HR-Glossar
Generation Z
What is attributed to Generation Z, why the evidence is weak and which changes can actually be demonstrated.
1. What is Generation Z?
Generation Z is the label for the birth cohorts following Generation Y – the exact boundary varies by several years depending on the account. It is an attribution, not a defined group.
Among the things attributed to it: clearer boundaries between work and private life, higher expectations of meaning and of quality of leadership, weaker attachment to one employer, digital tools as a matter of course, and greater weight given to mental health.
The decisive qualification belongs at the start, not at the end: the evidence for generational differences in working behaviour is weak. Where it has been examined with proper method, stage of life and the state of the labour market explain the observed differences better than the year of birth. Much of what passes as a generational characteristic is the behaviour of people entering a labour market in which skilled workers are scarce.
2. Origin and development
Generation labels come from market research and found their way from there into HR work. Their appeal lies in their simplicity: they capture a diffuse observation in a term and make it discussable.
That is also where their weakness lies. A year of birth is a poor predictor of how someone works – and the repetition of the same claims across successive cohorts is itself a sign of it.
3. Core principles and how it works
An attribution, not a characteristic
Generation labels describe expectations of a group, not features of its members. The spread within is greater than the difference between groups.
Stage of life beats year of birth
Much of what passes as a generational characteristic is typical behaviour of people entering working life – regardless of cohort.
The labour market explains part of it
Where skilled people are scarce, applicants can make demands. That is a question of bargaining position, not of values.
The same attributions have been made before
Weaker loyalty and higher demands were already attributed to Generation Y, and to others before that. The repetition is an indication of the concept's weakness.
What can be evidenced are changed conditions
Digital tools as a matter of course, the state of the labour market and a more open treatment of mental strain can be shown – and they can be shaped.
Unsuitable as a basis for planning
Building HR strategy on generation labels produces measures that miss individuals. Asking about concrete expectations is more productive.
4. Who is Generation Z relevant for?
- Recruiting and employer marketing – the attributions are used there most often, frequently unexamined. - Managers with young teams – the question is concrete for them, but rarely answerable in generational terms. - Businesses with apprentices – expectations meet each other directly there. - People development – programmes "for Generation Z" regularly miss the people involved. - Management – the question touches working time models, quality of leadership and staffing.
5. How it differs from related terms
- Generation Z and young professionals – the latter describes a career stage independent of birth year and is the more usable category. - Generation Z and Generation Y – the boundary varies by several years depending on the account; there are no uniform definitions. - Generation label and target group analysis – analysing the concrete expectations of particular candidate groups holds up; the label does not. - Generation Z and quiet quitting – the two are often linked. But drawing a boundary against unpaid additional work has little to do with a birth year. - Generation research and age discrimination – attributions by age can become an indication under the AGG in a selection procedure. That is rarely thought through.
6. Variants and adaptations
The common attributions – and what can be said about them:
- A clear boundary between work and private life – observable, but also a response to a working world of constant availability. - An expectation of meaning – hard to measure and, in surveys, strongly dependent on how the question is put. - Weaker attachment – correlates strongly with the labour market; where jobs are scarce, willingness to move falls in every age group. - Digital tools as a matter of course – well evidenced, but not the same as media literacy. - Weight given to mental health – demonstrable as a social change, not as a generational characteristic.
7. Advantages and challenges
Advantages
- Makes changed expectations discussable that would otherwise look like individual cases
- Directs attention to quality of leadership and working conditions
- The term is widespread and eases communication
- Forces businesses to examine their attractiveness as employers
- The discussion has sharpened the question of availability outside working hours
Challenges
- The evidence is weak – stage of life explains more than year of birth
- Blanket attributions miss individuals
- Measures "for Generation Z" therefore regularly miss their aim
- Age-based attributions can become relevant under the AGG in a selection procedure
- The term often serves to read a business problem as a generational one
- Survey figures are barely comparable because the questions differ
8. Best practices for implementation
Ask concretely rather than categorising
What applicants and new employees expect can be asked – in the interview, in onboarding, in exit conversations. Those answers hold up better than any generation model.
Examine conditions before explaining people
Where young employees move on frequently, it is more often down to induction, leadership and prospects than to a birth year. Examining the conditions is less comfortable and more productive.
Keep age references out of adverts
"A young team" and similar wording are indications in an AGG context. The benefit bears no relation to the risk.
Do not design for a generation
Good induction, reliable leadership, predictable working time and paths for development work across all age groups. Special measures for one cohort rarely do.
9. Tips for employers and employees
For employers
- **Stage of life explains more than birth year** – that holds for most of the attributions
- **No age references in adverts** – they are AGG indications
- **Examine conditions before explanations** – turnover usually has workplace causes
- **Ask concretely** – expectations can be surveyed, generations cannot
For employees
- **The attributions say little about you** – the spread within the group is greater
- **Raise your expectations openly** – otherwise they are guessed at
- **Age-based disadvantage is prohibited** – in both directions
- **Ask about induction and prospects** – they decide more than the image does
10. Conclusion
Generation Z is an attribution, not a characteristic. The evidence for generational differences in working behaviour is weak: where the question has been examined with proper method, stage of life and the state of the labour market explain the differences better than the year of birth – and the spread within an age cohort is greater than the spread between cohorts.
One indication of this is the repetition: weaker loyalty and higher demands were already attributed to Generation Y, and to others before that. What repeats probably describes a stage of life, not a generation.
What can be evidenced are changed conditions – a labour market in which applicants are in many places the scarce side, digital tools as a matter of course, and a more open treatment of mental strain. Those three explain a large part of what is traded as a generational characteristic, and they have one decisive advantage: they can be shaped.
In practice it follows that anyone wanting to know what new employees expect should ask them. That holds up better than any model – and it protects against carrying age-based attributions into job adverts, where they become indications under the AGG.
Sources
- Institute for Employment Research (English pages) (opens in a new tab)
- Federal Statistical Office – labour market and earnings (English pages) (opens in a new tab)
- Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (English pages) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 11 AGG – Job advertisements (official English version) (opens in a new tab)
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