Model behaviour
Hello
So sorry for the lack of post yesterday. It was a very long week, and the last week of me being 36. 37 is a little too close to 40 - not that there is anything wrong with 40, of course. I just thought perhaps I would have a little more time before it was my turn to get that far.
I took today off to do some of the things I like most; mooching around charity shops, sniffing things in TK Maxx, eating cake in indie coffee shops. It was good.
Let’s get onto today’s topic!
Last week was Dive In festival, which is a celebration of diversity in the insurance sector. It was my first time attending - though only virtually, and I was taken aback by how many events there were all over the world.
I find with diversity topics, it’s usually means gender, without really covering a wider range of demographics, but Dive In had quite a good range of topics, including a number on age diversity, which I found interesting.
One of the talks I listened in to was broadcasted from Japan, and I thought I could listen in the background while I worked, but it as actually in Japanese (which made for great listening practise for me) and also the speaker had so many points I’d not heard before on the topic of working with gen z. I used to tell my students in Japan that the more languages you can speak, the more friends you can make, but being bilingual also helps us hear views we’d not come across in our native tongue.
You can see my thoughts on the talk overall on my LinkedIn post here, but today I wanted to focus on the topic of modelling behaviour as I thought it was super interesting.
The speaker spoke about how, because we don’t use home phones as much anymore, and we type more than phone people, gen z are afraid of speaking on the phone, don’t know how to communicate well, because it’s not been modelled for them.
Work in Japan is full of rules, and there is even a whole other level of language you have to learn for the workplace - it’s called keigo. When I was working in Japanese offices I had a book that set out how to say phrases to people based on their superiority level, and even native speakers have challenges picking it up.
While you may learn this at uni (I went to a private girls’ uni, and so we were taught how to speak like ladies instead) you don’t really get the hang of things until you can hear it spoken around you all the time.
In this new world of hybrid working, I think there’s even less of a chance for young people to have workplace etiquette modelled for them, even outside the world of Japan and the language used in the office.
I remember a long time ago I worked in a very small organisation, and we were all in a small office together, including the co-founders. It was really interesting overhearing their conversations, how they responded to certain things. One time they were on speaker phone being given feedback from a lost funding opportunity, and it really sticks in my mind as a valuable opportunity to hear my bosses respond with grace in the face of quite critical feedback.
When organisations think of development for their staff, I think often they stress out trying to provide formal study opportunities, or plan out very detailed development plans. However, when thinking back to when I have learnt the most, it’s by being given the opportunity to sit in meetings at my boss’ level. When I was Global Early Careers Manager for a tech company, I reported into the VP for Talent, who was one of the best bosses I’ve had. She would quite frequently pull me into project groups and meetings on things only fractionally related to early careers, and being in those calls and projects gave me so much insight that I still lean on today. I didn’t appreciate at the time how special it was to have those chances.
When working with gen z, it might not be so easy to give out those opportunities. For one, there is quite a big gap between the hybrid ideals of those gen z employees who want to be in the office and soak up knowledge to help them succeed, and their older managers who want to work from home in peace. If a company has a flexible working policy, it’s hard to be stricter with managers, telling them to come in more often when they don’t want to.
Even if it isn’t possible to ask managers to be in the office more, it’s not the end of the world. We have two new HR apprentices who sit on the island behind me, and I often think how much of an opportunity it is for them to listen into the variety of HR conversations going on around them. I think there’s lots of benefit from them interacting with a range of colleagues, even if their own managers and team aren’t present.
Then there’s also the role of social media in this.
Ages ago, my gen z sister sent me over a TikTok showing a cheerleading tryout from possibly the early 2000s. There was one girl who was clearly under prepared, and had choreographed a routine that wasn’t meeting standard. My sister had asked me how on earth she hadn’t been able to make a better routine.
I explained to her that in those days, we didn’t have YouTube or TikTok to be able to learn things. If you wanted to be a cheerleader you couldn’t just look online for a routine to learn, you had to use your imagination to create something you think might be right.
The conversation made me realise how much of a gap there is between our experiences, and how much gen z rely on the internet to learn things, as well as the expectation to be great at things first try. I think pre-internet there was a lot more space for us to be useless at something at the beginning. For those of us in recruiting, how often do we, for example, expect software developer candidates to have learnt how to code in their own time? There’s so much pressure to have done the groundwork.
TikTok and YouTube give a great opportunity to find modelled behaviours and situations. Back in the summer, UEA put content out modelling a clearing conversation, so students would know what to expect. An Instagram career advice account I really like often models how to have challenging conversations at work. LinkedIn UK’s TikTok account has some really fun content around networking in the office, too.
But even though early career professionals could go online to find out how to navigate the workplace, it’s also the case that you don’t know what you don’t know - I wouldn’t have predicted that overhearing my managers receive feedback would be so impactful at the time, for example.
As we employers grow to expect so much of applicants in this heated early careers market, I wonder where we will go next without much opportunity for gen z to pick up workplace basics as easily as it once was.
Links
Related to the above, The Washington Post has published a guide to phone call etiquette.
Also related to the above, how gen z feel about coming into the office.
It’s really sad to see how much students are struggling with money this year.
Really enjoyed this TikTok from CGP - the British revision guides. A great way to use the platform to advertise their books to their target demographic of pre-GCSE students but also show how fun they are as an employer.
Another brilliant recruitment marketing TikTok. I won’t spoil it but this is *chef’s kiss*.
I have to be careful not to turn this newsletter into a Kyle Campbell fangirl page, but he wrote an excellent post on how students make university choices based on career outcomes. Perhaps if there are uni careers folk out there reading this, it might be worth doing collab content with the employers who recruited your graduates. I know I’d be more than happy to build content together with unis.
OK I’m going to get on with my Monday night, perhaps rock myself in a corner somewhere, silently sobbing about how time is moving too quickly.
Until next week,
Charlotte