Posted on 12/26/2022 6:11:54 PM PST by libh8er
It turns out Gen Zers have a common secret. They’re not as comfortable with new technology as older generations would typically presume.
Sure, they may have grown up with instant access to information and an affinity for digital devices that older generations had to learn. But that has led to a widespread presumption that Gen Zers are therefore innately good with tech. Now, new research is showing that may not be the case at all when it comes to workplace tech. In fact, this presumption from older generations is leading a larger number of young professionals to experience “tech shame,” according to HP’s “Hybrid Work: Are We There Yet?” report, published in late November.
One in 5 of the 18-to-29-year-olds polled in the report, which surveyed 10,000 office workers in 10 markets including the U.S. and U.K., said they felt judged when experiencing technical issues, compared to only one in 25 for those aged 40 years and over. Further, 25% of the former age group would actively avoid participating in a meeting if they thought their tech tools might cause disruption, whereas it was just 6% for the latter cohort.
“We were surprised to find out that young workers are feeling more ‘tech shame’ than their older colleagues, and this could be due to a number of issues,” said Debbie Irish, head of human resources in the U.K. and Ireland at HP. First, in a hybrid work scenario, more seasoned colleagues would likely have higher disposable incomes with which to buy better equipment for their homes, she suggested.
Additionally, those who had started their careers during or since the pandemic were probably low on confidence at work. “Some young professionals are entering the workforce for the first time in fully virtual settings,” said Irish. “They have less face-to-face time in the office than any other generation and have limited access to senior employees, mentors and even their bosses.”
‘Adequate training is needed’ Irish urged organizations to ramp up their technical training programs for their youngest workers. “While young professionals may be more accustomed to digital environments, and certainly social media platforms, this doesn’t always carry over to professional tools,” she said.
Before entering the workforce, young workers might not have experienced virtual meeting platforms or communication channels, such as Slack. “Adequate training is needed for our early talent so they can learn how to utilize collaboration tools effectively,” added Irish.
Ludmila Milla, co-founder and CEO of e-learning provider UJJI, agreed. “The assumption is that because Gen Z and even millennials spend a considerable amount of time on technology that they are technology savvy,” she said. “This is a huge misconception. Sadly, neither watching TikTok videos nor playing Minecraft fulfills the technology brief.”
And when it comes to asking for help, younger generations are perhaps more shy. “As a behavioral scientist, I would expect older employees to hold up their hands and say they don’t know,” added Milla. “But it is much harder for younger employees, as there is a perception — albeit often incorrect — that they are naturally tech adept.”
Related to this insight, Salesforce’s “Future of Work Survey,” released in late November, indicated that U.K. workers rank digital skills as the most crucial for the current and future workplace — but 27% do not feel confident in their digital capabilities. A third complained about a lack of training in this area.
More worrying, so-called “future workers” – 13-to-18-year-old school children — lacked awareness of the importance of digital skills, according to the research. Those surveyed in this group rated these skills as the seventh-most vital capability required for the 2030 workplace.
‘Failing the next generation‘ “The U.K. is facing a digital skills crisis, compromising its status as one of the world’s most important science and technology hubs,” said Zahra Bahrololoumi, Salesforce’s U.K. and Ireland CEO. “We are failing the next generation and must educate parents and children on the importance of digital skills.”
Bahrololoumi said that the public and private sectors must join forces “to democratize access” to all learning and development opportunities. Salesforce is trying to do its part. “For example, 40 million badges have been acquired via Trailhead, our online learning platform, and it opens up access to tech skills to people of all backgrounds and education levels for free,” Bahrololoumi added.
While Trailhead, launched in 2014, offers courses focused on Salesforce technologies, the concept of completing hands-on challenges and earning points and badges to learn should be embraced by others, UJJI’s Milla said.
“Learning and development programs need to recognize that younger employees use technology for pleasure,” she added. “This is one of the main reasons we think gamification is a critical [learning and development] facilitator.”
I work in IT at a large office. Many know very little other then how to use amazon,
Move the work apps to smartphones and Xbox consoles and the millennials will be fine. LOL
I work on a team in an agile environment where it became obvious to me the project was going to fail. I told my Boss and she was shocked.
“Why haven’t the project managers told me it was failing?”
“They don’t see it coming. They have never seen a project fail before.”
Thank God, I thought they were just lazy with no drive, goals or ambition.
We’ve had a hard time getting new employees of that age to follow our rules or processes. They always want to do it their way, even if specifically directed by management to do it a certain way. It’s like they’d rather just be fired, and find a different job somewhere else, than follow what a supervisor requests. Any supervisor, with some of them.
I started the process on letting another one go last week, so the process would at least take until after Christmas. But when you tell someone how to do something simple, that will solve the problem they’re complaining about but can’t figure out on their own, and you do it every single day for a week, and they instead try everything else but what you told them to do, they deserve to be let go.
This is the second one to flame out like this in the last 12 months, out of about 5 of that age group hired. One of the others quit, so out of 5 only 2 have been keepers. So far.
A high percentage of the Snowflakes and Zeros are total morons. Just Hikers, Bikers and Cellphone Pokers. That’s about the extent of their skills. Dumber than a box of rocks. No wonder they don’t want to pay for their student loans. The jugheads never learned anything so they don’t think they should have to pay for it. The best job they can get is a Starbucks “barista” position.
I love that video. I’ve interviewed people not much different.
They grew up playing video games. When I was a kid funds were so scarce I barely got a C64 and a tape deck. Had to program my own games.
In the blue collar industries like trucking, when a Gen Z underperforms (which is the rule rather than the exception), it is common to hear “I just got millennialed,” and everyone knows what that means.
The noun has become a verb to describe their poor work ethic and lack of common sense.
They play on their phones. They don’t use excel or any other tool
Meanwhile most people under 30 have no idea how to use a hammer or a screwdriver.
They might be geniuses with their phones and apps but they’re useless with a Frisbee or a baseball.
What’s ironic is that their phones were created by people in their forties to eighties.
True. They lack compute tech skills beyond using chat programs, tik-tok, sms, twatter/instacrap/fascistbook and have no idea how to use an "app" that isn't on a phone or tablet.
And they think they're entitled to everything too. Disgusting.
In other words, they’re stupid.
But I bet they’re enough “tech savie” to get top scores in “HALO”
Used to work with summer interns. Every one listed microsoft skills on their resume. Had a project that needed to use access. Not one knew how to use it.
I'm also surprised at how many new employees don't have a computer at home and thus never learn anything beyond what they're told at work.
They have gaming consoles, smart TVs, and smart phones but no computers and don't care to get one.
The three G.Z.’s that I know, leave me in the digital dust;
not that that’s very hard to do. They are co-workers and I’m thankful all 3 are respectful and patient (some more than others) as I work on improvement.
These 1 in 5 should have been around at the beginning when we were told by some smarmy IT guy to reboot twice and then call back if that didn’t work.
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