Come to the session, which is called managing generation Z. What we all need to change in order to lead young professionals to success. I hope you join the very first hours of the women Tech Global Conference. I personally can't wait to see like all the other sessions.And I really hope that uh the sessions you're gonna have with you today uh is gonna be useful. It's gonna be practical and out, out with some inspiration and ideas for yourself. So let's start straight away. So my name is Inna, I'm the head of support and robot. I'm an experienced people manager and I can say that I'm definitely extremely passionate about the whole concept of managing people, how to help them grow, how to make them successful. And uh at this moment, I'm managing a team of 400 more than like 400 professionals working in uh customer support in revolut. And in general, uh I've seen like a lot of different generations. I know how much it's important to adjust to every single employee. And based on my previous experience, I can share with you some of the very practical things which you can uh use in your day to day life. Uh Just to give you a heads up straight away. I'm not generation that I'm millennial and I'll try to, within my session, I'll try to compare those two generations uh from this angle. So who are the generations that, who are they? Uh we are currently experiencing them just like entering the early workplace uh uh environment.

And there's still like not very specific definitions, but I prefer to use the one which is uh specified by Pew Research Center. So you can use uh c the graph diff uh different generations which you are experiencing uh in the 20th 21st century. So it's starting from the silent generation baby boomers, generation X millennials and generation Z I can see right now in media and press. Uh many times, journalists are actually mix in those two generation millennials and generation that we need to distinguish them because as a millennial on my own, I can say that my personal view, my personal vision and work attitude and stations from work are very different from what I select from young uh people.

So generations that are those who are currently at their early early twenties. So they would be fresh uh graduates from universities, some of them might be still like uh studying and maybe like trying to combine their um university life together with the work experience. So take a look at this graph. Uh try to find where you are actually standing and uh let's move on to the generations that we, they warm up. So I have a question for you. We have a chat uh available in the session. So take a few seconds and try to think yourself. Imagine you have a generation, uh that representative joining your company or your team. It's their very first uh day to work. It's maybe like their very first job. They've never worked before in your life. They are still fresh.

They have a lot of energy but they still need to learn a lot. So when do you expect them to expect the promotion for themselves? Try to think about any number which comes to your mind. It can be like three days, five months, five years. And uh if you can command all select each generation, you are representing, so write the timeline and your generation so that we can compare. Uh do we have the same expectations or not? I can see we already have some of the first initial answers. Mhm Yeah. So I can see like based on the uh chat, what we're seeing like there are like two kind of groups. Uh One group is talking about like one year. Uh another group is more or less around 56 months. Mhm. Oh, so glad. Like we have actual generation uh that's also like present here in generations. Mhm As soon as possible. Very nice answer. OK. So let's move on. And talk a little bit more about what their expectations are. As I mentioned, I'm personally a millennial. So for me, when I was joining a work place environment, I had indeed uh expectations about future career. I was like very ambitious and my personal expectations were indeed like, it's like within one year. So I need to join, I need to learn, I need to prove myself. And then in one year more or less, it's gonna be having some kind of revelation. This is like how most of the companies are working right now. If you're working in like big corporations, most probably there will be some kind of standards how often people can get promoted.

And one year it's a standard which is broad, let's say from the uh millennials environment, but generations that are different. What was my surprise when um when I joined the company and I would start like working with very young um people uh suddenly, like they said, like coming to me saying like, hey, I'm already here for a while and I want to get promoted and nothing is happening. Like, what exactly can I do to make sure that I get to the next level? And when I checked those people, all of them were at the more or less on average two months in the company. For me, it was a surprise. I was like, OK, I might be not understanding something like how can you expect to have a promotion after two months in the company. Uh This is usually the very fair reaction of anyone who is representing like more older generation. Um I hear like some managers saying about the fact that generations that there have expectations, which are not realistic, they are too ambitious, they cannot make the judgmental decisions and so on and so on. Uh which many times results in some kind of negative image of generations that what is important here, we cannot complain. Let's be honest, the generations are moving on right now. In the next 10 years, the gen Z gonna be the ones who will be ruling at the workplace.

