Young workers may be lagging behind in critical thinking skills.
The following contribution comes from the HR Dive portal, which describes itself as follows: HR Dive offers in-depth investigative journalism and analysis of the most relevant news and trends shaping human resources. The newsletters and website cover topics such as talent acquisition, learning and development, diversity and inclusion, compensation, benefits, onboarding, and much more.
HR Dive is a leading publication of Informa TechTarget. Our business journalists generate insights and set the agenda for 14 million decision-makers in highly competitive industries.
The article is authored by Lara Ewen, a regular opinion contributor.
According to a Cangrade report, the three largest skills gaps in the young workforce represent “the most essential skills for humans in the age of AI.”
Summary: According to new research from Cangrade, an AI candidate selection platform, Gen Z and millennial workers may lack some key soft skills needed to succeed in AI-related roles.
Across all sectors, five soft skills appeared in the majority of AI-related job postings, with 83% requiring at least three, the report found. The assessment showed that younger workers scored 14% above average in communication and slightly below average in strategic thinking.
However, these workers scored 18% below average in critical thinking, 17% below average in attention to detail, and 10% below average in creative problem-solving, the report found.
In-depth analysis: The three largest skills gaps in the young workforce represent “the most essential skills for humans in the age of AI,” according to the report, which analyzed 200 AI-related job postings, nearly 72,000 validated workforce assessments, and 40 competencies.
In particular, the report highlighted that critical thinking skills—the area where younger workers showed the largest skills gap—are necessary in AI-driven work environments. This is because “human skepticism and judgment become non-negotiable” when dealing with systems that “generate reliable, but sometimes incorrect, results,” the report notes.
On the other hand, communication skills are a clear strength for Gen Z and Millennial workers.
This also represents what the report called a “core skill,” especially in companies where AI handles some tasks, but human workers interpret the results and provide effective guidance.
“AI makes execution easier, but it increases the importance of judgment,” said Gershon Goren, founder and CEO of Cangrade, in a statement. “If organizations assume that AI will compensate for reasoning deficiencies, they risk increasing errors rather than performance, and their teams will reflect that.”
To help Gen Z and millennial workers in their professional development, the report suggested measuring critical skills directly, rather than relying on resumes and interviews, which may not be accurate indicators of reasoning ability.
Furthermore, the report recommended investing in development training and carefully considering which essential skills each AI-supported job requires. “Not all AI-supported roles require all five skills equally,” the report added.
Why do young employees struggle with communication, and how can you fix it?
The following is a contribution from the ServiceSkills portal, which describes itself as follows: ServiceSkills has grown from a solid track record in learning and development. Its origins date back four decades to the Telephone Doctor customer service training program, featuring expert Nancy Friedman. This series of training materials has helped millions of people on six continents improve their communication with customers and colleagues. Today, ServiceSkills offers more than 300 eLearning modules, including fully updated versions of the Telephone Doctor series, now known as the Essential Customer Service & Phone Skills Series.
In short: Our carefully curated course library offers hundreds of micro-lessons on interpersonal skills with practical examples of how to communicate effectively. We offer affordable training packages for groups of 10 to 10,000 people. Every interaction impacts your brand’s reputation. An under-trained staff leads to frustrated customers, longer call times, and higher employee turnover. Our comprehensive training programs transform your team into confident, skilled professionals who consistently deliver exceptional service.
The authorship belongs to the team
Managers across all industries agree: new employees entering the workforce lack basic professional communication skills. Whether it’s writing a clear email, handling a customer call, or navigating a face-to-face conversation with a colleague, young workers arrive unprepared, resulting in a real cost to businesses.
Gen Z employees are perceived as lacking in satisfactory skills. The numbers bear this out.
According to an Indeed survey of more than 1,000 employers, nearly half (47%) believe Gen Z employees lack satisfactory communication skills. A Harris Poll survey revealed that 82% of managers say their Gen Z employees need additional support and training to develop interpersonal skills. And in a survey conducted by Intelligent of 1,243 business leaders, 40% described recent graduates as ill-prepared for the workforce, with 70% of those respondents citing communication skills and work ethic as the main weaknesses.
