Human interaction struggles resulting from technology impact is a key feature of present generations being at their prime working years, which makes the issue of soft skills more relevant than ever.
Accounting for the great part of working professionals and estimated to be a worth noting part of business leaders for many of the upcoming years, Millennials and Generation Zs are poised to reshape maritime industry, with their unique experiences forcing shipping organizations to examine how they will operate for decades to come.
But what are Millennials and Gen Zs? While there are various interpretations of where the lines between Millennials and Gen Zs end, Pew Research Center considers Millennials as anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 26 to 41 in 2022), and Gen Zs anyone born from 1997 (ages 25 and below in 2022).
The unique characteristics of these new generations, mostly defined from their relation to technology compared to their predecessors, is expected to bring a whole new set of demands and opportunities for the business world.
The key generations
· Baby Boomers: These are the demographic cohort born between 1946-1964, during the post–World War II baby boom. Constituting over 21% of US population as of 2019, they still have a significant impact on the economy.
· Generation X: Born between 1965-1980, Gen X occupies less figures than millennials and Boomers, which is why they are often overlooked when the generations are discussed. Their main characteristic is that they experienced shaky economic times as children and young adults in the 1980s and ’90s.
· Generation Y (aka Millennials): In 2019, millennials surpassed Baby Boomers as the US’ largest living adult generation. Millennial consumers represent the highest-spending generation in 2020 and are forecast to be the wealthiest generation in US history by 2030.
· Generation Z (aka Zoomers): Succeeding Millennials, anyone born from 1997 to 2009 is considered a Gen Z. Gen Z are digital natives who have little or no memory of the world as it existed before smartphones.
· Generation Alpha: Gen Alpha succeeds Gen Z and includes everyone born from 2010 to 2024, thus the youngest people on Earth at the moment. More than 2.5 million are born globally every week. By the year 2025, it is estimated that they will number almost 2 billion- the largest generation in the history of the world.
Interesting facts about Millennials: The skills gap
Allianz estimates that Millennials alone will constitute as much as 75% of the global workforce in 2025. As such, a look into their motives, desires and characteristics is considered critical. For instance, Millennials are known for struggling in basic life skills, like cooking, driving, orientation (GPS alleluia), and many more, compared to their predecessors. A basic argument is that the use of technology is changing the way they think, with some claiming that it is stunting their development and making them less creative.
However, a 2015 study by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) found that US Millennials lag behind their international peers, not only in literacy (aka the ability to use and understand written text) and numeracy (aka basic math skills), but also problem solving in technology-rich environments, when compared to results from previous years of US adult surveys. This is perhaps the biggest surprise for a generation regularly described as “digital natives.”
Soft skills: Demands for a new era
At the same time, this excessive use of technology makes both Millennials and Gen Zs ill-equipped with the skills required for being a successful human being, noted leadership expert Simon Sinek.
So much of their relationships exist online, so much of their communication exists over text or direct message that…unfortunately there are too many of them who literally aren’t learning the skills of how to talk to people, the ability to form deep meaningful relationships the ability to have difficult conversations,
…he said.
This is critical considering that a great deal of discussion surrounds the need for soft skills -as opposed to hard skills of diplomas and degrees- in the business environment that vastly depends on communication, leadership, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, multitasking, teamwork and many other skills that cannot be taught in books. This is very important as Gen X is gradually stepping down and Millennials are expected to account for a big part of business leaders.
The future of business leadership
When you’re a leader, difficult conversations are one of the things you must have. We call you leader not because you have rank, not because you’re at the top of the organization, not because somebody promoted you; We called you leader because you have the courage to go first, because you went first towards the danger, first to take the risk, first to trust,
…Sinek explains.
Showing trust, giving feedback that everyone else is afraid to give, having the strength to ask people to step down for moving the team forward, letting people know that they are worthy for the team, showing the recognition and appreciation of their loyalty, and making hard decisions without being afraid to hurt others’ feelings are only a few basic skills of interpersonal communication that new generations are lacking, leaving a concerning gap in the current work landscape, argued Sinek.
“It is now the responsibility of the companies to teach those skills. We have no choice. Companies have to teach listening effective communication, how to give and receive feedback, how to have difficult conversations…If your company doesn’t have these classes, the future of leadership is not looking good. Unfortunately, the responsibility now for that falls on the company, because we didn’t do it in school and we didn’t do it in university, we definitely didn’t do it at business school, so when are we going to do it? Better late than never,
…he concluded.
The way forward
As expected, Millennials and Gen Zs currently represent the world’s younger workforce, therefore constitute the main point of focus for business world. The future of work post-pandemic is uncertain, with digitalization, geopolitics and demographic trends shaping an unforeseen new world, but the industry must not overlook the unique characteristics of its people.
The good news is that Millennials and Gen Zs are a highly educated group, well equipped with the hard skills needed to excel. In the transforming shipping environment, the most competitive organizations will be those focusing on continuous guidance and training and those that continuously choose to reskill and upskill their people.
