Meet Your Future Workforce: Looking Beyond the Millennials
"Every generation needs a new revolution."
These are the words of American patriot, founding father and third U.S. president Thomas Jefferson. When you read something so simple, yet so profound, you understand why Jefferson was such a historic persona and shaper of history.
As you look at the workforce of the future, a revolution is indeed on the horizon. Some call it Gen F, some call it Gen Z, and others use the monikers Pluralists, Homelanders or Re Gens. There's a bit of debate about exactly when one generational boundary ends and another begins, but experts agree that it's about to hit the global corporate landscape with a bang.
Regardless of what you call them, it's time for you to know and understand what your future workforce will look like--and how to attract the best possible talent to make it a success.
"F" is for Your Future
The "F" in Generation F started with "Facebook" and refers to a demographic of future employees whose skills, expectations and demands vary greatly from those of their predecessors. This group also has been labeled Generation Z, a term less widely regarded because it may imply the end of an era; as Pluralists, for its general embracement of diversity, as Homelanders, because its members have grown up in an era of domestic and international uncertainty, and as Re Gens, because of its awareness of and commitment to the environment.
Catchy names aside, we're talking about adolescents and young adults on the cusp of college and/or their impending entrance into the global workforce.
What Do They Look Like?
This new generation of future leaders has grown up with social media and the Internet. They're a step ahead of earlier Millennials who, though naturally tech savvy, still had to adapt to these online tools. Members of Generation F have never known anything other than being perpetually connected. Cell phones and tablets are not novelties to them; they're simply part of life. As a result, they approach their career aspirations differently: they expect their work life to mirror the context of the social media that has been at the very core of their existence.
Let's paint a picture of this up-and-coming demographic segment. They are:
How Do You Attract Them?
Because they are transforming the way work gets done, members of this emerging workforce group are the catalysts for a major paradigm shift in recruitment and staffing. To attract the best of them, you'll need to ensure that your organization has:
Yes, they're getting more sophisticated. And it feels like work and life are falling into a new level of alignment, as the employees and leaders of tomorrow embrace their natural tendencies to be technically savvy, financially conservative, environmentally aware, considerate of others, self-motivated and inclined to place high value on effective communication. Not such a bad thing, when you think about it.
It's the way of the future--and in the upcoming global marketplace, it's the way of the world. So learn about it, embrace it, and welcome tomorrow's workforce with open arms. Because, like it or not, here they come!