How Gen Z HR leaders want to transform people strategy
Arianny Mercedes is a 25-year-old HR leader who has worked at American Express, Accenture and Fidelity Investments since she joined the workforce at just 17 years old.
She had been studying political science at her local community college and working as a hostess at her local Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse when a frequent customer — impressed by her bubbly and welcoming personality — suggested she consider an open HR role at their company.
Within a week, Mercedes decided to go for it.
“I could catalyze change but from a corporate standpoint,” said Mercedes, founder of global career, workplace and education consulting firm Revamped. “The real changemakers are these corporations. They have money to make certain decisions and impacts. If I can work the system from within, and I can continue to do that, I want to see how it goes.”
Mercedes isn’t the only Gen Zer entering the HR space hoping to change things from within. Phenom, a global HR technology company, found that there is a 20% engagement rate from Gen Zers on new open roles for HR on its career site. That’s compared to just 5% pre-Covid.
“What we’re seeing with Gen Z is a willingness to enter the HR domain, but with the intention of transforming it very significantly,” said Cliff Jurkiewicz, vp of global strategy and general manager of the customer advisory board at Phenom. “Gen Z sees the rise of HR as the most important organization in the entire enterprise because of its net effect on people. Gen Z is saying that’s where I want to be, but not in the traditional HR role. I’m willing to come in through that doorway, but once I’m inside the house, I expect you to listen to me and allow me to make suggestions.”
That rings true with Mercedes. She worked at American Express from 2021 to 2024 in various roles, most recently as talent management lead. When the company started to return to the office under a hybrid schedule, she pushed for working moms to get better facilities. She worked with the diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging department to implement a breastfeeding station.
“We wanted our employees who were moms to feel like they had the opportunity to come back to the office, to help them grow, and not have to pick between motherhood and being an employee,” said Mercedes.
She and other two Gen Zers in HR leader roles with whom we spoke to for this article said they want to push for change within organizations. Some of that may come down to a rebranding of the title itself.
“As it stands, a lot of people are still afraid of their HR department and that shouldn’t be the case,” said Angel Castillo, 25, HR coordinator at creative communications agency Nike Communications, Inc. “By making the work I do more approachable, I’ve been able to build better connections, better support my current employees and give feedback to my team to help them make informed decisions.”
That’s gone against the grain of the established norms within the HR part of the business. For instance, when Castillo first started managing the internship program at his company, seasoned HR leaders made it clear that he shouldn’t spend time trying to build relationships with the interns.
“Instead of listening to them, I made myself more approachable to my interns, being a confidant for them, and helping them navigate their time with us,” said Castillo.
His approach was successful, which led to 12% of the interns converting to full-time staff — something that has never been done in the company’s history.
This isn’t to say that veteran HR executives and leaders aren’t trying new things. Human resources have arguably undergone the biggest organizational shakeup since the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2019. HR exec responsibilities have expanded to encompass more people and purpose strategy, as opposed to the more traditional functions of payroll and policies. Gen Zers in these roles want to make their mark on how the HR landscape can transform, by bringing their strong sense of social responsibility, values and work-life balance to the surface.
For example, Simran Bhatia is a 26-year-old people operations manager at deepfake detection company Reality Defender. While a lot of HR can be standard just by the nature of the job, like ensuring compliance needed for company success, she is also bringing important values to the table like transparency.
“I’m excited for the industry to be more transparent and approachable on our policies,” said Bhatia. “While the policies themselves can’t be transformed completely, we can create and foster an environment that promotes transparency, open dialogue and clear communication, empowering employees to understand all that affects them.”
Another way she’s helping transform HR is by asking “why?”
“We are not taking ‘it’s just the way it’s been done’ as an answer anymore,” said Bhatia. “We want a job, which can be over 60% of your day, to actually be enjoyable. Creating an environment that makes people feel comfortable and offering benefits that add value to one’s personal life is the end goal.”
For example, she said that with a multi-generational workforce, it can be jarring to hear questions about things that are usually considered taboo — topics like compensation, personal life events affecting work, personal health — but that it’s where she’s excited to disrupt the most.
Are veteran HR executives open to a transformation that leverages values inherent to Gen Zers? Susan Rafferty, chief people officer at Cubic Telecom, who has decades of experience in HR, said that changes being made thanks to Gen Z are mostly welcome.
“The discipline itself has evolved quite a lot,” said Rafferty. “People are now coming at it from a very different perspective, which I think is for the better. The types of candidates that I’m seeing, and the type of graduates we’re attracting, they are much more focused on the people rather than the process.”
Rafferty is also seeing more young people in the industry having an open mind and refusing to use a structure just because it has always been that way. “It’s better for everybody,” said Rafferty.
And for the seasoned HR leaders who prefer their way of doing things, Gen Z isn’t going to let that get in their way.
“Some people are like ‘What does a Gen Zer know?’” said Mercedes. “I have the expertise and I know what my generation wants and the pain points of other generations. How can we take all of this, and equip you with the resources you need, so that you’re able to not only retain but develop talent.”
“Eventually, all older HR executives, regardless of the company or industry, are going to need to be more open to our guidance to keep up with their own competitors, retain talent and to even bring in new talent,” said Castillo.