If you thought Gen Y was demanding, wait until you get a load of these

You have to agree, it’s a tricky place to start – the end. Generation Z: the generation of contrasts. Born into end of the alphabet, but on the cusp of the 21st century. What will this juxtaposition mean for our terminally named generation?

As they say, to understand where you’re headed you have to look at where you’ve been – and for Generation Z, that means looking back beyond their first thirteen or so years into the mists of their parents and grandparents (and sorry for anyone over the age of 44 reading this, but you Generation Jones-ers are already potentially cast out into the wilderness of great-grandparenthood).

So, Generation Z, children of Generation X (c. 1967-1977) and cousins of Generation Y (c. 1978-1994) – what are your roots, your beginnings? Not overly auspicious it would first appear. Your parents have been described as “insular, un-ambitious, underpaid middle-class children who stand for nothing and are resigned to their obscurity” (Mark Jones, 2008). Not, maybe, the best place to start?

Well, it means you’re born to people who are themselves cynical, hard-edged, no strangers to the phenomenon of the McJob (Coupland, Generation X) and disillusioned with the world. And what of your closer cousins, the Generation Y-ers? Depending on where you’re sitting, it gets worse – or better. For all you brand-owners, Generation Y-ers are a dream – conspicuous consumers, materially motivated and image-obsessed. However, as an employer, the flip side of those qualities is a workforce that is self-obsessed and self-absorbed, motivated only by their own personal desires and ambitions. And who said there was no I in team?

And from this heady mix emerges Generation Z (c. 1995 – 2000). Variously also known as Generation Now, Generation @ or Generation C – for click, for community and for content. So, in other words, the connected generation – permanently wired, hooked up, tuned in.

But, in another way, a curiously disconnected, nomadic tribe – friendships are virtual, social networking doesn’t have to involve physically meeting another human being and time and space are no longer the final frontiers: the tendrils of the web make a mockery of time zones and oceanic divides.

There are massive pluses to this of course. Now, whoever you are and wherever you live, you need never be alone. Online knows no limits – you can create a community and attract kindred spirits whatever you may be into (and as we’re sure you’re aware, there’s plenty to be into). But how will the lives our young friends are living now equip them for the future, how will it shape their expectations and desires?

These children are growing up with entirely different frames of reference from those born just five or ten years before them. Conceptions of time, of distance, of possibilities are radically altered for our Z-ers. To coin another turn of phrase, how about we look at them as Generation I? The obvious words that spring to mind would be interactive, immediate, information and possibly incessant. But how about I for involved? It’s far too easy to imagine that the digital era is creating a generation of isolated youths, shut in their rooms, i-pod plugged firmly into their ears, lost in a virtual world with no real connections to anyone or anything and blocking out reality.

But is that true? Let’s think for a moment about the real world they have been born into. A world of terrorism – of fear, of fragmentation and of misunderstanding. A world of unsustainable conspicuous consumption. A world of boom and then all too quickly bust for the new economic super-powers. A world where the gap between developed and developing is grows ever wider.

And while this could tempt them to shut down, to hibernate, to close themselves off from all the negativity and uncertainty, it’s quite simply impossible. Being perma-connected means you cannot escape information – be it good or bad.

Generation Y, whose more comfortable early existence has now given way in their twenties to the more frightening world of our Z-ers, have reacted by becoming more aware and more determined. More determined to make a difference – they are statistically far more likely to undertake voluntary or civic work than the two generations before them, and are perhaps motivated by precisely what was feared to have switched them off – the breaking down of barriers, the notion that physical distance is no reason not to feel an affinity with someone.

And will this play forward? While those not in possession of a crystal ball can only speculate, if we look at what we know, it appears that it well might. Those born into Generation Z are facing a quicker erosion of childhood than any other generation before them. Gone is childish innocence and a cushioning from the harsh realities of adulthood.

They are growing up in the face of global warming (when polled recently, a group of American children’s biggest fear was a lack of clean water – bogeymen and the dark just don’t cut it anymore) of economic uncertainty, of parents whose large corporation employers show no qualms in making them redundant when profits are no longer going through the ceiling.

They are savvy, switched on and clued up. They are growing up increasingly self-reliant: shaped both by their immediate environment – they are likely to have both parents in employment, with probably no more than one sibling and with a scattered, fragmented notion of family – so they will have a much smaller support network to rely on. And by their wider surroundings – long-gone is the belief that if you work hard all your life, a job, pension and healthcare is yours for the taking.

So they know that whatever path they forge in life, they will be almost entirely solely responsible for forging it. Which in turn is making them hyper-aware of the benefits of education and qualifications. While it will be a key differentiator from their peers, it’s more than that: this generation will be entering stage right the world of work just as exiting stage left is our increasingly ageing population. There will be a shortage of skills, of qualified employees and so and the global labour market will be wide open to them – if they are properly equipped to enter it.

