Gen Z workers may know their way around the latest gadgets and AI tools better than anyone. But bosses consistently have one complaint about their young new hires: They lack basic people skills. Schools taught them how to type and code, but not how to speak up in a meeting.
One exec took matters into his own hands. Richard Roper, president of Marsh People and Investment (Hong Kong & Macau), is a father of three: a zillennial, a Gen Zer, and a Gen Alpha. When his two eldest daughters were ready to start working, he didn’t just wish them luck.
Instead, he handed them a list of “daddy tips,” distilling three decades of career advice into one cheat sheet. “I spent some time and wrote them a full sheet of ‘daddy tips’ of trying to pass on my work experience of all these years to them,” he said at the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau on Sept. 8.
“It was a lot of the basics which are now coming around to be very valuable,” Roper explained. “Being enthusiastic, being polite, being respectful to your bosses… always bringing value to a meeting. It sounds quite old-fashioned, but all of those human skills.”
Now both his daughters have jobs, and Roper says the basics he taught them matter more than ever in the age of AI. “Being able to influence, have a story on entering a room, all this kind of stuff, now is really great currency for them.”
Research shows Gen Z is in desperate need of human skills
Roper’s advice might sound simple, but teaching the next generation to show up on time, be polite, and speak up in meetings could give them an edge in today’s job market. With Gen Z struggling to land entry-level roles—many of which can now be done by AI—employers are looking for exactly those “old-fashioned” people skills more than ever.
Soft skills are increasingly rare among Gen-Z workers. Employers repeatedly warn that their young new hires don’t know how to interact with coworkers or clients, haven’t got the skills to work with people who have different opinions, and aren’t clued up on basic office etiquette like what to wear. One in five young candidates even bring their parents to job interviews, as they struggle to share with employers what skills they bring to the job or what their salary requirements are.
Gen Z isn’t completely unaware of their shortcomings: In fact, data compiled in 2024 by Harris Poll showed that 65% of Gen Z workers admitted that they don’t know what to talk about with their coworkers. This worry is heightened among young staff who entered the workforce post-pandemic; the COVID-era cohort is more than twice as likely to struggle with plucking up the courage to start a conversation with colleagues than those who worked before the pandemic.
While some workplaces have resorted to firing their unprepared staffers, others are trying to plug the gap in the form of etiquette classes and soft skills training—including lessons on how to speak up in meetings.
Roper isn’t the only boss to take his kids’ education into his own hands. Grindr’s CEO George Arison is even planning to bring his two children to the office to shadow him once they hit 10 years old. The Soviet-born exec said that watching him pull 12-hour days won’t just teach them how to run meetings or use the printer, but will show them “grit”.
“I still work insanely hard,” he told Fortune. “I think seeing what I do and how important the love for work is will be really crucial.”
The ‘daddy list’—read the tips a Marsh exec shared with his daughters before they joined the workforce
- It is easy to stay ahead of the pack and stand out if you think about it and try a little harder than the rest
- Be positive, enthusiastic, punctual and polite- attitude over aptitude every time
- Find a career you love and you will never ‘work’ another day of your life
- Think about what your boss is looking for and make their lives easier, until you are the boss
- First impressions count at interview, on your first days and in meetings. Get an early win to spread a positive vibe about ‘the new girl”
- Network at work, be kind to people below you and at the same level, you will need them at some point
- Try different things until you find something you like
- No one is ready for a promotion, just accept the job and learn once you have it
- Freedom means a lot, the ability to not be stuck at your desk and do generally what you want is liberating
- Some things pay more than others for the same effort- investment banking and consulting firms pay huge, teaching and nursing pay less. It’s not about your value to society its value to the company. Choose what makes you happy