According to a recent survey of business leaders, there are differing opinions regarding GenZ and their presence in today’s workplace. While some believe in the potential of recent graduates, others believe that they’re simply not ready to enter today’s workforce. In fact, 40% of leaders believe that college graduates from classes 2020-2023 are unprepared for the workforce for varying reasons. This perception is more pronounced compared to previous generations, as the graduates from over three years ago did not raise this much of a concern.
Why it matters: GenZ applicants may have some significant hurdles to overcome given the general consensus from business leaders. Ultimately, most of them think that culture is to blame. They believe that recent graduates lack work ethic and communication skills and ask for unreasonably high salaries.
- Many business leaders believe that a sense of entitlement and poor technological skills are contributing factors to the lack of workplace preparedness.
- Those who have served in the workforce for a long time generally tend to criticize the upcoming generation. However, much of GenZ missed out on a lot of “people” skills due to remote classes and Zoom work. Previous graduating classes had more on-campus experiences such as dorm life, engaging in class discussions, and joining clubs.
- Diane Gayeski, Professor of Strategic Communication at Ithaca College and Principal of Gayeski Analytics, says that the workplace “changed dramatically because the digital transformation and hybrid workforce trends that began a decade ago accelerated during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and both methods and attitudes towards work are now vastly different.”
