What Employers Are Facing When Hiring Gen Z
Ask a business owner what’s hardest about hiring right now and you’ll hear some version of the same line: “I can’t find good young people.”
They’re talking about Gen Z, born from the mid-1990s to about 2010. Gen Z workers already make up roughly 24% of the Australian workforce. They’re expected to be a third of it by 2030. Right behind them is Gen Alpha, born from 2010. The oldest turn 16 this year and are starting their first casual jobs and apprenticeships now.
So, this isn’t a group employers can wait out. Although plenty of them are trying to.
What I’m hearing on the phone
I screen candidates for a living. That means calling people who have applied for a job. They saw the ad, they chose to apply and they know a call might come.
More and more often, with younger applicants, the call goes nowhere. One word answers. Long silences. No questions of their own. Nothing in their voice to tell me they want the job they applied for.
I don’t think most of them are lazy or rude. I think many have never had to hold a professional phone conversation and nobody has told them that the first call is the interview.
But I can’t put someone in front of a client if they can’t get through ten minutes on the phone.
The three complaints employers bring to me
Basic job skills are missing. Not trade skills. Work skills. Turning up on time. Taking feedback. Returning a call. The ‘simple’ things. A US survey of 800 hiring managers found close to six in ten thought recent graduates were unprepared for work and nearly four in ten avoided hiring them. It’s American data, but Australian employers describe the same thing to me every week.
The expectations come before the proof. Work from home is the common example. Flexibility is a fair thing to want. But asking for it on the first call, before you’ve shown you can do the job, for a role that can’t be done from a kitchen table, doesn’t sit well with an owner who needs someone on the tools at 7am.
They don’t plan to stay. Randstad’s research found only 6% of Australian Gen Z workers plan to stay with their current employer long term. Yep, you read that correctly – six percent! For a small business that spends months training someone, that number hurts more than the hip pocket.
The part employers need to own
Here’s where I’ll push back on my own headline.
A lot of Gen Z started their working lives in lockdown. Many missed the after-school jobs where the rest of us learned to talk to customers, take a telling-off and show up again the next day.
Younger candidates are also more open about how they communicate. More of them tell me they are neurodivergent, with autism and ADHD are part of that picture. A flat phone manner is not always a lack of interest. Sometimes it’s a capable, reliable person who communicates differently and a standard phone screen filters them out before anyone sees what they can do.
Most small and medium businesses have never been shown how to hire for that. That’s a gap in the process, not in the person.
Why skilled young workers are harder to find
The numbers back up what owners feel. Jobs and Skills Australia data shows only about 55% of advertised technician and trade vacancies are being filled, against roughly 68% across all occupations. Fewer skilled young people are coming through, with the good ones having options (and also the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow).
What works when hiring Gen Z
The employers I see winning with younger staff do a few things differently:
• They tell candidates what the first call will cover, so they can prepare.
• They ask clear, specific questions instead of “tell me about yourself”.
• They hire for attitude and reliability, then train the skill.
• They spell out expectations on day one: hours, phones and how feedback works.
• They screen properly. A ten-minute call tells you more than a resume ever will.
And to younger job seekers: answer the damn phone, know the job you applied for, and sound like you want it. You’ll be ahead of most of the field.
So, are they unemployable?
No. But the gap between what young people arrive with and what a workplace needs is real, and it takes effort from both sides to close.
What are you seeing in your business? I’d like to hear it, whether you agree or not.
If you’re struggling to find reliable people, book a free 15-minute Hiring Clarity Call and we’ll talk it through.
