Watch out, Gen Z is approaching

Late last year my 11-year-old daughter was chosen as a potential school captain for her primary school for 2009.

As part of that she had to deliver a speech to the entire school to promote herself as the next school captain.

It was while I was sitting there watching her speak (you can watch her too at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcUqE0MOT7E) that I was amazed at the confidence and ability that kids from this generation have.

I can’t imagine an 11-year-old version of myself doing what she did – and it was replicated by the other four candidates for captain.

The pre-teen kids of today can talk about their own skills and abilities without being ‘up themselves’, they can stand in front of a crowd of hundreds of people, and they are happy to expose themselves on YouTube to five billion people.

What makes it scarier is that this part of society, known as Gen Z, will soon be our employees and our consumers.

Just when you thought you were having some trouble understanding Gen Y and working out strategies surrounding them, along comes Gen Z.

Within a decade, Gen Z will represent 10 percent of the workforce and 15 percent of the IT workforce.

Another 10 years after that they will be the largest generation at work (by then the Gen Y employees will have either retired as they were promoted to CEO or be in therapy because they were not promoted to CEO).

So from an employment perspective, we need to start thinking about how we are going to deal with these employees.

The current skills shortage may be partly solved by the GFC (you know the Global Financial Crisis is big when it has been allocated its own acronym) but the reality is that some of the skills shortage will be solved as this generation flows into the workforce.

As people are living longer, we will also need to be looking to increasingly younger generations to start working to fill the gaps.

The ratio of people of working age to retirement age today is 5:1 but within four decades that ratio will be 2.4:1.

Think about what their world has been like compared to the world we grew up in (I am Gen X) and you start to gain an understanding of the differences we face.

The world Gen Z is in has never known life without mobile phones or the Internet.

Both my 11-year-old and nine-year-old own their own mobile phones with their own name numbers and they have their own domain names registered for their websites and post video clips to YouTube.

My mother is 79 and I still can’t convince her that a mobile phone is a good idea – despite the fact that I own a mobile phone shop!

Gen Z has grown up with September 11 as a standard term and understands that terrorism is simply here and they acknowledge that it is just as important to sell products that are friendly to the environment as it is to sell products that are functional.

Our generation still has a smattering of climate sceptics.

To put a salient point on it, the oldest in the Gen Z group will graduate in 2020 – the year that Kevin Rudd chose as the focal point for his summit.

How is the world going to look in 2020 when this generation will start to have an influence? In a word – pink – if my two eldest children have any say in it.

Their Nintendo DS and their phones are pink and if they didn’t have a little brother in the mix their Playstation would probably be pink as well.

The boomers’ dream of the three-bedroom brick veneer home might be just that for this generation – a dream.

There is a great likelihood that a majority of this generation will never own a house and they will face an ageing population and have to deal with a lack of water and electricity – but they will be more educated than any other generation so they should be able to solve all the problems!

Then after they become your employees you will need to plan strategies for them to be your consumers.

Your product and content will need to be delivered in the methods preferred by this group.

There will be an increase in online shopping as this group is not scared to use their credit cards – as many in our generation still are.

Marketing that provides instant answers with the ability to purchase quickly will be essential.

This generation will simply not tolerate a business that prefers traditional forms of communication and marketing.

This active group will be less interested in hybrid marketing – when an online presence merely enhances an offline business – your business will need to be fully capable of servicing a client without them having to pick up a phone or visit your business.

You have heard me talk about disruptive media in previous articles and this is what will appeal to Gen Z.

If you put some ads on TV, expect the remote control-armed Gen Zer to simply click to another channel when ads are on.

Online media will be the way you will reach these clients.

Our businesses should start planning for these generations.

Understanding the different behaviours, interests and preferences of Gen Z can shape our strategies – both in employment and marketing.

The hardest part for me personally, and an issue I have struggled to come to grips with in relation to Gen Y, is that the behaviours of Gen Y and Gen Z are so foreign to the way I personally behave.

I know my first employee from Gen Z will be my eldest daughter – I will need to hire her as a consultant in a couple of years to help me work out what these employees want and how I need to interact with them.

She will probably work part-time though – answering my emails at school during her lunch break with her netbook!

Tell me your Gen Z stories at;
mathew.dickerson@smallbusinessrules.com.