BCCI Hosts Workshop on Generation Z and X Work Ethics

The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is hosting a workshop at at Old Belize geared at understanding the work ethic of the groups referred to as Generation Z and Generation X.  With a noted change in the workforce, attitudes towards work and challenges in hiring, the chamber sought it fitting to host a workshop using a certified life coach.  Dr. Marcus Mottley is a life coach that deals with emotional competence, positive psychology & neuroscience.  In this morning’s session, Dr Mottley noted that for the first time the world is seeing the global workforce occupied by five generations.

Dr.Marcus Mottley, Clinical Psychologist: “For the first time in history you have five generations at work in the workforce on any team and in any organizations. You have what you call traditionalists who were born between 1924 and 1945. You have Baby Boomers that were born between 1946 and 1964. You have Gen X who were born between 1965 and 1980. You have Gen Y who were born between 1981 and 1998 and and then you have Gen Z who were born between 1999 and 2012. And what’s coming in the next couple of years is Gen Alpha who are now entering some of them are entering high school and these generations think differently, they expect different things, and they were raised differently and so that causes a lot of conflict and friction in the work place. So what we need cross generationally are first of all a mindset change and then a skill set change. So managers and employees need to adapt and change their mindsets. They also have to have the skillset to work cross generationally. That is what’s key. Managers themselves need to be able to demonstrate empathy, they need to be able to demonstrate flexibility, they need to acknowledge the differences that they’re seeing in the workplace and they need to be able to be open so that they can help their team members who are across generational, they need to be ale to help them to collaborate so that they can perform better and produce more.”

Yorshabell Cattouse, Member Relations Manager at the BCCI, said that the workshop is a direct response to repeated requests by employers. 

Yorshabell Cattouse, Member Relation Manager, BCCI: “I think it’s almost a year that my members have been telling me that they want to understand, the need to understand because this is the work place, we’re about productivity and we need to hire people and the people that are coming out of the schools are the new generation and because of the way that they’ve been molded because of AI, family upbringing and community and the whole setting in the classroom it’s different. It’s a different product that’s coming out and so we as employers we need to understand them. The youth that are coming out they sometimes feel entitled, business ethics is not there, yes they do come with innovation and great ideas and they’re tech friendly but with the work place we need to be well grounded. There are things to get done and we need to get it done. So again members came to the chamber and said you know this is what we want. We have had group works in the lat hour we were divided in groups and members or the participants were able to share common thoughts. So yes they did bring out the younger generation’s, their innovative, they’re tech friendly, but then they’re not about maybe showing up to work eight o’clock in the morning and some of them are well prepped at home so they don’t necessarily have to do hard work so if you come pressure on them they pack up and leave and you never seen them again.”

This training session is geared at providing managers with in-depth knowledge and practical strategies to effectively lead, communicate with, and engage Gen Z and Gen Y employees in the workplace.  It is also aimed at developing key communication strategies; the need to embrace change and flexibility as well as the role of emotional intelligence in leading Gen Y & Gen Z workforces.  The workshop has the participation of 90 persons.  It is a closed 2-day event with an entry fee of $650 per person.