Introducing - The New African Employee, Gen XMZ!

 

 

 

The New African Employee, Gen XMZ!

        The word “new” has at least two major interpretations. The first can be described as, “something NEW as opposed to the OLD”. This implies that the passage of time has outdated an item, depreciating it and making it of little use or application in future. It comes with the attendant mischievous whisper that “old is bad” and “new is good”. Then there is the second interpretation of NEW meaning; innovative, enhanced, advancing in additives, form, components and capability. There is a sense in which the old generation of African employee, born at the advent of the Television set, is being put on the shelf as a local limited production model. The new employee is globally connected, socially mobilized, attends weekends at Old Trafford and Arsenal, has seen more of Dubai than their ancestral village of origin, speaks several AI generated languages, and has more access to information technology than all other generation on earth combined (from the beginning of time). However, a fusion of the old and the new can also qualify as NEW.

        Interestingly, the generation X, Millennials M and generation Z find themselves in the same workspace by heritage more than out of design or intent. The key word here is tolerance. And that is a very good place to begin. The new African employee has three shades when tackling the responsibilities of getting work done. Somehow these shades do not communicate very well, but they all have extra ordinary strengths that make the new African employee a powerful prototype for the world ahead. This new African employee draws on the stability of Gen X, and the alternative resourcefulness of Gen M, and the dynamic flexibility of the entrant Gen Z capacity for short term engagement. Gen X know HOW it is done, Gen M ask WHY it needs to be done and Z knows the fastest way to get whatever needs to be done – done!   

        Imagine the power of three generations in one. Thus creating; the new African employee XMZ. The new African employee (Gen XMZ), first; knows how to get the work done this makes them powerfully entrepreneurial, second they also know why it needs to be done which makes them very efficient with minimal wastage of energy, and third, the New African employee is exploring, innovative and extremely adaptive and versatile. Today’s employers need to make a lot of changes in the workplace in terms of workspace, job design, goal setting, role integration, productivity mapping, work process planning and performance management metrics to accommodate and harness the global power of the New African employee. Everyone, please put your hands together to welcome the new employee, Gen XMZ, in the workplace.

Allan Bukusi,  is the author of ; How to Prosper in Employment and writer of the series of articles under the theme; 2026: Year of the African Employee challenging employees to prioritize creating personal wealth early in their careers.