Gen Z: The employees your company needs

Gen Z is capable of more than you think.

Welcome to The Manual Weekly – LI Edition, the can’t-miss newsletter for business leaders. You’ll find snackable bits of news highlighting emerging trends, actionable resources, and proven best practices that can help take your business to the next level.

This week’s must-reads:

• Use this template to establish a consistent onboarding process.
• How to get the most of your Gen Z employees.
• Helping your employees find the training content they need.
• Why personal accountability is the key to professional growth.

Template of the week: New Employee Onboarding Process

Onboarding is crucial. That’s not an opinion — it’s a fact. Not convinced it’s that important? Allow us to hit you with some stats:

• A well-structured onboarding process can increase early productivity by 70%.
• It can also improve retention of new hires by 82%
• Every new hire costs your company roughly $3K and a hundred hours for the onboarding process alone. (Well… if you don’t use Trainual, that is.) Regardless, if you lose a new employee because of bad onboarding, unnecessary costs sure do add up.

👉 Want to streamline your onboarding? Start by documenting a repeatable process — and you can use this New Employee Onboarding Process template to get you started. Just touch it up with your company’s unique onboarding needs, and it’s ready to share with your team.

Check out our entire template archive of free and customizable policy, process, and role starters. New to Trainual? Get a demo.

The power and potential of Gen Z employees

It’s time to talk about Gen Z.

AKA, Zoomers. Whatever you call them, those born between 1997 and 2012 have already collected generalizations, and we’ll be honest: It kinda feels like we’re picking on the new kids on the block.

You’ve probably heard some of these:

They’ve been labeled “more difficult to work with than other generations,” and it’s assumed they lack interpersonal skills because of attachments to technology. But Gen Zers are also agile, curious, and committed to their core values — everything we’d be lucky to find in an employee. 

And with the oldest already well into their 20s, we’ll only see more entering the workforce. So, here’s how leaders can get the most out of this “difficult,” but resourceful generation: 

• Don’t resist change. Gen Z is a dynamic workforce and embracing how they work can help your business keep pace with all technological changes.
• Communicate. Be direct and honest in your communication. They seem to like that.
• Commit to your values. Gen Z is also purpose-driven, so make sure your mission, vision, and values are reflected in everything you do.
• Be flexible. If your business model is capable of it, consider flexible work options. Gen Z prioritizes work-life balance, and if they don’t find it with you, they’ll find it somewhere else.

Trainual tips: Making the most of content discoverability settings

You did it! You documented important company info in Trainual and hit publish. Step one: check! But that’s only half of the equation. You can’t forget about step two: making it accessible to everyone who might need it.

Of course, you can streamline content distribution by sharing it with the roles, teams, departments, locations, and other groups that need it. But to transform your Trainual account into a “library” of training — where your team can browse and choose what they want to check out — be sure to set content discoverability, too! 

Here are your three subject discoverability options:

1. 👀 Discoverable. Employees can search for and immediately view the subject (even when it’s not shared directly with them).
2. 🙏 Request. Employees can find the subject in their search results but have to request access to it before viewing. (Just head to the Content page to approve and deny requests!)
3. 🔒 Private. The subject only appears in search results for Admins and those you’ve shared the subject with directly — keeping all proprietary information confidential.

🔥 Tip: Subjects are set to Request by default, but you can set a new default discoverability in Account > Settings.

👉 See what discoverability options look like from the Admin and General user POV.

Personal accountability: Unlocking improvement and growth

No one’s perfect… Except you. You’re flawless. We heard your hair’s insured for $10K and you do car commercials in Japan. And we can’t believe John Stamos called you pretty.

Yes, we’re joking.

We’re sure you’re amazing, but let’s get real: Everyone makes mistakes. It happens — part of the learning process is all about trying things out for yourself and naturally making some errors along the way. What’s really important? Your reaction to those mistakes.

You may assume that burying the problem or coming up with an excuse will erase your mistake. But if you’re really committed to your growth — both personally and professionally — practicing accountability is the ticket. And if you’re ready to improve and look at yourself critically, here are a few simple ways:

• Put effort into everything you do. You may still make mistakes, but at least you will never have to attribute them to laziness or lack of care.
• Ask for feedback. There’s always something to improve.
• Look critically at your work. If you were a bystander, would you be impressed? 
• Don’t play the blame game. While there will be some discomfort, accept responsibility, promise to improve, and then actually improve.
• Learn from the people around you. You’ll notice those who are personally accountable for their actions. Emulate them and ask questions.