Kerby Anderson

How are Gen Z employees doing in the workplace? Two articles point to significant problems. Suzy Welch is a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business. In her article in the Wall Street Journal, she explains her values inventory that can help anyone, especially younger adults, discover their purpose through the intersection of their values, aptitude, and economically viable interests.

Her analysis produced a number that startled her co-workers and her. “A mere 2 percent of Generation Z members hold the values that companies want most in new hires, namely achievement, learning, and an unbridled desire to work.”

She and her researchers surveyed 2,100 experienced hiring managers to identify the most important values they desired in their new employees. When they compared these values to the 45,000 Generation Z respondents, they found only 2 percent matched.

These observations are being validated in the real world in real time. Oriana Rose Royle, writing in Fortune, documents that “bosses are firing Gen Z grads just months after hiring them.” One report found that 6 in 10 employers say that have already sacked some Gen Z workers they hired out of college.

The employers said that the young people lacked motivation or initiative. Other bosses pointed to Gen Z being unprofessional, unorganized, and having poor communication skills as their top reasons for firing these recent college graduates.

There are some solutions. Companies can begin targeting their hiring efforts to find the 2 percent. Colleges can start alerting students to this issue. Students should start changing their attitudes so they can be a positive force in a company.