To engage Gen Z employees, start by asking what helps each person do good work, then make expectations clear, show care through everyday support, and provide development that fits their goals. Avoid assuming that age predicts what motivates someone: the survey findings point to group-level patterns, not a single Gen Z personality.
What the survey findings say about Gen Z employee engagement
Recent findings identify several work conditions that managers can address: feeling cared for, having clear expectations, receiving development support, and seeing opportunities to learn and grow. Gallup’s 2025 U.S. comparison groups Gen Z with younger millennials, so its results are not exclusively about Gen Z.
- In Gallup’s younger-worker group, 41% strongly agreed in 2025 that someone at work cared about them as a person, down from 54% in 2020.
- 37% strongly agreed they had opportunities to learn and grow at work in the prior year, compared with 48% in 2020.
- 42% strongly agreed they knew what was expected at work, down from 51% in 2020.
- 36% strongly agreed someone at work encouraged their development, down from 45% in 2020.
These are changes in reported agreement, not proof that one particular management action caused engagement to rise or fall. The findings are useful as prompts for checking work conditions on your own team, not as predictions about an individual employee. Gallup’s 2025 U.S. engagement findings cover Gen Z and younger millennials together.
How do you engage Gen Z employees?
Begin with an individual conversation rather than a generational checklist. Ask what is helping the employee do good work, what is getting in the way, and what they would like to learn or take on next. Listen for specifics, agree on a follow-up, and act where you can.
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Make expectations explicit
For each assignment, clarify the priority, who owns which decisions, what a successful result looks like, and when to raise a blocker. Revisit these points when deadlines, responsibilities, or business needs change. Clarity is not micromanagement: employees should know the outcome and boundaries while retaining room to choose how to do the work.
Show care through reliable support
Ask about workload and obstacles in regular check-ins, follow up when someone raises a concern, and make it safe to ask for help. Care is more credible when it leads to practical action, such as adjusting competing priorities or connecting an employee with an available organizational resource.
Recognize contribution specifically
Give timely recognition that names what the person did and why it mattered—to a customer, teammate, project, or organizational goal. Recognition should be sincere and suited to the employee; not everyone wants public praise. Deloitte’s survey discussion identifies recognition as a concern, but the evidence cited here does not establish a causal effect size for any particular recognition practice.
What motivates Gen Z at work?
Purpose can matter, but employees may define it differently. In Deloitte’s 2025 global survey, 89% of Gen Z respondents said a sense of purpose was very or somewhat important to job satisfaction and well-being. Purpose might mean contributing to society, serving customers, building expertise, earning money, maintaining work-life balance, or developing skills for change beyond one’s current role. Ask what it means to the employee rather than assigning a meaning on their behalf.
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A practical question is: “What would make this work feel worthwhile to you?” The answer can help connect everyday tasks to outcomes the employee values without overstating the social impact of a role or treating purpose as a substitute for fair pay, manageable workload, or growth.
How can managers support Gen Z employees’ development?
Translate interest in growth into concrete opportunities and follow-through. Development does not have to mean a promotion; it may involve becoming more capable in a current role, learning a new skill, mentoring, or taking on a stretch assignment with appropriate support.
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- Hold a career conversation. Ask which skills the employee wants to build and what kinds of work they hope to do more of.
- Choose a useful next step. Agree on a stretch task, mentor, learning opportunity, or new responsibility that connects to that goal.
- Make time and support real. Set aside time for learning and identify who can answer questions or give feedback during the assignment.
- Review what changed. Discuss what the employee learned, what support was missing, and what next step makes sense.
These are practical recommendations consistent with the survey findings on learning and development; the cited survey excerpts do not test these interventions or establish that they will produce a particular engagement outcome.
How can managers make inclusion and well-being visible?
Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z respondents reported a gap between expectation and experience: 42% said managers have a responsibility to foster a positive and inclusive culture, while 22% believed that was happening. This is a reason to look at routine interactions—not only written policies—for whether people can contribute, raise concerns, and get a response.
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- Invite input from people who have not yet spoken, without putting them on the spot.
- Explain how decisions are made and how employees can raise a concern or challenge an assumption.
- Follow up on issues raised, including when the answer is that a constraint cannot be changed.
- Set reasonable workload boundaries and direct employees to existing support resources where appropriate.
Managers can improve local conditions, but they cannot resolve structural workload or financial problems alone. Be candid about what you can change, what requires broader action, and who will take the next step.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How can I improve employee engagement without relying on assumptions?
Use consistent, privacy-conscious listening and close the loop. A brief conversation or recurring feedback process can surface unclear priorities, barriers, and development needs. Ask comparable questions over time so you can notice patterns, but avoid exposing identifiable responses or treating a small number of comments as a verdict on an individual.
- Ask focused questions about clarity, support, workload, growth, and what would improve the employee’s ability to do good work.
- Look for patterns across feedback while protecting confidentiality.
- Choose one or two changes that are within your authority and explain who is responsible for them.
- Report back on what changed, what did not, and why; then ask whether the change helped.
The cited sources do not endorse a particular survey product. The value is in a trustworthy listening process and visible follow-through, not in collecting feedback without action.
How to interpret the survey evidence
Deloitte’s 2025 survey included 23,482 Gen Z and millennial respondents across 44 countries, including 14,751 Gen Z respondents. Deloitte defines Gen Z respondents as born from January 1995 through December 2006. Gallup’s cited comparison concerns U.S. Gen Z and younger millennials. These populations and questions differ, so their results should not be combined as if they were one sample. Deloitte’s 2025 survey and discussion provide the global context for its findings.
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