A current awareness resource for students & faculty members in Business & Economics

On recruiting Gen Z employees

Published May 23, 2025 by Mark Bodnar

Context: Students in BUS 360W (Business Communication) are often asked to pretend they are external consultants and recommend solutions to a hypothetical (though realistic) problem faced by a real organisation. The students must find, evaluate, and justify sufficient evidence to back up their recommendations, and they are only allowed to do secondary research.

This post is meant to help those students get through the research phase a bit faster so they can spend their time evaluating and communicating the facts they've found. Some of the sources and search strategies may be useful to others here at SFU who are working on similar projects/topics in other courses.

Tips

Be sure to seek out objective evidence on this topic — you may be part of Generation Z, but that doesn't mean your subjective experience represents an entire generation! For instance, scan this ebook for a fairly recent summary of what's known about Gen Z. Also consider downloading the following recent report (registration required) focused on Canadian Gen Z & Y people: Zillennial Study: Your guide to understanding Gen Z and millennials.

And, as with many hot topics, it can be easy to get caught up in the momentum and just repeat the same truisms. Try to ask critical questions about advice that you see repeated everywhere.

For example... (click to view a list of initial thoughts on this topic):

Are Generation Z employees really that different from other generations when it comes to their workplace needs and preferences? Some of the resources below are about Millennials. You'll need to decide whether and to what extent they apply to the situation in your case.
Some sources (especially older ones) use the term "Millennials" to refer broadly to everyone after Gen X. Read closely to understand what they really mean.
Is "Gen Z" just the latest term for "young people"? Are people in that generation fundamentally different in a way that will last as they age? Or are their behaviours and attitudes similar to what previous generations have been like before they reached middle age?
Are Gen Zs (aka "Post-Millennials") uniform in nature across all countries? Does information on that generation in the US, Australia, South Africa, etc. apply to the Canadian context?
Are there things that companies in the retail industry could/should be doing to attract/keep workers regardless of their age? Consider researching recruitment in the retailing industry in general, then decide how much of what you found applies to your target demographic.

In addition, be sure to consider the authority (expertise & experience) behind each fact and opinion that you find. Many employers are scrambling to fill empty positions, especially for entry-level jobs, and a wave of recent posts and articles have been written offering advice to such employers. Not all of that advice is informed by deep experience, solid research, or relevant knowledge. Evaluate carefully!

The resources and search strategies below are...
(a) in no particular order — you'll want to try all of them!; and
(b) only intended as a starting point for your research — be sure to explore broadly to find useful resources that will inform your audience.

Research & consulting firms

This is the sort of topic that lots of organizations are looking for help on, so there are many consultants and think tanks that are gathering information and willing to share it.

Here are a few examples of such organisations and the reports they offer:

Industry associations and magazines

This topic is on the minds of people in a wide range of industries. On a quick look, I found reports from industries as varied as...
Hotels, Manufacturing, Government, Construction, Postsecondary Institutions, Accounting, Metalworking,Cybersecurity, Tourism, and Fashion. Perhaps information from another industry will apply to your target industry?

Try searching for relevant industry associations (via Google) or for industry magazines (via Factiva, Nexis Uni, and Business Source Complete) to see if they've addressed this topic... but remember to think broadly about what might count as relevant.

For example:

Articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers

A single article all by itself is unlikely to cover your entire topic, but it might answer one or two of your questions, plus it might help you identify related issues and perspectives that will also need to be researched. And most articles will mention (or be mentioned by) other experts and studies.

Start with this list of resources for finding articles:

Business Source Complete is our main business journal/magazine database. Try this sample search to start.

PsycInfo, our main psychology article database, includes many articles from HR and organizational behaviour publications. Try this rough exploratory search.

Be sure to check Google Scholar to see if the scholarly journal articles you find in PsycInfo or Business Source Complete have been cited elsewhere, especially the older articles. For instance, this 2015 article has been cited more than 100 times since it was published. And this 2020 article has already been cited more than 500 times! Maybe some of those citing articles will be relevant?

Canadian Newsstream covers most major Canadian newspapers. Try this initial search, and be sure to follow any clues about reports, experts, studies, or statistics on the topic -- a good news article will often lead you to multiple sources with deeper information. For instance, this 2024 article mentioned this survey report (which led me to this newer edition of the same survey), this Deloitte report (again, an annual one that has since been updated), and this UK study.

Factiva provides news articles from around the world, including articles from many business publications such as the Wall Street Journal.

The Conversation, an "independent source of news and views, from the academic and research community" has published many research-based articles on Gen Z.

Again, remember to look for any mentions of specific organizations, experts, or studies in such news articles, then follow those clues to original (and usually more comprehensive) sources.

For example, this Globe & Mail article led me to a study that might help us understand the difference between Gen Y and Gen Z. I then used Google to search for the study, and I came across other potentially useful information along the way. (If that last link doesn't work, try this pre-set search in Business Source for another version of roughly the same content.)
Another example, this FT story — Corporate America is struggling to adapt to Gen Z — mentions a few studies such as this one, and this one. [Note: SFU students have full access to the FT. Just register for a (free) FT account using your SFU email address and the FT login system will briefly bounce you over to the SFU site to complete the user authentication steps required.]

Miscellaneous... but still worth reading!

A. The Globe & Mail produces an annual report on the Top Employers for Young People, complete with details on what features of each organization made them particularly appealing to younger workers. There aren't many (any?) retailers on the list, but be sure to check out the policies and practices of other types of firms as well in case they are doing something that could also work for the company in your case.

B. Don't forget to check out the Careers info at the Canadian Tire site (and at the sites of its competitors?). How do they currently define and "sell" their employment opportunities?

C. I mentioned an ebook at the top of the post. Click here for additional books/ebooks on this topic. Remember that a good book can be a huge timesaver as such sources collect information from multiple sources and often go to greater depth than brief webpages and articles. Samples:

D. I noticed the following article in Canadian HR Reporter: Poor hiring process turns 3 in 4 Gen Z applicants away. I believe this is the study they are referring to in the article. Interesting perspective that having a slow or unresponsive hiring process may be one of the biggest barriers to getting Gen Y and Z people in the door.

E. Another recent article, this time in Macleans Magazine: The Gen Z Revolt. It features some personal stories of Canadian Gen Zs and their experience with work, along with a few mentions of relevant statistics and studies that you could search for.

F. Statista can be a great database for tracking down stats, studies, and more on a wide range of topics. Start with this topic page and this broad search.

Phew! I hope that helps you get started with your research! Remember: the specific items listed here are meant as examples of what you can find if you explore these types of sources and use some of the strategies I've demonstrated. Only you can decide if a given report, statistic, etc. is reliable, recent, and relevant enough to be used as evidence for your recommendations, but I hope this post saves you some time with the research aspect of your work.

— Mark
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Mark Bodnar
Business & Economics Librarian
mbodnar@sfu.ca