Young Men in Retreat in America: Gen Z Grads Fired Months After Hiring
In a recent study from Intelligent.com, “After experiencing a raft of problems with young new hires, one in six bosses say they’re hesitant to hire college grads again. Meanwhile, one in seven bosses have admitted that they may avoid hiring them altogether next year. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed said some or all of their recent graduate hires were unsatisfactory in some way. Gen Z grads are viewed as “unprepared and unprofessional.”
So where is it going wrong for fresh-faced graduates?
“Employers’ gripe with young people today is their lack of motivation or initiative—50% of the leaders surveyed cited that as the reason why things didn’t work out with their new hire. Bosses also pointed to Gen Z being unprofessional, unorganized, and having poor communication skills as their top reasons for having to sack grads.”
You can find many articles including The Wall Street Journal’s, “America’s Young Men Are Falling Even Further Behind” and The Ringer’s, “America’s Young Men Are Falling Behind—and Shifting Right” that talk about these issues.
If the U.S. has a problem, there is a good chance it is also a worldwide problem. Higher education tends to teach skills that have no job potential. No college teaches self-worth and customer service skills. 95% of college graduates end up with the need for superior customer service and communication skills.
Parents in the US have spoiled their children with too much money and have not helped them develop good work habits. The bottom line is they often feel they are God’s gift to the world and feel entitled. The result is many are not being offered jobs and many are getting fired for poor work habits.
The lack of soft skills and communication skills is hurting young people’s chances of success. High schools and higher education fail to teach these skills. What is worse companies are unwilling to spend the time and money to train their staff on customer service and soft skills. Customer service is now provided by only a handful of organizations.
In May 1983, I invested $1000 in 9 companies that were service leaders at the time. As of September 30, 2024, the $9000 is worth $197,954 and 3 companies account for 91% of this. Amazon is worth $119,251, Costco is worth $37,182 and Home Depot $22,300. Very few companies understand and implement the Service Strategy. You must be Relentless like Amazon, Costco, and Home Depot and the rewards are significant for stockholders, founders, and employees who invested in the company.
What amazes me is how reluctant companies are to develop high-performing employees. They tend to believe money is the only way to motivate employees and they fail to develop the self-worth, self-esteem, soft skills, and customer service skills of employees. Manufacturing firms spend a small fortune on the maintenance of their equipment. Airlines spend millions on the maintenance of their aircraft. Service firms need to spend at least $100 a year on building their employees and changing attitudes and behaviors. Most companies do not demand employees go through the training. What would happen at Delta Airlines if the plane said I was too busy for scheduled maintenance or if a FedEx truck said I did not have time for an oil change?
Service Quality Institute has two programs that can create magic if you want to build self-esteem, self-image, and customer service skills.
- Moving Up is light on customer service but the focus is on getting employees to want to become indispensable and extraordinary. Very important for young people who need to learn how to move up with goals, the right attitude, and work habits. Most people have self-imposed limitations that prevent them from achieving their true potential. Here is the brochure in English and Spanish. The program is also available in Spanish, Russian, and Greek. The English programs are also available online for only $97 a person and huge discounts for volume.
Our programs do 4 things.
- We change attitudes and behaviors. Without this, everything else fails.
- We teach the skills and fundamentals critical to greater success and customer service.
- We build employee morale and teamwork. In many organizations, they tend to have friction between employees and departments. Our programs help reduce employee turnover by 50 percent.
- We drive sales and revenue.