In less than a decade, Gen Z will become the new "boss" of the digital economy

Less than a decade from now, Gen Z (the term for the generation born between 1997-2012) will make up more than a third of the global workforce. Many businesses have begun planning to attract and nurture this special generation.

Retain talent with game 

Every summer, Bich Tram (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) finally finds extracurricular courses for her 15-year-old son because he is afraid that his son will spend most of his time playing games on his phone.

Tram's worries are well-founded because a Deloitte report in 2022 showed that teenagers aged 14-19 play games, mainly on smartphones, for an average of 12 hours a week.

As a member of the previous generation, besides health concerns, Ms. Tram is afraid that no business will accept employees addicted to games. However, there is one fact that may shock her: global businesses are changing to adapt to Gen Z habits, and games are one of them.

In order to solve the problem of training human resources to adapt to the digital transformation environment in the financial sector in Southeast Asia, Amazon Web Services has completely included games in training.

On the screen shown during an online meeting with the Investigator, Emmanuel Pillai, head of the Training and Certification Department of Amazon Web Services, opened a game program based on 2D graphics, illustrating the work of the customer service department with many departments and personnel working.

Trained staff will play a character in the game receiving calls from customers asking for help. Corresponding to each situation is knowledge integrated to handle/interpret those requirements. “For young learners, training that combines learning and gaming has more positive results. Because for this group, mostly Gen Z, games are part of their lives,” said Emmanuel Pillai.

Not only Amazon Web Services but in Vietnam, a successful new financial education startup Stag has also embedded games into lessons to increase visualization. Specifically, the financial education product Stock Edu developed by Stag, through interactions with the application such as completing financial lessons, logging in daily, and performing challenges ... users will be rewarded with virtual capital worth using on the Stock Edu simulator stock exchange.

Instead of giving users some capital at the beginning, Stag calculates that users have to learn and accumulate step by step. "This is similar to the form of going to work to receive a salary and deduct a small amount of investment, through which users can imagine the investment situation that is most similar to reality," Mr. Bang Tran, co-founder of Stag, told NCDT.

Future leaders of the digital economy

Businesses are forced to change to reach Gen Z because they will be the workforce and leaders of the future, gradually replacing previous generations. Specifically, research by Oxford Economics shows that in just 7 years, Gen Z will make up a third of the global workforce.

In Vietnam, according to the General Statistics Office, by 2025, one-third of the working-age population will be Gen Z. The 2020 e-Conomy SEA report by Google, Temasek, and Bain Company said that the scale of Vietnam's digital economy could reach $50 billion by 2050. With a technology-based economy, Gen Z is the decisive force to accomplish this goal.

Every generation has one and the other, so it would be unfair to frame Gen Z as young people who lack discipline or poor pressure tolerance. Photo: Quy Hoa.

Characterized as a generation born when the internet has developed strongly, Gen Z is considered a digital generation when most of their daily activities are derived from the internet such as making friends online, shopping, dating, and of course work...

Also because of being born into the digital generation, this generation has absolute faith in technology to solve the problems they face. Dell's survey of 1,500 Gen Z people in the US in January 2023 indicated that this generation recognizes the need to develop digital skills for their future careers with 36% planning to learn new digital skills and 49% considering technology skills essential for a career path.

“Gen Z craves digital skills” is the statement of the Dell report. This is the force that cannot be better for businesses in the global digital transformation race in the next 10 years when the Millennials have mostly reached the age of 40, and the previous generations are approaching retirement age. Therefore, businesses are looking for ways to attract this group and bring games into the business as the case of Amazon Web Services is a prime example.

But in the opposite direction, "very talented but also many defects" is the view of previous generations towards Gen Z in the working process. An April 2023 survey from ResumeBuilder of 1,300 managers in the US found that this is the generation that causes the most business headaches. 49% of respondents said it was difficult to work with Gen Z employees “most of the time” because of a lack of technology skills, effort, and motivation. 65% said Gen Z is usually fired first, and 12% said they fired Gen Z employees within a week of taking the job. The top reason for being fired was “too vulnerable” leading to heated arguments with the manager.

Ms. Tieu Yen Trinh, General Director of Talentnet, said: "There are people in every generation, so it would be unfair to frame Gen Z as young people who lack discipline or a poor ability to withstand pressure."

As a person who interacts with many young people of Gen Z at home and abroad, Trinh said that this generation has differences in being straightforward, understanding themselves, transparent with the mindset that they want an income commensurate with their efforts, and finally, spending heavily and enjoying themselves because this is how this group balances their lives. Unlike the previous generation who preferred stability in work and life, Gen Z values ​​experience and wants to try in many different aspects. Of course, these personalities easily become a "double-edged sword" with Gen Z if they do not know how to control well.

