Gen-Z employees don’t do email
Gen-Z employees don’t do email
Emojis have forever changed business communications. And
that’s a good thing.
BY MICHAEL LITT 11.09.18
I’ll admit I was late to the emoji party. For years now,
people have been texting me thumbs up, fire bursts, and the occasional unicorn.
But I held out, responding with plain old text. Then one day I finally decided
to dive into my emoji keyboard.
That’s when I discovered the incredible communicative
power of something as simple as a high-five icon. One tiny drawing. A whole
world of emotion and context.
Even more surprising, this realization didn’t come in my
personal communications. It came at work, where the majority of our young,
gen-Z workforce is rapidly moving beyond using text as their primary mode of
communication.
For those, like myself, who came of age in the era of
email, it might be easy to assume that text is and will always be king. After
all, emojis, GIFs, and Instagram-style selfie videos don’t have the usual
gravitas we assign to workplace communications. Opinions are still split as to
whether they’re acceptable in a business environment at all. But the
proliferation of powerful (and emoji-friendly) workplace communication
platforms like Slack suggest the debate is over.
The reality is that, as these modes of visual
communication become more common, they represent the future of workplace
communications. And that might not a bad thing.
We can thank gen-Z, and the breakneck evolution of mobile
technology, for much of this change. The generation that grew up with
smartphones (and HD cameras) in their pockets has never known anything other
than an instantly connected world primed for short bursts of visual
communications. Why describe a scene in words when you can make a Snapchat Story
with video and pics instead?
According to them, even email is an outmoded method of
communication reserved for school assignments and not much else. My youngest
employees treat email the way that I looked at the fax machine when I got my
first real job: a relic from a bygone era, and an absolute last resort if
efficient communication is the goal.
The array of non-text options at their fingertips—from
emojis and GIFs to photos, Boomerangs, and self-made videos—has fundamentally
altered the way they communicate and expect to be communicated with. In fact,
studies show that, although gen-Z and millennials spend similar amounts of time
on social media, the younger generation favors platforms that prioritize
visuals. Their use of sites like Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube outpaces time
spent on more text-based platforms like Facebook.
And it’s not only the medium but the tone of the message
that’s changed. Compared to boomers and their poker-faced business tone, gen-Z
are emotional communicators. They use the full gamut of communication tools at
their disposal to attach meaning and personal context to their thoughts and
ideas. Gone are dry emails, replaced by Instagram Stories overlaid with quotes,
stickers, and running commentary. Importantly, this isn’t just in their
personal lives but in their professional lives, as well.
And far from being inappropriate in the workplace, this
can actually be a serious advantage.
For us, embracing this shift has led to some important
innovations. One of our gen-Z hires, frustrated with prospecting for new
customers via email, helped us come up with GoVideo, a free email plug-in that
makes it easy to create video messages for business communications. It’s now
one of our most profitable product lines.
Contrary to popular belief, using fewer words can
actually increase understanding—and profitability. One study found that
incorporating visual tools like video, screenshots, GIFs, and emojis in
business operations amounted to $167 billion in saved time, reduced
misinterpretation, and increased profitability.
I’ve certainly seen this in my own company. I used to
send out a monthly progress report to our entire organization updating everyone
on our performance, upcoming projects, and profitability. Try as I might to
make it short and engaging, it inevitably ended up being a wall of text and
numbers. Once, after I’d sent it out, I caught wind of a rumour circulating in
the office: Apparently the company was running out of money. It was news to
me—and also completely untrue, the result of someone misinterpreting my email,
and passing that on to others who had probably only skimmed it, at best.
That’s the thing with relying on text. People have to
read it, and carefully at that. Even if you can convince someone to skim to the
bottom of your 1,000-word update—increasingly difficult to do in our world of
shrinking attention spans—the risk of misinterpretation is incredibly high.
So I now do my updates via video. Not only is there more
uptake from my team, who can casually open and watch while they take a break or
answer their Slack messages, there’s much less room for misinterpretation. I
can say exactly what I mean, in my own words, and my demeanour, tone, and body
language add layers of context that’s almost impossible to include via text.
I’m delivering vital information in a way that’s verifiably easier for the
majority of my team to digest.
Overall, leaning more on visual communications has also
been a big time saver in my daily communications. As the CEO, I get pinged all
the time by people looking for go-aheads or final sign-offs. One thumbs-up
emoji, and that part of my work as a leader is done.
Of course, just like the generation before me had a steep
learning curve when it came to email, not everyone today is versed in the
visual values of gen-Z. To survive and thrive, there needs to be some
intergenerational education.
This works both ways. I sit down with my young hires to
walk them through the ins and outs of email etiquette. (It’s not totally dead
yet, after all.) But I’ve also had to clarify the nuances of texting and emojis
with older colleagues. One board member explicitly told me I’m the only person
who texts him. Initially, our rapid-fire back and forths led to more confusion
than clarity.
For employers and team leaders, the key right now comes
down to keeping an open mind and developing fluency across platforms. The
communication landscape is shifting fast. Email has its holdouts, while a new
generation is image-first and often image-only. Rejecting any one platform as
either outdated or frivolous risks alienating a big part of your workforce—and
a big part of your customer base, too.
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