigation and ethical reasoning are all skills that can be described, assessed and developed. If someone lacks these capabilities, you can identify that clearly rather than using ‘not ready yet’ as a catch-all rejection.
Alex Atherton is an award-winning Gen Z speaker and generations expert who helps organisations navigate multigenerational workplace challenges. Author of The Snowflake Myth, he specialises in Gen Z recruitment and retention, and leadership development.
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