“Excessive frankness can lead to a lack of empathy. Outspokenness can lead to undisciplined action. The love of freedom and experience can make it easier for you to pause and rest and pursue another hobby,” Trinh said. Trinh's assessment is grounded, because of differences in lifestyle and working style, Gen Z basically cannot promote its forte. Explaining the reason for this generation's job switching, the report also shows that up to 70% of Gen Z's reason for leaving their old company is that they don't have enough technology tools to increase their work productivity, this rate is almost half of Gen X (52%) and more than double the Baby Boomers - the baby boomer generation (37%).

Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Thanh Chuong, Head of Recruitment, Adecco Vietnam, said that Gen Z has a positive point of rapidly absorbing technology. The first is that this generation is very proactive and independent in their work thanks to their superior technological capabilities. Second, this is the generation that is not afraid to make mistakes and learns from them. Ernst & Young's report of 1,400 Gen Zers found that most (97%) are willing to receive feedback either continuously or after completing a major project or task, and 63% of survey respondents preferred receiving timely constructive feedback throughout the year.

Gen Z is the force that cannot be better for businesses in the next 10 years' global digital transformation race. Photo: Quy Hoa.

However, along with those talents, Gen Z still has a particular weakness of impatience because most people of this generation often set too many expectations and desires for themselves, however, the gap between the real capacity and the required capacity at work is relatively large, leading to depression, easy job-hopping and lack of discipline. 

Answers of the future

PwC's Global Workforce Survey 2023 in Asia Pacific shows that 61% of Vietnamese workers polled believe their job skills will change significantly in the next 5 years, and 59% believe the organization where they are working will give them the opportunity to apply the skills most needed for their careers in the next 5 years.

Workers consider people skills more important than professional or business skills, including adaptability/flexibility (70%), collaboration skills (70%), critical thinking (68%), and data/analytical skills (66%). Moreover, workers in Vietnam are very positive about the opportunities and benefits that artificial intelligence (AI) will bring to their careers. 60% think AI will help them increase their productivity/effectiveness at work (Asia-Pacific 41%) and 58% see it as an opportunity to learn new skills (Asia-Pacific 34%).

With the mechanical invasion of the workforce and the core resource for the digital transformation race in businesses over the next decade, the role of Gen Z is undeniable. More interestingly, according to a PwC survey, Gen Z, who are more exposed to digital technology, are the least optimistic generation with only 47% believing in the viability of the business where they work in the next decade. This shows that the younger generation of employees realizes the need to change in the business to adapt in the future and they will leave if they do not see the change motivation of the business. Therefore, many businesses are learning to change to attract this generation.

According to Talentnet's leaders, like other generations, Gen Z's usual personalities also have some imperfections. With the flexibility and multitasking ability of young people of this generation quite high, it sometimes becomes a limitation of effectiveness when working in groups and needing to interact with many different objects in the same project. At the same time, a straightforward personality, self-control, understanding, and empathy for others may be the initial obstacle for many Gen Z young people with strong personalities. Therefore, in order to recruit talent in this generation, businesses need to build an environment that helps them live with their personality and have mechanisms to overcome shortcomings and improve themselves.

Ms. Trinh suggested building according to the "ABCD model". Because Gen Z is a generation that aspires to learn skills, businesses need to build an agile machine, which will be very suitable for a generation that learns quickly, improvises quickly, but changes as quickly as Gen Z. Second, because this group still needs time to improve themselves and skills, the balance factor is necessary due to growing up in a constantly changing world. A balanced environment where you have the opportunity to reflect, question, and acknowledge the aspects that have happened will help Gen Z improve themselves.

The third is communication. This is also a skill that global employers consider as the most flawed Gen Z. Therefore, businesses need to build an environment that promotes two-way communication, which also helps Gen Z practice EQ skills, helping employees of this generation to listen and empathize more.

Finally, DEI (diversity - equality - inclusion). As Gen Z is an open and egalitarian generation, an environment that promotes DEI will be the ideal place for Gen Z to unleash their potential and become the best version of themselves in the workplace, as well as practice teamwork with diverse individuals.

Change is happening in many businesses, but doubts about Gen Z's ability to work are not immediately erased. Photo: Quy Hoa.

According to Mr. Mai Viet Hung Tran, General Director of PwC Vietnam, change happens continuously in today's volatile reality. When leaders understand the waves of change in the workplace, they can boost employee motivation, tap into people's potential, and achieve bigger goals. “It is a good sign that Vietnamese leaders and workers have begun to enter the journey of transformation to adapt. While transformation in businesses is different, people are still at the core of change. We need to work together in new ways to build trust and deliver sustainable outcomes,” Tran said.

Change can be seen in many businesses, but doubts about the ability of Gen Z to work are not immediately erased. There are many nicknames that are being assigned to Gen Z, most of which is ironic, but it should be remembered that previous generations have also been assigned many such nicknames because of their new personality and work habits, not just Gen Z.

Remember Millennials, the contemporary workforce, were once called the “selfish, lazy generation” by Gen X. Gen X was also called “lazy people” by Baby Boomers, and Baby Boomers were also labeled by the previous generation as “hippie” in the workplace. Now, businesses continue to wait for this generation to mature or change the working environment to welcome them, preparing for the future that perhaps the answer is obvious.