Young & powerful | Employers are inflating job titles to attract Gen Z - a strategy that has both pros & cons

Companies are engaging in various tactics to attract and retain talent, including inflating job titles.

This clever tactic involves posting job ads for the same roles but with more senior sounding titles, whilst maintaining the same salary and duties. Why are employers doing this? To attract younger candidates, particularly from Gen Z.

Generation Z – those born between the years 1997 and 2012– will account for a quarter of the global workforce by 2025, according to research from the World Economic Forum. Understanding and appealing to this generation will become a priority for businesses wanting to remain relevant and strong in a quickly changing business space.

Despite a clear need for firms to devote some time and effort into attracting young people, Gen Z has widely been labeled ‘difficult’ in the workplace, with 74% of managers reporting they feel this way. Famously, Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon said in a recent talk that this generation don’t know how to debate or disagree with colleagues, and find it difficult to work alongside people with differing opinions to them.