Gen Z hires need a better work ethic
Matt Lamb
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Employers are skeptical about hiring recent college grads, with 40% of business leaders saying they “believe recent college grads are unprepared for the workforce.” But there are a few habits recent college grads can develop that will make them more desirable to hire.
This advice comes from eight years of experience working with and managing Generation Z and millennials, including training over 100 student reporters in the past three years and working with student activists and hired employees for another five years prior to that in various roles.
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“Work ethic and communication skills [are] top reasons why business leaders think recent grads are unprepared,” an Intelligent.com survey reported.
Let’s start with work ethic, which can be boiled down to a few things, including staying off the cellphone during work, showing up early, and being organized.
Employers want to see you working during work hours. When someone is looking at their phone while they are supposed to be working, it is assumed they are not doing their actual job. When a coworker or manager is talking to you and your phone is six inches from your hands, it is clear you are not paying attention.
Showing up early and ready to work is another good habit. Employees with mediocre skills who come to work ready to go and learn will beat out the employees who roll into work at 8:59 a.m. and then start to unpack, get their coffee, set up their laptops, and don’t do anything meaningful until 9:30 a.m.
This leads to the importance of organization and why you need to figure out how to stay organized. Your system will grow organically as you change companies and technologies develop, but the habit of deliberately creating a priorities list and working through it should never change.
Organization and work expert Cal Newport, a professor at Georgetown University, puts the cap on “deep work,” or concentrated and intense work, at four hours a day. This is often in the morning, so wasting 30 or 45 minutes just thinking about what you might do that day uses up some of this valuable time.
This is where communication skills are also valuable. Here’s the thing: Most employers do not necessarily need a specific work product by noon when they say so. But they need to put a deadline on a project so it gets finished.
What is more frustrating is when their employees do not communicate that a product is going to be late and do not share their difficulties. Text messages are included in your cellphone plan, and internet companies do not charge by the minute anymore, so there’s no excuse not to give a heads-up when you are seeing problems on the horizon. This requires organization as you must deliberately work through the steps in a process to finish an assignment. So, give your boss a heads up, and he or she will likely accommodate you.
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Another vital part of work is what Catholic University of America professor John Yoest calls “completed staff work.” This means your product should be finished as far as you can reasonably take it. All your manager should need to do is approve the product or make minor edits, and nothing more.
We all have shortfalls in our work, so the problems are not unique to recent college graduates. But by focusing on clear communication and organization with a few simple habits, workplaces will improve, and both employees and business leaders will be able to accomplish more.
Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.