'Career co-piloting': Survey highlights trend of Gen Z bringing plus-ones to interviews
We’ve all heard of “helicopter parenting”… but what about “career co-piloting”?
This new phenomenon — where parents take a front seat and hands-on approach to their children's early career decisions — was highlighted in a recent survey.
It found that one in five Gen Z respondents have admitted to parents contacting a potential employer directly on their behalf.
A further 20 percent said that a parent had joined them for an actual job interview, found the survey by Zety of 1,001 U.S. workers.
When it comes to negotiating salary or benefits, 28 per cent of the respondents said their parents helped out: 18 per cent through advice and 10 percent in negotiating with an employer directly.
"[This phenomenon] is probably increasing, and I would say it has more to do with parents than it does with kids in most cases,” says Sean Lyons, associate dean and professor of leadership and management at Guelph University.
Lyons' research focuses on how intergenerational dynamics impact the workplace. In the past, he studied the effect of helicopter parenting on children's lives.
Generational differences and parental influence
He says with each generation, parents may become more involved as their children become better educated.
"It was very common for people to be first-generation university educated in my generation. So, my parents weren't a really relevant source of information for me in my career. I had to figure it out myself, and I had to rely on a few people, like professors," Lyons says.
Past research shows that parents in general hold a lot of influence in children's lives, especially in early career and life decisions, he says.
"As students move through their career decisions, they rely heavily on their parents. It's almost a universal finding that the number one influencer in your career decisions is your parents and your peers.”
Rethinking hiring practices
According to the Zety survey, managers and parents have a similar level of influence on career decisions; 23 per cent of respondents cited parents as their main influence for early career decisions and another 23 per cent cited bosses, while 34 per cent cited parents and bosses as equal influence.
For Lyons, this new dynamic should make employers look at how they target Gen Z just entering the professional world.
"If you're looking to recruit career entrants, people who are in entry-level positions, marketing to their parents or giving them information that you know they can take to their parents is an effective way to help influence the influencer," he says.
"I think smart employers recognize that parents are part of the decision. They're the most important part.”
Changing job market
For Kathryn Tremblay, co-founder of Altis, a recruitment and staffing agency, parental involvement is not surprising considering how rapidly changing and difficult the job market can be, especially with the housing crisis and the cost of living.
"I like when a parent helps a kid with their resume or maybe they practice mock interviews, maybe they help them write a thank-you note after an interview. Those, I think, are all normal, supportive tools.
“It's more [a problem] when sometimes the line gets crossed a little bit towards they show up at an interview or they call to ask you to provide more clarity.”
The study suggests that parental involvement comes as a new support system, given how the job market has been filled with uncertainty and rapid changes.
Canada's most recent data on the unemployment rate in July found that while the overall unemployment rate has decreased to 6.4 per cent, the lowest it has been in two years, the youth unemployment rate is still above the average it was pre-pandemic. In April the unemployment rate was 14.3 per cent; in July it sat at 12.6 per cent.
How HR should respond
Although Tremblay believes policies or manuals don't have to be put in place to deal with issues like this, it's always good for HR to have a bit of training on how to handle the situation and remind parents of privacy issues.
"Unless there's an accommodation, I would probably give a little bit of a script to the HR team to say [to parents]… ‘We appreciate you being engaged. Thanks so much. But we only can communicate with the adult child directly, and we would be very happy to speak with them.’ And so, really, to encourage the parent to be backstage, not being front and centre" she says.
With this new rising phenomenon, Tremblay says a key thing employers and HR can do is to provide guidance.
"It would be helpful and instructive for the employer to spell out for everyone, but particularly for entry-level people: ‘This is what to expect in this process, this is the salary, this is all the different phases of the career hiring process’ so that they can feel somewhat empowered in that journey to know where they stand," she says.