So we can complain a lot, we can talk about unjustified claims, but it's much better to accept the reality and just that reality. So what can you do if people actually expect to get promotion in two months when you know that definitely the person is not ready. So my first advice to you would be create uh small steps for their career. Don't give them everything straight away. Uh One of the solutions which I found specifically for my team is we uh decided to split the entry journey of the employees to several stages. So the first stage is definitely when you're on boarding, you're still in the training, you're selling this kind of zero level, you're being as the education period after you've completed it, you start working, but we give you a level which is called like level one. So as customer support agents you join in like, you know, what is your level one? You start working? You already like do like as much as you can do. You're growing, you're in increasing your results. After two or three months, there is a possibility for your manager to actually um nominate you to get upgraded to level two. Uh in order to get upgrades, you need to have successful results. On the first level, you need to pass additional training, you need to pass a small quiz and basically earn this level two. On the level two, we give you additional access and we give you, for example, like um possibility to work a little bit on more advanced tasks.

After 23 months, you have the next stage. Level three. So what was the difference in reality in the way, what kind of job people were doing or how they were upgrading doesn't change. It was exactly the same approach as she used to have in the past. But because we introduced those smaller steps, checkpoints which had very clear numerical um names which had like very clear process of P select from one stage to another one, we were able to give people those checkpoints to emulate themselves and feel that they're moving on.

What I was saying is people consistently um like bra bragging about the fact that they get ready from level one to level two, they were updating their statuses. Uh They're basically like extremely happy about this progression. Um Such, um, unofficial or semiofficial steps are very important for people.

Uh In these ages, they do have this kind of 23 months, um, cycles in which they work if for two or three months. Um, the person is like doing exactly the same kind of job and then nothing happens. They have this fear of missing out, also known as hobo fear of missing out exists not only in social life but at work as well. Uh If you look at the generations that this is the first generation, which is like almost not working during teenage times, all the previous generations, they used to start working at a very early stage. And of course, when you're a teenager, you take any job, you can, it's gonna be very, it's not gonna be fancy. You'll be doing something like very physical, maybe we'll be cleaning dishes or maybe like, um doing anything else. So whenever you get to the office environment, you do appreciate it. You find it like a fantastic opportunity for you generations that has like a very small amount of people who actually uh start like joining the career in their early uh teenage. Most of them, they will have the very first job just like after graduating university during the internship. That is why they have nothing to compare. If they feel that their career is not growing, they will start thinking, OK, what's happening outside?

Maybe I'm too slow in the way how I'm growing, maybe there's something much better outside, maybe other companies offering anything else. So you need to know that there is this kind of uh cycle that every two or three months, people need to ask themselves their questions, they will be naturally asking them questions. So for you as a manager is a question, how do you make sure that you create for them? An adventure? There has to be a very specific plan. You cannot just like um motivate people just with like speeches or emotional encouragement. It's great for them, a career path which can be like semi formal, but it should be like very clear for them like what they can do again, like from my previous experience, but we could reduce those kind of level three levels of responsibilities. We were able to, let's say, get rid of the problem for half a year after half a year. Uh I certainly get people coming to me saying like, well, I've reached the maximum, there's nothing more like which I can do in this career. I'm already on the maximum level. I can be of course, like six months, you're just getting exactly on the trend.

So what we had to do after that, um we introduced of course, the future promotion which can happen more or less like after one year, one year and a half, which like when you do make a full shift um in what kind of job you're doing. But uh there is another trend, uh which is uh related to generations that you might know that. Uh right now people are complaining about the fact that uh due to social network, due to the internet, pe uh most of the current um people have very short attention span, meaning that they cannot do one job, like for a really long time, it comes from the work as well. What I find out is if you give generations that representative one job, it's gonna be exactly the same task, no matter how advanced it is. But if they will be doing it consistently from one day to another one, they'll get bored. Uh The one of the main rules for generations that there has to be no single duty positions, you cannot have the position which requires you to do exactly the same job again and again, the way how we try to uh work with this. Uh part is, for example, like for customer support agents, we have them the core job, which is of course, speaking with our customers and helping them out. But then after six months, we start giving people additional responsibilities. It can be 5% of that time.

