Actionable Insights for Managing Gen Z in the Nonprofit Workplace

Since time immemorial, when a new generation enters the workforce, they are met with high levels of judgement and apprehension. Their preparedness and preferred style for working are often questioned and criticized. It’s a pattern seen in every decade. Not surprisingly, it is a sentiment that is percolating across nonprofit organizations as Gen Z professionals turn to mission-aligned work and generational differences necessitate continued learning and communication by senior staff to ensure these younger workers are welcomed and equipped to succeed.
 
Like most people, I was once part of “the new generation” entering the workforce. I remember reading countless articles pontificating on the imperfections and presumed deficits of the entire cohort of people my age. At some point, the term “snowflake” was coined, and has remained in vogue for 20-somethings ever since. In my early career, my generation was faced with a job market and wages that did not keep pace with inflation, a situation that has precipitously worsened for the newest crop of workers. I was laid off during the economic crisis in 2008 and had to rebuild what little career traction I’d had prior to the crash. I have now worked for nonprofit organizations for nearly fifteen years. Still, I remember how it felt entering the workforce and the challenges of maturing within a nonprofit culture. I think it’s easy to forget what that’s like a decade or more in.
 
Gen Z’s entry into the nonprofit workforce is, in some ways, just a rehashing of the same old story. Media think pieces about Gen Z and their perceived failings abound, as they did when I was a 20-something, and likewise for the generation before mine. The ’08 economic crisis shook the career foundations of myself and my peers; Gen Z’s career foundations were disrupted by a global pandemic. The parallels are stronger than the differences.
 
Where the similarities end is where the more fascinating story begins. Gen Z is uniqely the first generation born into a fully connected world of technology where there was no pre- and post-Internet era. As digital natives, they have their finger on the pulse of the latest and greatest and can very quickly develop a cued-in understanding of how to speak to new trends. They know how the visual world works, how images can convey messages, and how to present images that are compelling and carry the intended meaning. These are all valuable skills, especially in a world where you get a fraction of a second to capture supporters’ attention. Yet they are still faced with similar challenges that face all young professionals—adapting to the work and culture of their industries.
 
As a manager, I have hired full teams, helped lead the build out of new development departments, skilled up new team members, and dealt directly with turnover of a younger team. I have watched brilliant young people come and go. Ushering a new generation into the workforce is hard work. It’s an investment into the larger candidate pool for our industry in the decades to come, often with less-than-ideal payoff in the present. While at this stage in my career it has become easier to join the choruses of grumbling, I make it a point to remember the managers that gave me a chance, that mentored and invested in me, and that brings me back to what I aspire to do.
 
I have personally found that many of the conversations around Gen Z in the workforce do not grow our understanding around how we need to adjust our management approaches to fully leverage what this extraordinary generation brings to the table. Nonprofit managers need to work with Gen Z professionals to build up a skillset that will help them be successful in nonprofit environments, while also finding ways to engage and leverage their existing skills. In my experience, there are four key ways that nonprofit leaders and managers can create inclusive intergenerational workplaces and help younger professionals grow and develop in the nonprofit workplace.

4 Ways Nonprofit Leaders Can Effectively Engage Gen Z Employees in the Workplace

1. Coach all teams on various communication styles.

Gen Z came of age with expectations of immediacy and connectivity. Compact, effective, and to the point communication is the mode they’ve come to expect—expectations I’ve personally observed from younger professionals at work. For Gen Z, things move much, much, much more quickly – trends, memes, slang. It’s rapid fire, and they are adept at moving at that pace.
 
This is important to understand because nonprofit communication culture is in many ways antithetical to direct, truncated messages, which can be mistaken for rudeness. The worst consequence is when workers are perceived as not wanting to participate in or be part of the culture of their nonprofit when, in fact, they do. The differences of communication styles can feel jarring for more established colleagues, landing as brusque or even disrespectful, potentially creating tensions across the team. We can dispel these misunderstandings by providing coaching across all levels of the organization.
 
Most of us probably didn’t start our nonprofit careers with perfect fluency in the culture of communication common to our industry. We had to learn it. Likewise, we should not expect Gen Z workers to somehow learn this culture without it being modeled and taught. There is a learning curve when it comes to knowing how, where, and when it’s most appropriate to speak up, give your input, and offer feedback. As Gen Z gains more opportunities to participate in professional environments, they will—like all of us did—continue to learn and grow. If you’re like me, you might be thinking, great! But how can we get traction on this now?
 
Actionable now. Based on what has worked for me in my own teams, here are some specific actions you can take:

