Judene Pretti, Director of the Work-Learn Institute at the University of Waterloo, talks Gen Z in the workforce
As Gen Z continues to move up through the workplace, employers and HR professionals are endeavoring to learn about this generation and what they are seeking from their workplaces. For many, their youngest employees continue to be a mystery.
HRD Talk host Emily Douglas sat down with Judene Pretti, Director of the Work-Learn Institute at the University of Waterloo, and Maanasa Rajaguru, a third-year Honours English, Rhetoric, Media, and Professional Communication co-op student, to discuss current engagement trends and how organizations can better engage with young talent.
In their research with co-op students, they’ve discovered that meaning and feeling like part of a team are crucial factors for engaging with young workers.
“Often students will describe the positive aspects of their work as feeling like they were a regular employee and not treated just like the co-op,” said Pretti. “Even in the short period of time that they spend as part of an organization, they want to see how what they're doing is contributing to something that's bigger than themselves, whether that's a goal of the team or the organization.”
Meaningfully engaging with the next generation of talent goes beyond creating a dynamic, socially appealing workplace, Pretti said, emphasizing that to reach and resonate with new talent, leadership must create a workplace culture that fosters growth and impactful work while encouraging continued learning and development.
“I definitely have more interest in my work whenever there is an alignment between the work that I've been assigned and the work that the organization is focusing on,” said Rajaguru about her own work experiences. “When my work isn't something that's kind of peripheral, and that's just a task designed to ‘make work for the student’, when it really seems like hey, the team is relying on this, or you're bringing unique insight to the project, that it really matters that the work you are doing is done well. All of those things really help.”
To hear more about what Gen Z employees need from their workplaces in order to thrive, listen to the whole episode of HRD Talk.
