The digitally aware generation or Gen Z has a lot to offer employers, but they challenge traditional or conventional workplace rules. Business leaders have to balance company interests, policies and labour law with the need to placate GenZ employees and offer flexibility and transparency.
This is the dilemma facing many businesses operating in today’s economy, says Nicol Myburgh, Head: CRS Technologies Human Capital Management (HCM) Business Unit.
The company is a specialist services and solutions provider targeting the HCM space. It has already established itself as a premier human resource partner to businesses that must navigate an ever-increasingly complex labour environment.
Myburgh says CRS Technologies is at the forefront of existing and emerging trends, helping customers to strengthen their human resources management and remain compliant with legislation.
An example is the insight that CRS Technologies has provided into the advent of so-called ‘early finish Fridays’ that many companies are beginning to offer Gen Zs, safe in the knowledge that while they serve as a catalyst for change, they are also determined and ambitious.
“There’s no doubt that the tech-savvy Gen Z demands a different set of people skills and management practice. They favour insight, introspection and consideration of all business activities, rather than simply accepting rules, policies and procedures at face value. As more industries digitally transform, this generation of workers is entirely comfortable with change – and actually embraces it, rather than kicking against this ‘workplace revolution’ per se,” says Myburgh.
One of the tell-tale signs of a Gen Z-driven employee contingent is that they are more orientated towards the role of people in an organisation, and do not hesitate to lobby management about requirements, issues and challenges that inevitably impact the work-life balance.
As companies continue to steer their growth strategies and benefit from technology, the reality they sit with is that to attract and retain talent there must be a fair and mutually beneficial deal on the table.
“Gen Z workers are certainly prepared to work and do what must be done to succeed, but they want what they view as an amenable environment that is conducive to tech innovation, ideas, creativity, initiative and flexibility. They also place a premium on career development and opportunities,” Myburgh adds.
CRS Technologies emphasises that it take a lot more effort to manage Gen Z employees than previous generations. It takes constant communication and compromise, but as businesses prepare to empower themselves with all that’s digital, this generation of workers’ acute sense of how, when, where and why to use technology is without doubt an asset.