• Help your non-Gen Z colleagues to understand that the brevity that typifies communications from their Gen Z coworkers is a stylistic quirk, not an attempt to undermine team norms.
• Help your Gen Z team members to understand the value of the communication norms you want them to learn.
  • Some of my Gen Z workers have appreciated it when I’ve taken the time to explain aspects of email etiquette. For example, I’ve shared that by starting an email to someone with a compliment, a thank you, an inquiry about a recent vacation, etc., we are first pausing to acknowledge the humanity of the recipient; the recipient is not just a robot on the other side of the screen. For some this could seem obvious, but for others, this exercise in pleasantries can feel frivolous. I’ve seen a change in understanding by explaining that when this element of politeness is missing from an email, it can affect how the tone of your message is read by recipients who are accustomed to this norm.
• Be direct. Nonprofit (and general office) communication culture often frames concerns or criticisms as questions or suggestions. Since Gen Z is a group that is accustomed to direct and to-the-point messaging, the subtext doesn’t always translate and can lead to confusion. If you have something important to convey to a Gen Z colleague, especially if it’s coaching or critique, review your message for subtext and rephrase your points to make them explicit.
  • Instead of: “Hey, not a big deal and not sure what caused it, but can you help me fix this thing I found?” (deniable, saving face for the employee), try: “I noticed that you missed this key detail. It’s okay to make mistakes sometimes. Will you please correct this?” (clear and direct, but still kind)
• Similarly, help your Gen Z colleagues understand frequently used phrases at your org that carry important subtext. Example: senior team members might know that when someone on your team says, “thank you for your input,” they mean, “we’re not interested in your feedback.” You can help your Gen Z teammates by noticing these instances and translating the subtext for them.
  • Check out TikTok creator @loewhaley for her “How Do You Say Professionally” videos. Their massive popularity is a testament to Gen Z’s appetite to understand and better navigate office-speak.
• Offer to review emails, particularly when communicating with more senior level colleagues, and explain the reasoning behind your suggestions.

2. Adjust your approach to coaching and skills building.

This generation has received a message from day one that everything they do is and can be visible to others. What you are reading, viewing, watching, and clicking on is visible. This results in the awareness of the need for performance to fashion how you want others to perceive you. Even for activities such as learning, optics matter to this generation and are often based in anxiety.

This performance around the act of learning can become a barrier when coaching and training younger professionals to build their skills. In training settings, I have observed that Gen Z workers are sometimes so preoccupied with providing the appearance of being an active and engaged learner that it inhibits their ability to absorb or retain that information. When I ask questions in settings like these, I often observe that the answers I receive are what the Gen Z learner has calculated that I want to hear, rather than feeling safe to share their own thoughts.

Actionable Now.

• Set the tone and create a learning environment that encourages authentic engagement and participation. One way to do this is to start with some group agreements. Examples: Stay Engaged; Listen to Understand; Be Willing to Do Things Differently and Experience Discomfort; If You Have a Question, Ask! Someone Else Probably Has the Same Question
• Pay attention and try to notice when someone’s effort is focused on appearing to be engaged, rather than on engaging with the content. Use it as an opportunity to pause and shift the conversation. Invite them to ask questions or share thoughts to help them re-engage.
• In one-on-one settings, consider pushing back when you are given an answer that feels calculated to please you. Example: “I can see how you might think that’s what I want to hear, and I appreciate how considerate you are. But I’m interested to hear your own thoughts on this, too.”
• Provide clear and specific expectations around what they should be able to accomplish once they have mastered the skill. Keep communication about expectations simple and direct.
• Set goals that focus on outcomes rather than a specific number of trainings attended or hours logged. Focus on learning by doing, and measurement of learning by demonstrating what was learned. This may mean more frequent check-ins and ongoing touchpoints, but the results will show.

3. Encourage and model an environment of learning and safety.

Learning how to make and accept a mistake at work is a process all professionals go through. Related to the above point, this generation has been conditioned to always seek and give the correct answer. For them, there is no other option because the public backlash you can face when you are incorrect can be severe. Since they do not want to be perceived as getting it wrong, they are not always asking the necessary questions. I’ve observed that many Gen Z workers prefer to feign understanding and solve for the unknown later, which can lead to unchecked errors.

Actionable Now. Prioritizing an environment and culture of learning over an environment of performance and eliminating micromanagement can encourage employees to attempt answers even when they are uncertain. Be explicit about when employees are in a learning moment and create guardrails by stating when it is okay to mess up and when they need to be sure about getting it right. Be vocal with your team about when you prefer that they are upfront with questions or uncertainties. Do this both during full team meetings and one-on-one touchpoints with direct reports. Creating psychological safety and space to be wrong is essential.

Lastly, practice empathy. We all miss something somewhere at some point in time. We can’t memorize everything so forgetting is normal and so is needing a reminder. We don’t need to try to figure out the answer in vacuum because we are worried about being reprimanded for needing more guidance. Reiterate that the team is here to help you get the tools you need.

4. Push your colleagues to adopt an inclusive approach to a multi-generational workplace

Colleagues need to be able to meet each other where they are at. We can model and decode the norms we want our Gen Z colleagues to learn. We can share insights with more tenured colleagues about how our younger coworkers approach things differently and how diversity in thought helps us progress. We can ask all colleagues to offer grace, good faith, and understanding to one another.

As the director of our data systems and processes, my team is at the core of fundraising operations within our organization. We manage the databases, gift processing, donor acknowledgment, and serve the analytics back to our fundraisers. At the end of the day, we are accountable for the internal customer service, communication, and delivery of key data to both our internal teams and to our external supporters. That puts a certain level of expectation on my direct reports – many of whom are Gen Z – to continue refining and stretching to meet our colleagues and donors where they are at because our role is in service to their way of working.

We can all play a role in encouraging organizations to create multiple and diverse ways for people to show up at work. Gen Z is pushing for this positive change, and by understanding generational differences and what distinguishes them, we can work collaboratively without dividing Gen Z workers from their older or younger colleagues. Remember, passion for the mission should be our greatest intergenerational unifier.