Does Gen Z need 'resilience training'?

"Despite the headlines lambasting young employees as " lazy" and " entitled ", a Big Four consulting firm is taking matters into its own hands and offering training for recent grads. PwC will give its new young hires "resilience" training to toughen them up for careers as management consultants. The firm has introduced the initiative in the UK to help Gen Z brush up on their "human skills," including communication with clients and handling day-to-day work dynamics, like pressure or criticism."

""Quite often we are struck that the graduates that join us... don't always have the resilience; they don't always have the human skills that we want to deploy onto the client work we pass them towards," Phillippa O'Connor, PwC's chief people officer told The Sunday Times. Resilience requires, among other things, the ability to withstand, adapt or recover quickly from the challenges and inevitable setbacks that come with everyday work and life."

PwC will give new hires resilience training in the UK to develop human skills such as client communication and coping with pressure or criticism. The firm reports that many graduates lack resilience and the interpersonal abilities needed for client work. Resilience involves withstanding, adapting to, or recovering from workplace challenges and setbacks. Research from the McKinsey Health Institute links high resilience or adaptability to better overall health and higher engagement. Simple exhortations to "be more resilient" are unlikely to change behavior, and employees will default to familiar approaches when uncertain. Many Gen Z workers missed formative in-person experiences during COVID and face hybrid or remote workplaces.

Read at Fast Company