Are Gen Z the wave of new idealists some observers have portrayed, or are they the post-values generation for whom anything goes?
Idealism has always been the prerogative of youth, but idealism for Gen Z may look very different from that of past generations. Research shows that Generation Z is more idealistic than other youth cohorts. They are more concerned about the well-being of the planet, humanity and their communities than the older twenty-something cohorts. They often pay attention to values issues when considering a new job: Do they believe in the company’s mission? Do they approve of how you do business?
What is confusing for many managers is that they find it difficult to define Gen Z on the value spectrum in a way that they can understand. Despite widespread idealism, leaders report that it’s harder than ever to find young entry-level employees who fit good values.
Old stereotypes don’t hold up for Gen Z
The reality is that Generation Z cannot be so easily ideologically fixed. Having grown up with instant access to endless amounts of information, Gen Zs are just as comfortable customizing their moral compasses as they are their social media feeds. According to McKinsey research:
“Seventy-six percent of Gen Z say they are religious. At the same time, they are also the generation most open to a variety of topics that don’t necessarily align with the broader beliefs of their professed religions. For example, 20 percent of them do not consider themselves exclusively heterosexual, as opposed to 10 percent for other generations. Sixty percent of Gen Z believe same-sex couples should be able to adopt children—ten percentage points more than people of other generations.”
In other words, stereotypes that older generations once took for granted as shortcuts to hiring are no longer reliable ways to evaluate a potential new hire.
You simply cannot know deep inner values from interviews, tests, references and resumes. Trying to understand who employees are deep down is the wrong tactic: How can hiring managers be expected to understand what a person’s inner motivations really are in a few short weeks? In an interview, it is much easier – and more useful – to assess behavior than to determine someone’s personal values.
Define good citizenship in the workplace
The most reliable way to make this hiring technique work is to define what it means to be a good citizen in your organization. What actions or behaviors make you a good citizen in your workplace? What does it really mean to be a good citizen in the workplace? The key is to focus on the specifics: Safeway made a splash in the late 1990s when it asked store employees to make eye contact with customers and smile. This was controversial at the time, but at least the requirement was clear.
Decide what really matters in your organization and simplify it. Whatever values you want employees to practice, you have to do the hard work to make the intangible more tangible. What does discretion, courtesy, honesty or self-sacrifice look like in your workplace? Describe it, describe it and break it down.
Then put these specifics to good use during interviews by asking candidates about job behavior requirements:
- Will they be comfortable performing the described actions?
- What does exhibiting this type of behavior mean or mean to them? Does their perspective match that of your team or organization?
- Does the individual have experience demonstrating these behaviors in the particular workplace? Using the Safeway example, has the applicant previously used positive body language with customers?
- Finally, make it clear that these behaviors will be a key performance indicator for this job. Beware of pushback: While someone who wants to be judged solely on results may sound motivated and ambitious, they may actually be hiding a bad attitude.
Before you apply this approach to your next wave of hires, beware: young people have huge BS detectors. If they sense that you are not really serious about these behavioral requirements at work – meaning there will be no supervision or accountability – they will just tell you what you want to hear. So don’t worry about being shy. Tell them you want their honesty to save you both the wasted time and effort of making a bad hire.
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