They will enter the world of education earlier than generations before them, and leave it later, with more qualifications in more niche areas than ever before. And let’s examine the kind of education they will be receiving. It will be one that is far more technical and interactive in its approach, but also one where the notion of getting a formal appraisal or marked reports just once every term is laughable. They will receive and expect continuous feedback and assessment – ways in which to build and improve their performance as they go. And the physical environments they learn in will be designed to facilitate this interactive, multi-modal learning.

So, what does all this mean for those who are shaping the employment market this generation will be entering in around 2015? Firstly, they will expect choice. They will come to you from a position of strength – it will be an employees market for them. Just as their child and teenage years will have been marked by instantaneous access to a wide variety of stimuli (think the end of three subject specialisms at 16 – and the increase in US or International Baccalaureate style examinations), they will not expect their jobs to limit them to just one activity or one narrow area of specialism. Choice will be a buzz word: right from how they structure their working day to how they define their career. Will employees of the future breakdown the conventional barriers of one specialist field? Will we have marketing, finance and HR experts, or groups who are able to work ably and comfortably with multi-disciplinary skills?

Nor will they expect the way they work to be one-dimensional. The office of the future will need to reflect the classroom of today. Designed to enable multiple technological advancements and to encourage cerebral stimulation. They may well have shorter attention spans – not because of a decline in educational standards, simply because of a change in the way they will learn. This will change the structure of how work is approached – week long conferences? Three hour-long videoconferences? Forget it. We will be shorter, snappier, more bite-sized in our approach (is that the distant sound of champagne corks popping?)

Geographic location won’t be a barrier to how teams are formed in the workplace. Our Z-ers will expect to work with the best mix of qualified peers for the most rewarding experience, regardless of where in the world they happen to be based. Employers will need to be much more flexible in terms of their approach – in how they structure their workforce and what they offer them. The generation used to constant change and interaction may not expect to remain in one place for very long at a time.

They will neither demonstrate loyalty to nor demand loyalty from their employers – and so to hang on to the best talent, employers will have to find ways in which to maximise career development. A big part of this will be about offering the most comprehensive and advanced form of in-situ learning and improvement. Annual 360 degree reviews will be unimaginable to these members of the workforce: from being in pre-school they will have been given ongoing, continuous opportunities to improve, and they will expect nothing less from their employers.

Stimulation will also come in the form of fluidity and flexibility. If this is the generation that has grown up with boundless choice coupled with more of a social conscience, they will not only want their employer organisations to demonstrate social responsibility, but they may well expect to be given opportunities both within and outside work to make a personal contribution – sabbaticals, weekly flexi-time, the structuring of teams to incorporate skill sharing, knowledge transfers and best practice learnings with not-for-profit organisations?

And what will this all mean they come to expect from the brands they buy? Potentially, much the same. It would be somewhat of an understatement to say that their relationship with brands will be much more interactive - what does this actually mean in real terms?

A much greater degree of transparency – hidden nasties and shady practices will rapidly become a thing of the past. Not only will it be impossible to keep these a secret from a generation that can hack into the Pentagon, but it will simply be an unimaginable way of acting for tomorrow’s consumers.

If we go back to the notion of involvement and community, they will want the brands they take into their lives to have a greater degree of relevance and meaning to them: and they will want them to occupy a more holistic space in their worlds. Will a washing detergent just be about cleaning clothes? Or will they interact with it based on what other content that brand delivers to them – information, events, technological enhancements, link-ups to the other devices, brands and services in their homes?

And if we think about our increasingly global citizens, will brands that have different offerings and manifestations based simply on geographic location become a thing of the past? Which is not to say we will become a homogenous set of global consumers, with one set of wants and one set of needs. But will consumer segmenting and profiling become more all encompassing? Why would our consumers not expect brands to identify groups of like-minded individuals and offer them choices and products, as well as ways of connecting, wherever they are in the world?

You only have to look at the groups today’s Generation Z-ers are forming on networking sites such as facebook to see this as a real possibility. Was ‘Obama for President’ only joined by those with the right to vote in the US elections? Or by those from around the world who shared his ambitions and aspirations, regardless of practical considerations?

To sum up, our Generation Z-ers will hopefully be a positive force in the world, and in the workplace, if we can evolve to satisfy their needs and ambitions. We need to stop seeing them as isolated yoofs, and start seeing them as involved, information-hungry, conscientious consumers – of both our brands and our businesses.

So, R U Z REDY?

Pippa Nordberg, Consultant at Dragon Rouge in London

This article first appeared in Dragonfly 2