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.Credit: Aresna Villanueva
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.
