There is a need to talk about how “Zen Z is changing the workplace”. What do they do, how do they feel and how do they act and most importantly how they are changing the workplace in 21st century. In my interactions with these young minds over recent years helped me get to know them more from a generation perspective and that’s what we are discussing in this article.
It’s a reality that Zen Z don’t consider to work for conventional jobs like Engineer, Medical, Educationist or Govt jobs as hot as it used to be some 15 years ago. Usually we associate hotness in a job with Money, Exposure & Glamour but if the job restricts your natural flow of thoughts then? If you can fee open to new ideas, can’t feel empowered to perform and can’t have natural satisfaction from job then? I think that’s where this generation is thinking and putting energy.
They think Different, act Quick, and do not want restrictions in life. They want to become a job creator rather than job seeker, They want to follow their passion which takes them places, some have appeared as leaders in no time and some have smartly turned their followers into customers building a successful business models. These pointers signal us some new age keywords like Startups, Freelancer, Blogger, Vlogger, Social Entrepreneur & Ideapreneur these are the true representations of this new generation. So why do we see this trend?
Traditional jobs still evolving:
You put 12 hrs a day and you get paid less than an electrician after doing 4 years of Engineering that’s the fate of traditional jobs in India. Consider incentive system in startup vs traditional company, The culture of startup is far open then larger established companies and their incentive system is something our young mind go for.
Passion takes over necessity:
For Zen Z passion is the key, You would notice many stories where someone is passionate about travel and got an offer from travel company to write blogs for them and get handsomely paid. Our millennial find passion for blogging, Vlogging, content marketing, digital marketing and many of them earn more than a President or CEO of a software company. Some names for you to explore are: Satish K, Ishan Sharma, Ankur Agrawal etc
Influence of Social media:
Everyone from young to elderly are now on social media, our govt takes decision based on social media uproar, we get instant updates using social media so current age is of social media. FB, Insta, Twitter and Google has not only provided technology platform but also provided many independent jobs to people. You can now sell sari on Facebook sitting at home and still beat any professional salary numbers. Digital Marketing is becoming a complex play day by day, you have so many things to target audience now be it social media, content, ppc ads, video marketing social media is the place where things are shaping right now.
Wave of Startup’s swaying Zen Z :
India is now a pure startup hub where every new idea is seeing a dawn, only in year 2021 we saw more than 15 startups becoming unicorn ($1 Bn valuation). Indian govt has also launched its startup India program where anyone can register and get the funding, if his/her idea has potential to exponentially grow. More and more millennials are now considering starting up with a business idea and making it large/global. This is a big change which is causing our work environment to change, our belief system to change and accommodate new ideas.
Zen Z is more social
Zen Z is more social in the sense they love sharing, love expressing themselves and on top of it they can find potential work opportunity faster then millenials. Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft or Amazon all of them are segmenting their customer base according to this new category.