02. Effective Onboarding Processes for Generation Z

 NethmeeSW

    I thought of focusing on the latest generation which will help the educational institutes to plan their onboarding process accordingly. I hope the article will provide sufficient information on this generation and insightful thoughts to make a successful onboarding process. I have referred to reliable sources to justify my thoughts on this topic.

    First, let's have a look at the Gen Z characteristics through research. The following graph would show the answers given by the Gen Z employees for several questions (Dolot, 2018). The majority of them expect feedback as shown in the bar graph. They do not like to multi-task and change. Not very ambitious representing a fast career. They don't have much of a capability to balance work and life. Most of them tend to plan well. Using new technology is accepted but at the same time, they don't prefer to use unlimited applications while working.

Figure 1: Characteristics of Generation Z Representatives

Source: (Dolot, 2018) 

    According to Chillakuri (2020), six essential factors must be considered when designing the onboarding process. The study has been conducted in India, focusing on Generation Z (Gen Z). This generation expects perks, high salaries, and job security as they have faced mainly recession. Further, they dislike working in a start-up company or small organization in India.

       I.          Meaningful work – The study showed that 77% of the sample in the above-mentioned article considered ethics and values regardless of the company's performance on innovative products and resources they have.

      II.          Performance Management –Gen Z expects to receive quick feedback from the managers to find the direction of the job role. Continuous follow-up by the supervisors is expected. High performance is attempted by the employees to provide their best for the organization.

    III.          Work-Life Balance – All the generations were concerned about work-life balance, apart from basic job expectations. A flexible environment is needed for these employees to work productively.

    IV.          Personal Connect – Technology has taken over personal experiences. Personal connections with colleagues, managers and leaders are valued in employee career development.

     V.          Understanding the bigger picture – As Gen Z is tech-savvy, they believe that small assignments can be done through Artificial Intelligence or even small tasks can be completed using the technology. Therefore, they like to be involved in big projects which help the company's vision, mission, and goals. The correct information should be passed on during the onboarding process to avoid the anxiety levels of Gen Z. The reason is that according to Wilkie (2019), as cited in this article of Chillakuri has identified that most of Gen Z employees hold back due to anxiety even though they are confident too at the same time.

    VI.          Learning and Development – Gen Z employees tend to work alone and must be trained for the whole task or the project. They like to use technology and get virtual experience than hands-on experience.

    I picked the most important parts to analyze in depth and understand their importance out of the essential factors listed above. Even though I am not from Gen Z, I understand that “meaningful work” can be defined as a job role having ethics and values on the welcoming stage itself. Trust in the employer is created by the purpose of the job (Mika & Graham, 2015). The employee-employer trust further affects organizational productivity. Simply, employees who trust the employer will have faith to work and provide maximum performance. My current job communicated ethics and values clearly when I joined. However, it would have been officially informed since it is in the educational industry. We work with students and it should be a place with lot of morals.

Video 1: Meaningful Work

Source: (YouTube, 2023)

Meaningful Work

    Park & Choi (2020) states that the performance of an employee can be increased through feedback. It clearly communicates the organizational goals when the supervisor informs the drawbacks of the employee. However, Rasheed, et al. (2015) argue that feedback satisfaction will depend on one employee to another. One might get motivated and satisfied by the given feedback, but another will not accept it. Therefore, there is a conflict between providing employee feedback, which will influence their performance. My suggestion is to make a culture where the employees will accept criticism and take feedback to improve. The experience I had with my previous job in a UK company which was also in the educational sector that had a similar culture exposed me to getting feedback daily. The employees got feedback from the customer daily after the service. At first, it was hurtful to receive bad feedback. Then, it was hard to take in the supervisor's feedback as well. However, with time it was changed to an attitude where we accepted our faults, mistakes, and drawbacks in our job role. It was easier to learn and improve ourselves. The praises, on the other hand, were tremendously helping to make it a happy place. The following link will provide more information on "Work-Life Balance" by my batchmate. 

