Generation Z has arrived on the job market. With them: their smartphone, new skills and completely different expectations of an employer than their older colleagues have. This has conflict potential, but at the same time gives companies the chance to revise internal communications and make themselves attractive to the new professionals.
In this blog article, we give you four reasons why Generation Z makes internal communications more effective and human.
Reason 1: Multitasking.
Generation Z is a master of multitasking. Representatives of this generation move back and forth between the real and virtual worlds at lightning speed, switching channels and absorbing information quickly. For many of them, it’s okay to pick up the smartphone during a conversation or meeting and to research and contribute topics in parallel on the Internet. Older colleagues often perceive this as impolite. Here, it is important to bring the generations together and to sensitize older colleagues to the advantages of the always-on mentality.
SPECTRUM Insight: Bringing together the different generations in a company is a major challenge for today’s employers. In the course of our young talent program and our further qualification offering, we support our customers in coaching young talents in a generation-specific manner during their career entry and in equipping the older generations for the digital world. In this way, we have always succeeded in creating a harmonious coexistence.
Reason 2: Short and fast
For messages within the company, the trend is toward speed and brevity. Although the idea of immediate communication, such as in the form of instant messaging services, is not new, what we think of it as has certainly changed. To reach today’s workforce, messages need to be short and precise. Generation Z representatives usually try to pack as much information into as little text as possible. Anything that helps convey information faster is used. GIFs, memes, and videos that explain an issue faster than a long text are best suited for communication.
Reason 3: GIFs and memes.
While older generations are just discovering emojis for themselves, Generation Z representatives have already found much more effective ways to express emotions. GIF animations and memes help convey a certain mood or feeling quickly and without much text. Compared to emojis, they offer significantly more options for responding to various everyday situations. For internal communication, it is therefore worth considering the integration of a GIF plugin, such as Giphy, for the internal instant messaging tool. Producing your own GIF animations can also be used to communicate work steps or reinforce corporate culture.
Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/5VKbvrjxpVJCM/giphy.gif
Reason 4: Videos, videos and videos again
Video is THE format of Generation Z. You already know it from YouTube tutorials:
Complex topics or complicated instructions are conveyed quickly and effectively in a short explanatory video. As the flood of information increases, our attention span decreases. A conversation or a text cannot convey the same amount of information as a video. Videos can be watched and shared over and over again as needed. Gen Z is therefore already relying on learning with videos in school and college.
This trend is also transferring to internal communications in companies and will be further amplified with the entry of Gen Z. Instead of presentations, text documents or lectures, explanatory videos or video sequences will probably be used on the intranet in the future to explain strategies, present guidelines or explain the vacation application.
Conclusion
As Generation Z enters the workforce, many things are changing in internal communications. While today it is considered rude to use your smartphone during a conversation, in a few years this will be the norm. With their talent for conveying as much information as possible in as little time as possible, Gen Z will make our communications even more effective in the future. The use of videos will increase significantly to explain complex issues quickly and simply and to convey information primarily visually. Worrying about whether the smiley is appropriate in a business email? Gen Z doesn’t have time for that …
Further helpful information on the younger generations can be found in our article What really matters – Generation Y and Z on the job market.
Photo credits for this post:
227070295 © Mirko – stock.adobe.com
142930472 © Nichizhenova Elena – stock.adobe.com
20223400 © BillionPhotos.com – stock.adobe.com
