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As a new week starts, are you happy to get back to work? If so, there is a better chance you are among the youngest workers – a group experts say is better at using technology to improve personalization.
Gen Z workers have the healthiest relationship with work, shows a new report from IT services company Hewlett-Packard (HP).
The survey included 15,600 respondents from 12 countries, including Canada and the United States, who are knowledge workers, business leaders and IT decision makers.
For this young cohort, those born between 1997 and 2012, 31 per cent reported a healthy relationship with work, ahead of Boomers (29 per cent), Gen X (21 per cent) and Millennials (20 per cent).
“Gen Z really is anchored, I think, in the fact that they’ve had a lot of exposure to possibilities with technology,” says Anneliese Olson, senior vice-president and managing director for North America at HP.
But it’s more than just tech fluency.
“They also are placing a greater value on [work] relationships, growth, opportunities, choice, customization, autonomy, things like that — not just salary and title,” she says.
HP’s data reveals that the hunger for personalization is widespread. At least two-thirds of knowledge workers and leaders are actively seeking more tailored experiences at work. This could become a major challenge for companies still clinging to one-size-fits-all approaches.
“Personalization really has to be looked at just like any other business strategy. So, what is the right strategy? What are the right tools? What are the right workspaces to enable great work?” Ms. Olson says.
She says personalized experiences can take many forms, from flexible workspaces to access to different technologies that suit individual working styles.
One of the biggest tools enabling this shift is artificial intelligence. According to the HP data, Gen Z workers have been quick to embrace AI, with 83 per cent using it in 2024, compared to 75 per cent of Millennials, which is another reason they’re surging ahead in terms of workplace happiness.
Ms. Olson says that by using AI, workers can tailor their workflows to suit their individual needs, improving efficiency and job satisfaction.
Workers place such a high value on the potential of a personalized, tailored work experience that 87 per cent would be willing to give up a portion of their salary to get it; on average forgoing 14 per cent of their salary. For Gen Z workers specifically, that figure rises to as high as 19 per cent.
For a Gen Z workers earning $75,000 a year, that’s $14,250 they’d forgo for a role that aligns more closely with their personal needs.
As companies navigate big conversations and decisions around the future of work, Ms. Olson says that personalization is key to fostering a healthier relationship with work.
She says that empathetic leadership also plays a role in achieving personalization and a healthy relationship with work. We’ll have more on this in a future newsletter.
“You really have to know what a healthy relationship with work looks like so that people can achieve what they want to in their work, and companies can help people be most productive,” she says.
Fast fact
Swiftonomics
50
If Taylor Swift were an economy, that’s how many countries she would be bigger than. She generated the “equivalent brand value” of US$331.5-million for the Kansas City Chiefs and the NFL in just a few months, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s no doubt she’s an economic force and this engaging article looks at how Ms. Swift is impacting economies, voting patterns and creating jobs.
Career guidance
Minimal management
One worker in a junior position got a new job with a company that has a hands-off management style, saying they trust the worker to make good decisions. However, they’re wondering how they can get more training and guidance so they can feel confident in doing their job properly, without looking like they don’t know what they’re doing.
Experts say that it’s normal to feel overwhelmed and even inadequate when you start a new role, and that no one is hired because they are perfect. They advise the reader to take initiative by booking bi-weekly one-on-one meetings with their manager to discuss their experiences and ask questions. Proactively seeking feedback and looking for mentorship outside or work are also beneficial.
Quoted
Online decline
“The fact that we stay on Facebook and that we stay on these other services long after it’s obvious to us and everyone we love who’s there that these are so harmful to us tells you not that these services aren’t harmful, but that they’ve managed to achieve a kind of lock in that allows them to persist long after,” says British-Canadian journalist, blogger and author Cory Doctorow, on The Globe and Mail podcast, Lately.
In this episode, The Globe looks at how our experiences on digital platforms are getting worse, and how it’s a symptom of corporate under-regulation and monopoly that is now being challenged in courts around the world.
On our radar
Connectivity crisis
This opinion piece looks at how rural Alberta’s economic potential is being stifled by inadequate high-speed internet access. Farmers rely on digital technology and connectivity to operate their machinery and maximize crop yields, and that’s just one example. Without reliable internet, we may see greater migration to cities, weakening the infrastructure and productivity in these areas even further.