Work-Life Balance Blog by Prasanna

Figure 2: Proposed Conceptual Framework

Source: (Amiruddin & Monil, 2022)

    According to Waworuntu, et al. (2022), Gen Z is idealist and values work-life balance. They have a tendency to take leaves to enjoy and expect flexibility when working in an organization. My dear friend has posted articles on the following link about this topic. The above proposed conceptual framework has been proved by Amiruddin & Monil (2022). It has been concerned that family and job satisfaction influence mental health, which will lead to measuring the work-life balance. Supportive families will make an employee's work in a company easier. However, they also expect the family members to look after each other and spend sufficient time with them. This will lead to family satisfaction and the research found that job satisfaction for the employee is independent. Moreover, both of these satisfactions will affect the mental health of the employee which can be measured through the work-life balance. The stress burn-out would affect the students in the universities (Eloff, et al., 2021). The role of the lecturers has been discussed in this article. Therefore it is important to have satisfied employees in an educational institute which also helps the students learn from them.

    Hence, it can be concluded that Onboarding Process should be well planned because it is the start of many things expected by Gen Z in an organization as employees. It should be meaningful, measure the performances and provide feedback and let them balance their work with their personal life. This will give them a message about the culture of the organization and have a good impression. Further, it will affect the students in the institute as well.

References

Amiruddin, T. A. & Monil, M., 2022. The Impacts of Work-Life Balance in Airline Industry: A Proposed Conceptual Framework. International Conference on Technology and Innovation Management, pp. 343-353.
Available at: https://shorturl.at/zPRU4
[Accessed 4 August 2023].

Chillakuri, B., 2020. Understanding Generation Z expectations for effective onboarding. Journal of Organizational Change Management, XXXIII(7), pp. 1277-1296.
Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bharat-Chillakuri/publication/342748571_Understanding_Generation_Z_expectations_for_effective_onboarding/links/5f68520892851c14bc8bd221/Understanding-Generation-Z-expectations-for-effective-onboarding.pdf
[Accessed 4 August 2023].

Dolot, A., 2018. The Characteristics of Generation Z. New trends in management, 2(74), pp. 44-50.
Available at: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=737237
[Accessed 4 August 2023].

Eloff, I., O’Neil, S. & Kanengoni, H., 2021. Students’ wellbeing in tertiary environments: Insights into the (unrecognised) role of lecturers. Teaching in Higher Education, pp. 1-21.
Available at: https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/83167/Eloff_Students_2022.pdf?sequence=1
[Accessed 4 August 2023].

Mika, V. & Graham, D., 2015. HRM, Trust in Employer and Organizational Performance. Knowledge and Process Management, XXII(4), pp. 270-287.
Available at: https://lutpub.lut.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/159999/vanhala_dietz_hrm_trust_final_draft.pdf?sequence=1
[Accessed 5 August 2023].

Park, S. & Choi, S., 2020. Performance Feedback, Goal Clarity, and Public Employees’ Performance in Public Organizations. Sustainability, XII(7), p. 3011.
Available at: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Park%2C+S.+%26+Choi%2C+S.%2C+2020.+Performance+Feedback%2C+Goal+Clarity%2C+and+Public+Employees%E2%80%99+Performance+in+Public+Organizations.+Sustainability%2C+XII%287%29%2C+p.+3011.&btnG=
[Accessed 7 August 2023].

Rasheed, A., Khan, S.-U.-R., Rasheed, M. F. & Munir, Y., 2015. The Impact of Feedback Orientation and the Effect of Satisfaction With Feedback on In-Role Job Performance. Human Resource Development Quarterly, XXVI(1), pp. 31-51.
Available at: https://shorturl.at/zPRU4
[Accessed 5 August 2023].

Waworuntu, E. C., Kainde, S. J. R. & Mandagi, D. W., 2022. Work-Life Balance, Job Satisfaction and Performance Among Millennial and Gen Z Employees: A Systematic Review. Society, X(2), pp. 286-300.
Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Deske-W-Mandagi/publication/366705455_Work-Life_Balance_Job_Satisfaction_and_Performance_Among_Millennial_and_Gen_Z_Employees_A_Systematic_Review/links/63b02e89a03100368a416e89/Work-Life-Balance-Job-Satisfaction-and-Performance-Among-Millennial-and-Gen-Z-Employees-A-Systematic-Review.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=started_experiment_milestone&origin=journalDetail&_rtd=e30%3D
[Accessed 6 August 2023].