Gen Z is defining the modern career

Too often, learning and development are lost to workplace ‘busyness’ and are frequently the first ‘expense’ sacrificed in budget cuts.

The performance of public and private sector enterprises depends on the ‘fitness’ of the career structures and employment systems they have in place to acquire and retain talent. Yet, while there is plenty of discussion about the future of work, the career infrastructure required to attract, develop, and retain workforce capability should be considered more.

The Australian Public Service (APS) has adopted ‘craft’ as the core concept that informs skills acquisition and learning. Craft carries within it a career philosophy that includes how skills are acquired but also goes beyond skills acquisition alone.

What happens when craft intersects with the traditional career infrastructure rooted in bureaucratic and professional career structures?

For many years, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has worked hard to overturn the traditional ‘gold watch’ career pathways, in which a military career was a lifelong individual and family commitment. Interpreting a career as more open and mobile has been psychically challenging for the ADF, but they have persisted.

Our understanding of careers has always been changeable. The ‘gold watch’ for dedication and slavish commitment to hierarchy worked when business and society were relatively stable. However, for some crafts and professions, the ‘migration’ model of moving between jobs to build knowledge and experience was typical.

Women have experienced ‘fractured’ careers where, after a break in career momentum, the career resumes at some later point, sometimes in a different place or on a different path and trajectory.

The pandemic ruptured longstanding ways of working. We need to adjust to the changed circumstances. Leaders and managers must think beyond skills shortages and employee engagement to understand how careers are evolving.

The infrastructure of a career

Career structures and systems include all the mechanisms associated with recruitment, selection, training, job design, promotion processes, career management, learning and development, and professional transition. These organisational career structures influence and shape almost every aspect of our work experience.

Significantly, career structures and systems influence organisations both upwards and downwards.

Building upwards, career structures and employment systems are the wellspring of individual skills and experience, operational processes and practices, and, ultimately, core organisational competencies.

Building downwards, career structures and employment systems strongly influence the organisation’s culture and social capital.

Career structures, directly and indirectly, influence organisational performance through this downward and upward effect.

Attraction and retention, learning and careers

The pandemic has led many people to reconsider their orientation to work and reflect on their careers. Some went further to test the boundaryless nature of work and careers.

The shift in mood, perception, and mindset has been captured through phenomena variously labelled the ‘great resignation’, ‘great reshuffling’, ‘quiet quitting’, and the persistent bubbling of the ‘return to work’ debate.

Many employers are revising employee value propositions (EVPs) to communicate leadership commitments to workforce development and growth. Implicitly, the EVP is underpinned by an understanding of career through learning opportunities, flexibility in working, and employment conditions.

However, against the backdrop of the pandemic, there is a need to be more explicit about the organisation’s perspective on what a career is that is mindful of the changes in employees’ understanding of careers and where those two perspectives converge and diverge.

Awakening the possibility of boundaryless careers

The idea of a boundaryless career gained prominence through the 1990s; however, it gave a name to an approach to a career that has been around for much longer.

Broadly, a boundaryless career is not confined to a single occupation or organisation but involves movement across traditional boundaries. It involves changing jobs and employment status but also breaks from working (e.g., concentrating on family, pursuing different work, or taking a career break).

The disruption to work caused by the pandemic opened the appeal and possibility of a boundaryless career to a more significant portion of the workforce.

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want

Research suggests that Gen Z (born between 1995 and 2012) have embraced the principles of a boundaryless career like no other cohort. It is worth reflecting that Gen Z is the latest generation to join the workforce, and as they move through their working life, they are likely to be heralds of change in how careers are understood and supported. As organisations struggle with skills shortages and retaining talent, this workforce cohort is already having an influence.

The research findings support anecdotal observations that this cohort’s career aspirations and mindset are qualitatively different from previous generations.

Traditional linear career structures and pathways designed for a different time and outlook do not meet the needs of this group. For instance, research has shown the aspirations of Gen Z include the following:

• They are attracted to career advancement opportunities within an organisation where they are confident that they can get the career development they need through learning, mentoring and growth.

• They embrace informal learning methods, including learning at their own pace (outside a traditional learning environment) and collaborating with others in the workplace.

• They see career growth through gaining professional competencies and valuing lateral career growth over hierarchical growth.

• They understand the implicit psychological contract with the organisation to maintain a work-life balance and expect that commitment to be honoured.

The career focus for Gen Z is on stability through professional competence rather than positioning for promotion. Like work-life balance, recognition through salary is assumed rather than pursued.

What are the implications of career boundarylessness?

For Gen Z, careers are boundaryless and underpinned by continuous reskilling and upskilling.

For organisations, boundaryless career structures work with the flow of the workforce rather than positioning the workforce as a fixed asset. Research has identified that the structure of boundaryless careers acknowledges that:

• there will be mobility between employers;

• the EVPs of the current employer will be tested against the experience of work, and comparisons with the EVPs of other employers will be ongoing;

• informal networks that are external to the current employer are a trusted source of information;

• breaking traditional organisational career boundaries to pursue interests is not a barrier and not uncommon;

• traditional career opportunities will be rejected for personal or family reasons; and

• practising a boundaryless career will happen regardless of organisational career structures.

Boundaryless careers reflect the fluid nature of Gen Z’s understanding of a career.

Importantly, they explicitly connect learning to non-linear career progression. This connection is important and novel because it has implications for organisational career structures.

Lifelong learning is now a ‘thing’

Lifelong learning is attractive, but it often seems more like a slogan or mantra than a practical and implementable set of actions.

The Australian Universities Accord focuses on

… developing a system that supports upskilling, reskilling and lifelong learning so that people can continually develop their skills. This can be through people building on existing skills or by adding new skills through flexible and stackable credentials such as microcredentials, so they are prepared to meet the needs of a dynamic economy and changing labour market.

This statement will resonate strongly with Gen Z's interpretation of a boundaryless career that emphasises skill, competence, and mobility.

The Accord emphasises the importance of flexible and stackable credentials, such as microcredentials, to support upskilling, reskilling, and lifelong learning. Again, this resonates with Gen Z’s career outlook and has implications for organisations providing access to continuous learning as part of the EVP.

Leaders are the key

Understanding how perceptions of a career are changing can help explain post-pandemic workforce shifts. It is an opportune time for leaders and human resource managers to reflect on the implications for career pathways, workforce development, and capability growth.

However, leaders and managers must also demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to learning and career by providing the time and space to learn.

Too often, learning and development are lost to workplace ‘busyness’ and are frequently the first ‘expense’ sacrificed in budget cuts. This de-prioritisation of learning and development in practice contradicts the rhetoric of investing in workforce capability shared by many public and private sector organisations.