How to make the difference with Gen Z candidates and be perceived as employer of choice

Delia Barbu – Operations Excellence Manager at Gi Group Holding Romania and Aiste Gauciene – HR Manager at Gi Group Holding Baltics discuss how to make businesses more attractive for younger employee age cohorts. With the global economy going through an intense period of disruptive transformation, businesses find themselves struggling to source talent with the skills they need to ensure continued market viability and commercial success. In fact, sources like LinkedIn and the World Economic Forum (WEF) report that recruiting and hiring new candidates will increasingly become skills-focused with companies seeking immediate proof of individuals’ knowledge and potential ability to grow or skill up into new roles. Interestingly though, this reality also has to accommodate a generational shift in the labour force, where younger employees have different values and priorities and, for example, 88% of them will research and confirm values-alignment with a business’ company culture prior to accepting a new role. This situation is common on markets almost everywhere in the world when it comes to younger age cohorts: “Gen Z candidates recognise the importance of acquiring diverse skills to adapt to the evolving job market and to stand out in their professional pursuits. Moreover, in the Baltics, where the tech industry is growing, this emphasis on skills resonates well with the region’s evolving economic landscape. Gen Z, often tech-savvy and information-driven, recognises that demonstrating and emphasising existing skills can provide more assurance in employability. One should bear in mind that Gen Z still represents a very young age cohort with relatively little work experience. So the assessments of their own skills could be hyperbolised or, depending on previous experience (past jobs, the pandemic years, war situations), underestimated,” explains Aiste Gauciene – HR Manager Baltics. With younger generations, businesses’ skills search has also been heavily impacted by the aforementioned shorter period of time they have been in the workforce. Companies need to distinguish between skills and experience. In many cases, younger workers have the formal training in various skill sets required by modern businesses, they just have not always had the opportunity to test and refine those skills in practice. In fact, Delia Barbu – Operations Excellence Manager at Gi Group Holding Romania clarifies, “Gen Z candidates are a niche group of very intelligent and creative individuals who understand perfectly what a business environment expects of them. They are highly market-oriented and are aware of their own potential. Gen Z workers are eager to develop both professionally and in terms of their personal brand. They are a very dynamic age cohort and are highly capable of learning and developing all the digital skills today’s job market demands.” Still, companies looking to hire and onboard Gen Z talent need to pay attention to how deep skills and specific process knowledge run and then determine if further training and upskilling needs to be integrated into career development programmes. Aiste Gauciene adds, “Gen Z candidates are expected to be digitally fluent, but finding individuals with a deep understanding of specific technologies or work operations and process tools can be challenging. One thing I personally noticed, and this definitely does not apply to everyone, is how communication skills have changed. Gen Z tends to favour digital communication platforms and working with social media: this could be an issue when workers are meant to engage with clients face-to-face, by phone, etc. Sometimes it’s a problem even with work colleagues.” This shows that some effort needs to be made to further build actual skills, and personal confidence therein, for the Gen Z age cohort. This also merges with or flows into the concept of values-driven businesses and building a strong company culture. The Gen Z group, similar to Millennials, has higher demands and places greater emphasis on work-life balance.

Because Gen Z candidates are highly dynamic, recruitment processes involving them need to be initiated and concluded very quickly. If not, they easily lose interest and simultaneously explore other professional opportunities. This group is not immune to wage and economic concerns. They generally expect that a salary should be at a certain level to meet the costs of their active social lives. They are very attentive to benefits that facilitate their belonging to social groups; and yes, they have a much better work-life balance than Gen Y when it comes to time spent engaging in work vs. free-time activities,

clarifies Delia Barbu.

When interviewing, Gen Z candidates ask questions about flexible working hours, support mechanisms for maintaining a healthy work environment, and general company policies to support balance and workers’ physical and mental health. Increasingly, remote work opportunities is a topic that is top-of-mind for many young candidates and recruits.

I honestly do not remember the last time a candidate did not ask about remote work options. Remote work flexibility is a key consideration for Gen Z candidates and that work set-up option or hybrid work models can make roles offered more attractive. A further important need is continuous learning and development opportunities – candidates appreciate employers who invest in their growth by offering training programmes, mentorships or opportunities to acquire new skills that could be helpful for their future career,

further explains Aiste Gauciene.

On that last point mentioned by Aiste, it is clear that lifelong learning and career training are now standard considerations for younger candidates. As the job market evolves and technology rapidly advances, continuous skills refinement and adaptation are becoming essential. Employers who invest in their teams’ professional development are likely to be more attractive to Gen Z candidates. Promoting a continuous learning culture can serve as a key selling point for an employer: candidates value employers who provide opportunities for their skills development, offer mentorship programmes, and support employees in staying relevant in fast-changing work environments. Plus, on top of this, there is a strong degree of practicality to the Gen Z age cohort’s views on career development and overall fulfilment from their work. “Per Career Builder magazine, Gen Z, compared to other age groups, is most likely to change jobs. The average time they spend with a company is 2.25 years. I would assume this is because their generation has seen the impacts of a more open world and is not afraid of change. They are constantly interested in possibilities afforded by organisations and experiences where they learn from other workers. They frequently cite their desire to boost their professional qualifications as one of the main motivations for changing jobs. Thanks to our global set-up at Gi Group Holding, our employees, for example, have many opportunities to learn and grow and navigate their own career journeys. This makes candidates consider our job offers seriously when deciding to join or even stay with our company,” adds Aiste Gauciene.

Delia Barbu points out and builds on this thought, “Company values are highly important for Gen Z candidates. They are especially useful not only for supporting the construction of an authentic identity for a business and its teams, but also for helping to develop organisational attachment. Today’s candidates, born in the internet era, have constant access to information and they can spot and verify organisational values very quickly. Gen Z workers are attracted to what is new and do not have much patience for discovering and building an organisational environment. Bearing this in mind, it is a growing challenge for employers to find quick solutions for such situations to prevent worker turnover.”Delia Barbu points out and builds on this thought, “Company values are highly important for Gen Z candidates. They are especially useful not only for supporting the construction of an authentic identity for a business and its teams, but also for helping to develop organisational attachment. Today’s candidates, born in the internet era, have constant access to information and they can spot and verify organisational values very quickly. Gen Z workers are attracted to what is new and do not have much patience for discovering and building an organisational environment. Bearing this in mind, it is a growing challenge for employers to find quick solutions for such situations to prevent worker turnover.“

It is clear that engaging with Gen Z candidates, and eventually employees, is still a novelty for many actors in the recruitment business and in company HR departments. This age cohort is not always receptive to traditional jobs involving big amounts of manual work. They are the work from anywhere generation and they thrive in roles where things happen and evolve rapidly. This will require that more time be invested into recruitment, onboarding and career development programmes that respond to this age cohort’s fluid goals and expectations.

How to make the difference with Gen Z candidates and be perceived as employer of choice

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