Why Investing In Your Gen-Z Workforce Is The Secret To Maximising ROI

As businesses strive to stay competitive in today's fast-paced market, investing in their people has become more crucial than ever. But with traditional methods of training and development, such as workshops and hiring expensive consultants, being costly and time-consuming, it's difficult to know where to focus efforts. 

The solution? Investing in your Gen-Z workforce. With Gen-Z making up 27% of the workforce by 2025 and 70% of Gen-Z talent lacking the skills they need to do their jobs effectively, it's more important than ever to invest in the development of your junior talent. By doing so, you can achieve significant long-term results. Focusing on the development of your Gen-Z workforce not only maximises return on investment (ROI), it keeps your business ahead of the competition.

Here we explore the benefits of upskilling your Gen-Z workforce and how it can help your business and boost your bottom line, including insights from our CEO and Co-Founder, Raphael Eder, and his experience from working at McKinsey.

Developing Gen-Z is the most efficient way to invest in your people

It makes them more productive by enabling fulfilling work

One of the biggest challenges facing businesses today is how to invest in their people in a way that maximises ROI and keeps them ahead of their competition. 

Raphael highlights the lack of so-called middle-management positions as a key consideration – “What we see through our training program, that focuses on soft skills and interpersonal relations, we're developing the top middle-managers and managers of tomorrow. So, with us, organisations have the opportunity to develop them in-house, because they can't recruit them in the market they can stay ahead by investing in their talent pipeline earlier.”

Secondly, Hyphen’s idea is to make people more productive. Raphael puts it in simple productivity terms – “This means instead of having four people, you might only need three, because if a person's more productive, they can get more done. And it's much more fulfilling work as well! The worst thing is that a junior talent is sitting around and doesn’t know what to do. I had this multiple times in my previous internships and you begin to think, ‘Is this the right place for me?’ or ‘Do I learn enough?’” 

“If you ask Gen-Z talent what they're optimising for – on the one hand side it is values, ‘I want to be aligned with values’; secondly it's salary because everyone needs money. But then, in third place, it’s already having learning and development opportunities, which means they only really want to work in the place where they can see themselves grow.”

Traditional training methods and external hires no longer cut it

Traditional methods of training, such as sending employees to workshops and conferences or hiring expensive consultants, are often costly and time-consuming.

Instead, investing in your junior talent means you already have a team member who is familiar with your company culture and processes. They are eager to learn and grow, and the cost of training them is significantly lower than hiring a new, more experienced team member.

New hires can be costly and time-consuming, and may not fit in as well with the way your company operates, as they may be set in their ways. Promoting from within can also be a gamble, as the individual may not have the right skills or experience needed for the new role.

On the other hand, investing in your junior talent means you already have a team member who is in tune with your company. Through the right training, you can build solid foundations that enable them to grow and be productive members of the team. And as they acquire new skills and take on more responsibilities, they build on these foundations, becoming more valuable assets to your team and ultimately contributing to the overall ROI of your investment.

‍Soft skills raise efficiency, making the most of your time and resources

Developing your junior talent is the most efficient and smartest way to invest in your people, as you are getting more out of your investment in terms of time and resources. 

By providing your junior talent with development opportunities and the necessary skills and tools to succeed, you are not only increasing their productivity and performance but investing in your junior talent as an investment in your company's growth and success.

As Raphael highlights, it’s an investment in soft skills that make the most difference to junior talent’s future performance. “Industry-specific skills you usually pick up just by doing the work.” 

"Soft skills are something that you can also pick up in three, four or five years by just doing the work. But it's also teachable. Rather, industry-specific skills are very hard to teach in a short period of time. Whereas soft skills are frameworks, tools, and you can give them to people much faster.”
- Raphael Eder, Hyphen CEO 

‍Soft skills enable better future performance than hard and industry skills

So, we’re not giving them industry-specific hard skills, we’re giving them much more. “We're giving them the soft skills because these are what enables an early career talent to be 10x more productive than an early career talent who doesn't have them. Our customers say they see the best-performing talents as those with the highest emotional intelligence, which come from soft skills.”

“We see it as an indicator that those are the best-performing employees going further down the line. It's an investment today, but it's really an investment in the future because hard skills and requirements for hard skills will change, but it will always be important to communicate effectively and prioritise tasks effectively. They're skills you learn today and utilise for the rest of your life.”
- Raphael Eder, Hyphen CEO 

‍Why working with Hyphen makes business sense

In today's fast-paced market, investing in your people has become more crucial than ever. But traditional methods of training can be costly and time-consuming, leaving many businesses wondering where to focus their efforts. This is where investing in your Gen-Z workforce comes in. With Hyphen, focusing on the development of your junior talent, you can achieve significant results in a shorter time frame, while also maximising return on investment (ROI) in the long run and keeping you ahead of the competition.

Our approach to upskilling is future thinking. Our focus on soft skills also equips your Gen-Z workforce with the tools they need to succeed in the long term, contributing to the growth and success of your company.

By working with Hyphen, you are making an extremely cost-effective and smart investment in your Gen-Z workforce that will pay off in the long run in terms of increased productivity and performance. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you upskill your Gen-Z talent, maximise ROI and keep you ahead of the pack.