This isn’t about blaming a generation. It’s about recognizing a shift and responding with the right training before it damages client relationships, team productivity, and the bottom line.
Why do younger employees struggle with communication at work?
The communication gap isn’t a mystery or a character flaw. It has clear and identifiable causes, rooted in how this generation grew up and entered the workforce.
Generation Z is the first generation to grow up fully immersed in digital communication. Texting, social media, and group chats were the norm long before they ever set foot in an office. A Harris poll revealed that 65% of Generation Z workers admit to having difficulty conversing with their colleagues, not because they don’t care, but simply because they haven’t had the necessary practice.
Then the pandemic hit. Many of today’s younger employees were in high school or college when COVID-19 disrupted face-to-face interaction for over a year. Internships, part-time jobs, and everyday social experiences that previous generations used to develop their professional communication skills were lost. Distance learning replaced classroom participation. Online collaboration replaced in-person teamwork.
The result is a generation that is highly tech-savvy and comfortable communicating through screens,
but often unaware of the unwritten rules governing professional communication: how to structure a business email, how to greet a client on the phone, how to interpret body language in a meeting, or how to handle a difficult conversation with a coworker.
As a professor of business ethics at the University of San Diego explained to CNBC, Gen Z employees’ interpersonal skills have suffered because they have always communicated online, and the pandemic exacerbated this. The workplace communication norms that previous generations absorbed through years of in-person experience were simply not available to this generation.
What communication skills are new employees lacking?
The deficiencies manifest across three main channels: email, phone, and in-person communication. Each requires a different set of skills that many new employees never explicitly learned.
Email communication is often the first problem managers notice. New employees may write emails that are too informal, vague, or lack basic professional structure. Messages that resemble text conversations—short, fragmented, lacking context and a clear request—create confusion and undermine credibility with clients and colleagues. One study reveals that 36% of Gen Z professionals have more than 1,000 unread emails, compared to 18% of the general workforce. For a generation raised on instant messaging, email feels slow and unfamiliar, leading to delayed responses, missed messages, and poor formatting.
Phone communication is where the discomfort becomes most apparent.
Many young employees have barely used a phone for anything other than texting. Answering a business call, projecting a professional tone, actively listening, and handling a difficult or emotional caller are skills they’ve never had to develop. Managers report that new employees avoid the phone altogether if given the option, channeling everything through email or chat, even when a phone call would resolve the issue in two minutes.
In-person communication presents its own challenges. Maintaining eye contact, sensing the environment, tailoring tone to the audience, and handling spontaneous conversations can be deeply uncomfortable for employees who spent their formative years communicating through screens. Conflict resolution is a particular weak point: younger workers tend to prefer direct, concise communication and may take constructive criticism personally, making it difficult to manage difficult conversations.
How does poor communication affect customer service and business results?
This isn’t just an internal frustration. Poor communication has a direct and quantifiable impact on revenue, customer retention, and operational efficiency.
The financial cost is enormous. Grammarly’s «State of Business Communication» report revealed that poor communication costs U.S. companies approximately $1.2 trillion annually. A study by Axios HQ puts the cost per employee of ineffective communication at between $10,000 and $55,000 per year, depending on salary level. For a 100-person company, this could mean millions of dollars lost due to unclear emails, poorly handled customer calls, and inefficient internal handoffs.
The damage to customer service is equally significant. A Project.co study found that 66% of customers have stopped doing business with a company and switched to a competitor due to poor communication. One in five business leaders says they have lost deals directly because of communication breakdowns. When a new employee sends a confusing email to a client, makes mistakes in a phone interaction, or fails to follow up properly, it doesn’t just affect that individual, but the entire organization.
Internally, the consequences multiply. Teams waste time clarifying misunderstandings, managers spend extra hours training and remediating, and employee engagement declines. According to Gallup’s «State of the Global Workplace» report, disengaged employees—many of whom cite communication problems as a contributing factor—cost the global economy approximately $438 billion in lost productivity.
