Everybody likes to complain about Generation Z in the workforce. They’ve been maligned for everything from being glued to social media, possessing zero work ethic, and flip-flopping between insane ambition and complete apathy in the space of 30 minutes.
But with Gen Z workers — born between 1997 and 2012 — expected to make up about 30% of workers by the end of the decade, organisations must create an effective workforce from the next generation of employees.
BambooHR, a human resources and payroll software vendor, is integrating Gen Zs into its 500-strong CX workforce. But when hiring staff it realised the talent pool of candidates with telephone skills was shrinking.
Phone anxiety
BambooHR isn’t alone in realising that many Gen Zs are intimidated by the prospect of making a work phone call. A report by Robert Walters, a US-based recruitment agency, found that half of Gen Zers and Millennials were uncomfortable making business calls. A staggering 59% just wanted to communicate via text and email.
Gen Zers are increasingly signing up to courses to combat ‘telephonophobia’ or phonophobia.
Struggling to fill customer support roles, Tara Martell, the firm’s chief customer officer, fell back on her educational background and built a teaching programme to help Gen Zs find their feet in the corporate workforce. “Getting on the phone might make [them] nervous, [they] might feel unsettled,” Martell told Customer Experience Magazine.
“So we started to reframe that. We’re trying to build around this idea that being on the phone isn’t as terrifying as [they] think,” she added.
Scripts and coping techniques
The programme offsets telephone jitters by talking joiners through what to expect and provides them with coping techniques. For instance, fledgling agents are supplied scripts with useful phrases to help ‘buy time’ with customers, if they are struggling to find an answer.
Initially, BambooHR had tried to push staff onto calls, but they’d felt overwhelmed, so it set up ‘safe space’ for their Gen Zers to practice calls. “Rather than putting their feet in the fire in a live environment, we have coaches in a practice environment,” said Martell.
BambooHR also teaches Gen Z joiners not to use shorthand or emojis when talking to clients. (Smiley faces are allowed).
Improving connectivity by getting people to the office
In another initiative designed to improve the connection between the firm and its employees, BambooHR encouraged staff to visit and connect at its local offices. The firm, headquartered in Utah, operates a hybrid model, with staff working remotely across the country.
The initial series of events were geared towards creating a ‘connection’ between colleagues rather than a full day’s work. “That has been something that has greatly improved our employee and NPS scores,” said Martell.
Those early events have progressed to the introduction of mandatory meetings in the local offices. According to Martell, although a sense of nervousness about visiting the office persists, it is important to acknowledge employees’ concerns.
“I just had a meeting on Friday in the office with everyone within 50 miles of the office. It’s great and they love that connection,” said Martell.
Leveraging Gen Z skill set
If organisations are to integrate Gen Z workers, they probably need to address some of their own bias. It’s easy to focus on cliches and ignore what Gen Zers bring to the table. For example, the broadly excellent tech skill set means Gen Z starters with BambooHR tend to breeze through the technical aspects of the six-to-eight-week training programme.
They’re smart and inquisitive. That might mean they’ll ask a lot of questions. But it also means they’re used to researching to find answers. “Our product is getting more complex and I can’t teach them every single corner of [it]. But they know how to use their resources when they hit a hurdle. I really, really value that,” commented Martell.
The inquisitive nature of Gen Z tends to mean they value transparency. For a manager, that might mean explaining the rationale behind decisions in more detail. “If you don’t teach them, and be transparent, it can go sideways. We’ve learned to bridge that,” added the chief customer officer.
Managing career aspirations of Gen Zers
Managing career expectations of Gen Z employees means adopting a different approach. The annual performance reviews will no longer suffice. BambooHR teaches new joiners early that they cannot expect an automatic promotion each year. “But we like to also make some of those opportunities happen a little bit sooner,” said Martell.
Both parties in the career conversations will probably have to work harder in the future. Despite everyone’s best efforts, a lot of friction can be caused when managers and team members have a career chat. “We talk a lot about, ‘you might have pitched the ball, but they didn’t catch the ball’,” said Martell.
To solve the problem BambooHR makes it the responsibility of the staff member to make notes on the meeting and report back what they’ve heard. If necessary “we can go and have that conversation again.” said Martell.
Improved retention
The initiatives launched at BambooHR have improved staff retention rates within the customer experience department — which covers a wide range of services including onboarding, support and training.
The department, which makes up a third of the entire workforce of BambooHR has a retention rate of 85%, many of which are entry-level or Gen Z employees.
“We did this via improved training, incentive plans that worked better for this population (directly tying monthly incentive plans to productivity), and more focus on career pathing,” said Martell.