If you’re a business owner, I’m willing to bet you’ve said some version of this over the past few years:
“These Gen Z employees just don’t want to work.”
Honestly?
I understand the frustration.
Gen Z communicates differently than many of us did. They expect more feedback, more transparency, more flexibility, and they aren’t afraid to leave a job that doesn’t feel right. For owners who built their businesses in a different era, that can be incredibly frustrating to manage.
I recently had the opportunity to join Ennis Legacy Partners on the latest episode of their Exit Readiness Podcast to discuss recruiting, retaining, and engaging Gen Z employees. Founder Pat Ennis and his partners help business owners build companies that are more valuable, more transferable, and less dependent on the owner, so our conversation naturally drifted toward how workforce decisions affect the long-term value of a business.
One thought kept resurfacing throughout our discussion.
We can change our business systems. We can’t change Gen Z employees.
Whether we agree with GenZ’s attitudes about work really isn’t the point anymore. They’re entering the workforce in large numbers, and every business owner who hopes to grow over the next decade is going to recruit, hire, manage, and retain them. Wishing they were more like previous generations doesn’t change the reality of today’s labor market.
The good news is that adapting isn’t new for business owners.
We’ve adapted when customer expectations changed. We’ve adapted to new technology, online reviews, remote work, and changing economic conditions. Every successful business has learned to evolve when the marketplace changes.
The hiring market is no different.
Today’s employees have more choices than ever before. They can compare employers before they even submit an application, interview with multiple companies in the same week, and leave organizations that don’t deliver the experience they expected. Business owners aren’t just competing for customers anymore—they’re competing for employees, too.
That doesn’t mean lowering your standards — it means raising your game.
The companies that consistently attract and retain great employees aren’t necessarily the ones offering the highest wages or the flashiest perks. They’re the ones that are intentional about the employee experience from the very beginning. They communicate expectations clearly. They onboard thoughtfully. They hold people accountable consistently. They help employees understand how their work contributes to something bigger than themselves.
Those aren’t “soft” HR initiatives.
They’re smart business decisions.
Every hiring decision, every onboarding experience, every performance conversation, and every management interaction sends a message about what it’s feels like to work for your company. Over time, those small decisions compound. They influence whether good employees stay, recommend your business to others, and help create the kind of stable, productive workforce that every owner wants.
If there’s one takeaway I’d encourage business owners to embrace, it’s this: Stop wishing for a different generation. Start building a business that today’s Gen Z wants to be part of.
You don’t have to agree with every expectation Gen Z brings into the workplace. You don’t have to lower your standards or compromise your values. But if you’re willing to adapt your hiring, onboarding, communication, and management practices to today’s labor market, you’ll gain a competitive advantage over the businesses that keep insisting, “Kids these days…”
If this topic resonates with you, here’s one practical place to start. In this 90-second takeaway from my conversation with Pat Ennis and Walter Colby on the Exit Readiness Podcast, I explain why I believe employee retention doesn’t begin in the first year—or even the first week. It begins in the first hour.
▶ Watch the 90-Second Takeaway: Why the First Hour Matters