Costs incurred by the company
In short: every unclear email, every awkward phone call, and every misunderstanding among team members represents a cost your company is incurring, whether you realize it or not.
How can managers help junior employees improve their communication skills?
The good news is that these are skills that can be learned, not innate traits. Managers who take a proactive approach—rather than waiting for problems to arise—can quickly bridge the gap.
Set clear expectations from day one. Don’t assume new employees know the basics. Clearly explain how your organization communicates: expected response times for emails, how to answer the phone, and when to use email, chat, or a phone call. What seems obvious to seasoned professionals is entirely new territory for many recent graduates.
Model the behavior you expect. Junior employees learn communication norms by observing those around them. If managers send professional, well-structured emails and handle phone calls with a consistent, courteous approach, new employees will pick up on those patterns. If managers resort to monosyllabic messages in Slack and avoid the phone, don’t be surprised if your team does the same.
Provide specific, constructive feedback. Telling someone their email was «unprofessional» isn’t helpful if they don’t understand what it means to be professional. Point out specific elements: «This email needs a greeting, a clear explanation of what you need, and a timeline. Here’s an example.» Specific training develops skills faster than general criticism.
Invest in structured training.
Mentoring and modeling are important, but they aren’t scalable or consistent. Structured communication training gives all employees the same foundation, covers real-world situations they’ll encounter, and provides a framework they can refer to and practice repeatedly.
What kind of training helps new employees develop professional communication skills? Effective communication training for new employees must be practical, scenario-based, and specific to the situations they will actually face on the job. Generic «soft skills» workshops that only talk about the importance of communication don’t work. What does work is training based on real-life work situations: handling a disgruntled customer on the phone, writing a professional email that delivers results, managing a difficult conversation in person—where employees can see the correct approach modeled and practice applying it.
The most effective training programs share some characteristics: they are available on demand so employees can learn at their own pace, they use short modules that fit into the workday, and they cover specific skills rather than general concepts.
ServiceSkills offers targeted eLearning courses designed specifically for this challenge. The Telephone Doctor Customer Service series builds telephone skills from the ground up: professional greetings, tone of voice, active listening, handling difficult calls, and call management techniques that transform awkward phone interactions into confident ones. Email Matters directly addresses the written communication gap, teaching employees how to write clear, professional emails that reflect well on their organization. The Essential Customer Service & Phone Skills Collection provides a comprehensive foundation covering communication across all channels.
For managers facing the conflict resolution gap, the What To Say When Conflict Resolution Series provides employees with specific language and frameworks for handling difficult conversations—one of the skills new employees struggle with most. And to develop the emotional intelligence that underpins all effective communication, the Leveling Up Empathy course helps employees interpret situations, understand perspectives, and respond appropriately.
These aren’t one-hour seminars that employees forget the next day. These are short, concise micro-lessons and scenario-based courses that employees can complete at their own pace and immediately apply to their work.
How do you measure improvements in employees’ communication skills?
Training only works if you can track progress and demonstrate results. The good news is that improved communication is reflected in metrics you’re likely already monitoring.
Customer satisfaction scores are one of the most direct indicators. When employees communicate more clearly and professionally—by phone, email, and in person—customer feedback improves. It’s important to track CSAT or NPS scores before and after training to quantify the impact.
Complaint and escalation rates tend to decrease significantly when frontline employees have better communication skills. Fewer misunderstandings mean fewer follow-up calls, fewer manager interventions, and fewer negative reviews.
Internal efficiency metrics also reflect improvement.
When employees write clearer emails and communicate expectations more effectively, teams spend less time clarifying and correcting, and more time on productive tasks.
Employee confidence and engagement are harder to quantify, but equally important. Managers consistently report that employees who receive structured communication training are more willing to take calls, feel more comfortable in meetings, and are more confident handling difficult interactions. That confidence translates directly into better performance and higher employee retention.
The key is to establish a baseline before training begins so you ca
