tap away. Within four years, these individuals will represent nearly a quarter of the population— and their attention will be harder to capture and hold than ever. Data compiled by CMO by Adobe suggests that Gen Zers use five screens a day on average( i. e., smartphone, tablet, TV, desktop, and laptop)— as compared to millennials, who use just three. What’ s more, Gen Zers are far more social than their forerunners, spending up to eight hours a day interacting with friends and family: they love opportunities to interact. But when you’ re attempting to lead or communicate with them, it’ s also vital to keep in mind that, as a result of growing up in a wireless world, their average attention span now lasts just eight seconds— less than that of a goldfish. As you can see, providing clear, concise and engaging messages as part of communication efforts will be the key to engaging them. Rest assured, engaging them will indeed be vital to ensuring your organization’ s future.
Ways to Engage As you go about empowering tomorrow’ s leaders, as well as designing programming and outreach efforts that support your endeavors, you’ ll want to keep the following items in mind: l Map Out Your Goals. Gen Y and Gen Z groups will expect clear goals, an engaging variety of assignments to tackle and to work for organizations with a go-getting attitude that encourage people to speak up, collaborate and be more proactive about sharing and acting on ideas. l Education is Key. Both generations will demand greater access to professional training and development programs, as well as more hands-on opportunities to expand their experience and skill sets. l Be more than a leader, be a mentor. Going forward, young professionals will seek more mentorship and ongoing feedback in the workplace, and look to you for additional guidance, as the skills in-demand tomorrow will look far different than the ones in-demand today. l Encourage teamwork and positivity. You’ ll need to educate these natural-born innovators that teamwork and a winning attitude will be key concepts to embrace as projects become more complex, and a growing number of generations and backgrounds collide in the workplace. l Be transparent. Gen Y and Gen Z will increasingly look to your leadership to provide guidance and ongoing input about what’ s going on in the organization, as well as ways that they can personally contribute to the cause and make a difference. l Encourage learning the basics. Keep in mind that it will be necessary to help these generations master multitasking and time management skills, as professionals will growingly be forced to make important decisions faster than ever in tomorrow’ s business world.
Hoping to better connect with these generations moving forward? It helps to understand three key points. Firstly, in looking ahead, Gen Y and Gen Z will want to work for
30 PULSE ■ March / April 2017