Insight into How Peers Handle the New L&E Landscape: Gen Z Workforce
August 2023
By
Kelsey Provow
In 2022, The National Law Review projected an enterprise-wide increase in workplace investigations, internal complaints, and organizational assessments. The prediction proved true, but the question about what spurred the increase has remained largely unanswered.
Until now.
In a recent webinar, Axiom moderator, Ed Darmanin, spoke with Becky Critch (Director, Business Ethics and Compliance, Starbucks), Shelley Vail (Director, Employment, Analog Devices), and Shoshana Chazan (Senior Employment Counsel, Unity) about the root causes of these rising labor and employment (L&E) related reports. What Axiom discovered was not a "what" is causing the increase, but a more surprising "who:" Gen Z.
Born between 1995 and 2010, Gen Z employees are proving unafraid to voice concerns on workplace matters spanning issues from gender identity recognition to racial justice. As a result, it is Gen Z employees who are the common denominator as it relates to increased L&E reporting origination.
As companies welcome this new, diverse, and well-educated workforce, it raises a critical question for internal legal departments: How can enterprises embrace a new generation of employees with different perspectives on workplace culture while still effectively addressing the concurrent rise in investigations?
The New Workforce
The first piece of the puzzle is understanding what makes this generation’s approach to the workplace unique. Axiom’s client understood that it is imperative to acknowledge inherent generational differences to ascertain why those differences lead to a greater volume of reporting incidents and to, ultimately, identify how to better address complaints. Our research revealed two critical findings:
1. Amplified Advocates:
Because they are technology and social media natives, Gen Z has become a generation of “see something, say something” activists, utilizing technology and media to call out injustices, particularly as it relates to broader social, cultural, and environmental movements.2. Pandemic Patterns:
Perhaps it’s because they are so new to the workforce, or perhaps it’s because they were raised in pandemic culture – or more likely it’s a combination of both – but Gen Zers haven’t yet honed the skills to navigate workplace culture/politics in the same fashion as generations prior.
How do these unique traits impact reporting? Gen Z employees feel a higher responsibility to call out inappropriate behavior, they are educated on how to easily identify what is inappropriate and disrespectful to groups outside of their own communities, and they expect those injustices to be addressed in a timely manner. But because Gen Z also struggles to establish inter-generational work relationships, they often do not feel equipped to confront the bad behavior on their own.
As a result, they more frequently turn to official reporting channels where prior generations may have addressed issues in a less formal manner. Axiom’s discussion with these participants further uncovered that the Gen Z workforce sees workplace cultural issues through the same ethical and compliance lens as allegations of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. As a result, they are reporting those issues through the same processes and with the same urgency.
How to Address L&E Investigations: Stopping “Counsel Culture”
The influx of reports can be overwhelming for an already under-resourced legal department. Taking a closer look at the steps these participants are exploring can help ease the resourcing burden of Gen Z’s “counsel culture,” while efficiently and effectively addressing this new class of L&E-related issues.
Categorize and Prioritize
While every report deserves a response, the webinar participants noted that not every report requires the same level of investigation. To determine the appropriate response, the participants shared how they streamlined complaints through a triage-like “Consult Process” system. Instead of immediately triggering a full-blown investigation, this process assessed each complaint against the following categories:
- Level of severity
- Level of pervasiveness
- Level of persistence
- Type of resources provided/could be delegated to local leader to address the concern directly
Once the reports were categorized, the participants’ teams addressed each appropriately.
Train to Prevent
Even after individual cases are addressed, Gen Z expects management to proactively prevent them from occurring again. How can companies aid in prevention? Training. The goal is to leverage training in order to prevent “gateway” behaviors from occurring and/or give employees opportunities to identify and acknowledge the times they have witnessed or engaged in those behaviors themselves. To that end, it’s critical to enhance workplace-related training across all locations where the company operates in areas related to organizational mission, values and culture; expected treatment of coworkers; and how to resolve employee-to-employee conflicts.
The participants share that these enhanced trainings should include examples for both managers and employees in the form “dos and don’ts”. The more specific the examples, the better:
- How to address coworkers who share inappropriate language from song lyrics and/or tv shows and films
- How to address pronoun misusage (intentional and unintentional)
- How to address personal space invasion
- And so much more
Based on their own experience, the webinar participants noted how important it is for companies to ensure training modules are engaging. As tech natives, Gen Z should have both live and online training (in both solo and group follow-up settings) with a variety of different formats: Q&A, video, audio, etc. Trainings should typically be no longer than twenty minutes to ensure that the information provided is retained in today’s world where short attention spans are prevalent.
Support Management with Additional Tools
Finally, the participants encouraged their peers to ensure management finishes their training feeling more capable and confident to address situations if/when they arise and prevent them from becoming persistent and/or severe. But preventative training can’t always address unanticipated scenarios or complaints. As a result, the organization must support management in addressing more nuanced issues with support tools including:
- A Virtual Coach – an online resource filled with information on how to address more common situations
- HR/Legal Office Hours - availability to ask questions and discuss nuanced topics regarding HR, ethics, and compliance
By offering these two programs, the participants believe management will feel supported in mediating smaller, less severe reports and in appropriately escalating bigger, more severe allegations.
Support Legal with Additional (Cost-Effective) Resources:
It’s imperative that companies show their commitment to the people who power their workforce. That is why for all the talk about triaging, training, and preventing, companies must also maintain a “speak up” culture, providing employees at all levels with clear and consistent opportunities to feel heard and safe to share.
That culture, while critical, can also leave a bandwidth-strapped legal department in critical condition. In order to support legal as they contend with this increasing volume of novel L&E complaints, management should:
- Contract a Help Hotline vendor that provides both online and phone reporting access for employees *Note: Some vendors issue a report every year with data from all their customers, which can be used as a basis for comparison and a guide to highlight potential areas of additional training.
- Hire flexible legal talent who have the experience and the bandwidth to handle these nuanced investigations. With the current economic climate shrinking legal resources, legal leaders need more support to address the legal matters at hand now – and they need lawyers with the right experience to cost-efficiently navigate L&E issues. GCs can find knowledgeable L&E lawyers experienced across a range of industries with Axiom. Companies that are experiencing unusual spikes in reporting volume can also contact us below for access to flexible legal talent who can assist in identifying and remediating the root causes of additional reporting.
To learn more about how peers are navigating the new L&E landscape, watch our webinar below. This discussion will equip you with a better understanding of how this rise in reporting may be occurring and how you can leverage flexible legal talent to effectively manage the influx of investigations.
💡 Learn how to better manage the unique challenges and complexities presented when managing and supporting your Gen Z workforce.
Posted by
Kelsey Provow
Kelsey Provow is an award-winning writer and editor passionate about sharing unique and thought-provoking narratives. After obtaining her master's degree in professional writing, she has spent over a decade writing across multiple industries, including publishing, academia, and legal.
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