Gen Alpha are entering the workforce. Here’s what they want

5 days ago 6

Time flies when you’re working. It only feels like yesterday that a new generation entered the workforce and caused heightened consternation as we figured out how to best work with them.

Gen Z, or those aged about 16 to 30, brought new ways of thinking about work, especially how to avoid losing themselves completely in their jobs as many of their older siblings and parents had.

Gen Alpha is starting to enter the workplace, and they’ve got new ways of doing things.

But just as Gen Z have established themselves, making up almost a third of workers, there’s already a new group biting at their heels. Generation Alpha, born from 2010 to today, are about to enter the workforce.

The eldest members of Gen Alpha – so named as we’re returning to the start of the Greek alphabet after Gen X, Y and Z – are 15 years old and just starting to look for their first entry-level jobs. Over the next few years they’ll be your newest colleagues, so you’d better get to know them.

If Millennials were digital immigrants and Gen Z were digital natives, then Gen Alpha are AI natives, growing up entirely in the 21st century when technology is integrated into everything they do. They’ll consider it quaint that we ever had to search for an answer instead of having it delivered directly to us.

By the time they properly join the workforce, many would have interacted with voice assistants, algorithms and AI from birth. Compare this with most of us grappling with what the shift to artificial intelligence means.

Just when you thought you’d got your head around Gen Z in the workplace, your first Gen Alpha employee will be arriving any moment now.

How they’ll approach work will also look different in three main areas. The first is that, according to research from Visa, more than three quarters of Gen Alpha said they wanted to run their own business, with just 13 per cent saying they preferred to work for someone else. In other words, they have a deeper desire to be entrepreneurial than any generation before them.

Of course, necessity will rebalance this with age, but it’s a stark contrast to the current reality that 86 per cent of the working population work for other people.

The second difference is that Gen Alpha are growing up with unprecedented awareness of mental health, both their own and those around them. A UK study of 500 teenagers by Benenden Health found 77 per cent of Generation Alpha said that mental health support is critical in their future workplace, and it’s a big driver when deciding where they want to work.

When asked to choose between mental health support or high pay, more than half said both were equally important.

The last big difference is in-built flexibility. Remember all those hard-fought battles to improve how we work, like flexible and remote working? They are now baked into Gen Alpha’s expectations, and they’ll seek out work environments that will adapt to them from the start.

The same UK study found that half of Gen Alpha said flexible working is going to be the most important workplace feature they’ll be looking for.

Just when you thought you’d got your head around Gen Z in the workplace, your first Gen Alpha employee will be arriving any moment now.

They will want entrepreneurial, flexible and mental-health-aware workplaces, and compared with the reality of what many of us have now, not every workplace is going to be ready for them.

Tim Duggan is author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com

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