It can be 10% of that time, but we ask them, ok, can you help us to review the new product? Can you help us to write the ask questions for the customers, can you help us to make any kind of additional analysis? And if you give to people different tasks, which is like extremely important. Because if you give everyone exactly the same task and they have like this kind of two tasks which they're doing like within daily duties, they will still feel it's like one single duty, they need to feel exceptional, they need to the progress. So make sure when you're creating this kind of list of tasks for your team that you're having this kind of diversity. Uh your employees within this young generation need to feel that they're not doing just like one job, they have something special, something additional. This is what's gonna get them motivated. This is the area's gonna get them excited and they will always have something to learn again. This generation is extremely energetic. They are very ambitious, like you can get a lot from them as long as they're motivated and they feel encouraged at work. Another part which is very important, they are looking at their job and meeting.

You need to make sure that your company or your team, you do have a mission and has to be extremely highly ethical. If you think about the um 20th century, people are ready to work on any job. It's a job like you need to earn money. This is like why you go there a generation that they don't care about earning money that much as long as they have the million in their life. Uh You need to invite them to join, let's say a good site. Your company has to bring the value to the world. You need to be very open about this value. So that when people will be coming to your office or to your company or to your team, they will feel that they change in the world as well. If there is no meaning in their life, they will pretty soon like start thinking about moving out to another place uh generations that is a generation which has like very high level of depression. Uh We've never experienced it like with any other previous generations on how you're young and early this stage comes to them because they're like very sensitive in their emotions. They do have high expectations about the positive aspect of the life. That is why the job has to bring them this positivity. They have to be feeling like they're on this good side. You need again, like uh a lot of the companies that have the missions.

Like if you go almost every website, you will see a lot of the statements like this is our mission. Like those are, those are not the words you need to believe in them, you need to promote them, not only externally but also internally so that everyone is aware what kind of culture we are creating inside. If there's gonna be a live cultural values inside your company inside your team. This is what's gonna make the people feel connected with each other because emotional connection is a very important part. Uh First of all, like this is a young generation, which is still like early graduates or like still exciting. What they expect from the workplace is this Erasmus style environment in the feeling. They don't expect just like to find a desk and a computer. They want to find social life, they want to find friends, they want to find entertainment, they want to find emotions. So if you will be able to create within your workplace, a possibility for uh your employees to socialize. This is like what you can select from a lot of different corporations. Right now, you have this kind of uh kitchen areas. You have sofas, you have playstations because people need to find friendship at work.

If you're gonna have your employees uh getting strong connections with each other, they will value your place of work, not just as a company where they earn money, but actually a place which gives them additional meaning and very interesting aspects. Uh The generation that they were born, like when there was already technology in place, they're like really great with technology. And you can see that for them, it's much easier to communicate with each other over chat, over written communication rather than the oral. That is why some people have the assumption that that generation prefers this kind of written communication. But in reality, the value much more the oral communication with their managers. So if you're managing generations that make sure that you have consistent meetings with them, you need to show that you care. Very typical question uh which you see right now in modern uh question is like, does my manager value me? Do I feel like my manager cares about me as a person? Because those are the expectations of the young workers. They want to feel that they are there, not just like one piece of the whole big mechanism, but they are actually valued as a personality. So as a manager, you need to make sure that for this like younger generation, you give them much more attention.

If you provide a consistent feedback, you can keep them like driving and moving forward and try to go much more for the oral feedback because the um communication skills which are likely which are not written, they're much more well trade now because not so many people actually have them.

So if you as a manager, you can provide the proper overall feedback, a proper oral communication that they would value much more than if you would just like write them a message saying like you're doing a great job. Another part is definitely flexibility again, like we are not talking about people who treat job as just like 9 to 5 days. Um They want to have a job, become part of their life in a good way. So they want to spend uh time at work knowing that this is like a meaningful part of their life. That is why try if you can based on your operations, make it as flexible as possible. Uh We can see this trend right now happening all around the world, talking about flexible working hours, uh talking about possibilities for people to adjust their work. Um uh time, a lot of people, especially if you're talking about a players like those like the brightest minds which you will see um joining your company, they need do need to have some kind of additional flexibility. You don't need to guide them like too much. You don't need to give them like very direct um instructions. You need to give them the challenge, they will be able to achieve it, they will be able to get to the best uh progress as possible. This is a generation which is very creative.

So try to avoid unnecessary direct instructions. You can have the rules, you can have the guidelines by try to give them the job, you should allow them to make their own personal decisions. And in this case, if you can trust that your employees are the bias and know how to do their job, you just need to care that they're actually delivering the results, not so much about if they come at 9 a.m. or 905. To be honest, like there's not a very big difference. Of course, it depends on your position because sometimes you have to be there on time. But otherwise try to see if how much flexibility you can give to them. Because when they have flexibility, they feel like they're making their own decision to work at this specific moment, they make their own decisions to work this amount, to put this amount of energy to their work, work from home. Uh It's a new like a normal. Uh This is like what we see right now because of the COVID-19 situation. But people do have expectations that they want to have a more relaxed life, they want to have work and life combined, even such things as working from the seaside, that can be a very good perk for the employees.

And this is something that they would value a lot and uh interesting research show about the expectations of people from the office environment. So when you actually come to the office, what they want to feel there, they want to feel there as at home. Uh So we are talking about environments where they don't have to have a dress coat, they can come in a cozy outfit and it's which makes them comfortable. They want to have this like a cozy office, some nice sofas someplace where you can relax. Why? Because that environment has to be safe, it has to be comfortable. Uh This generation they want again, like they have expectations for their work very similar as expectations for their family. You can see right now a lot of the companies or teams, they're talking about the fact that we are like one family because that is the desire that is the goal to which people are leaning at that young age try to create again, like this environment, they will feel like I am connected.

I am valued. I don't need to pretend to be someone else, I can be myself. So I definitely no hierarchy. This is a generation which literally doesn't understand the difference between the different positions. They would not value you just because you have a title uh of a director or anything else, you have to be there on their level. This is like why you can see like all those open spaces and people working next to each other. Because any example of hierarchy, it actually leads to this like another alternative which can be discrimination. This generation, they value a lot, the value of human being. They talk a lot about the fact that we need to give as much possibilities to every single person as possible.

So in your way, how you manage the team, make sure you're not making those kind of strict hierarchical reasons in the way the person who is like held in the higher position is more important in the company than the person who's on the junior position. This is an environment which actually allows us to cooper a lot to share the best practices and grow uh over there. So no hierarchy is definitely the expectations and something we should already need to forget as we move forward. And uh last but not the least security. As I've mentioned, they want to be feel comfortable, they want to feel safe. Um Interesting research which you done uh internally in my team, we ask people about different perks which you are given to them and try to understand like what things they value the most, what kind of uh perks they uh want to see and which are the most critical for them. Surprisingly extremely young generation, the early TV that said that they were valued health and life insurance much more than the playstation. It's fun. They want to have games, but they care about their safety about their future, which is like very inspiring for me personally.

Uh they care about how you treat them in the work uh related uh environment, even the type of the contract which you have given them. If you're given a temporary contract, they feel like you don't trust me. I want to be a part of the team here. I want to be a member of this family. I want to have long term relations. So even like to ask yourself a question, I actually provided the best con for your employees because it might be a minor thing like for the older generation. But for them, it matters, you need to build the trust, you need to feel that they are safe and you'll be uh treating them as real partners in your journey. So overall, the best advice is this is a generation which is still building for me. Like we still don't see all the aspects of them. So try to research, ask uh your people, they will be willing to tell you a lot of the information. Try to experiment if it sounds too crazy, maybe do it like with a small group of people, be consistently socially present, uh be all there to speak with them. And in fact, if you want to attract this young generation, make sure you're working on their channels. Uh It's gonna be youtube where 85% of generations that are spending their time, Instagram and Snapchat, if you can see there's no Facebook. Facebook is a platform for millennials.

So again, like if you're looking for this generations that to join your company and your team, make sure you're like present on those kind of platforms. Uh I know that we are already running out of the time and this is a topic which I can talk a lot about. Um So as we don't have much time left, uh what we can do if you are willing, you can join um my uh linkedin profile and I'll post there like special post just about generations that and if you have any questions or you want to share your personal experience or personal insights, feel free to come in there.

And uh I'll be able to uh share my experience maybe like answer some questions if you are interested. And uh surprisingly, if you've seen um based on the first initial question we are asking about what is the expectations, actual generations that like were the most closest to their actual expectations about like just a couple of months before they get promoted. So, thank you very much for joining. I really hope you're gonna find some insights for yourself and inspiration and enjoy the rest of the conference.