What Motivates Gen Z in the Workplace – Insights for Senior Leaders
It’s easy to think that what motivates Gen Z in the workplace is the chance to cause as much friction as possible with older generations! It’s not so. But it may be what reaches your ears – distilled as it rises through the levels!
We admit Gen Z do bring different expectations, different experiences of learning and a different sense of what work is for.
But new ideas that challenge long-held assumptions also offer you, as senior leader, a great opportunity to evolve your workplace into a multigenerational powerhouse.
Understanding what motivates Gen Z in the workplace is therefore crucial. You’re preparing your organisation for the next decade of growth against strong competition – a time when Gen Z will probably be 30% of your workforce.
So…
Why Gen Z in the Workplace Deserves Leadership Attention
The discussion around Gen Z often gets reduced to stereotypes, especially around the “Gen Z work ethic” and the “snowflake” idea.
In reality, this generation has grown up with constant change, rapid digital adoption and an education landscape shaped by online learning.
They’re used to absorbing information quickly, navigating uncertainty and figuring things out independently – often through side projects or entrepreneurial experiments.
So, you need to meet them where they are. With understanding of where they’ve come from.
Gen Z arrives in your workplace committed to digital fluency, self-taught skills, and a sharper sense of personal agency than many entry-level cohorts before them.
They’re therefore shaped by agility, autonomy and purpose. Older cohorts were expected to fit into existing systems rather than reshape them.
This can be challenging for peaceful teamwork!
But when you recognise this shift and offer leaders some development time to help them understand Gen Z, your cross-generational teams suddenly become more productive and adaptable.
So let’s look at what actually motivates Gen Z.
What Motivates Gen Z in the Workplace? Purpose and Principles
One of the strongest drivers that motivate Gen Z in the workplace is alignment. They want to work for organisations whose actions match their promises. And they recognise inconsistency faster than most! They’ve grown up with it.
Because so much in society got derailed in recent years, Gen Z tends to filter for purpose: a consistent aim with intentionality at its core.
They pay attention to:
- Whether you follow through on promises made at recruitment
- If your overt business commitments to inclusion are lived
- Whether your environmental or social values show up in your day-to-day decisions.
They want to contribute to something that feels real and solid, not flaky.
As a senior leader, you can be instrumental in maintaining your business’s purpose and principles to appeal to Gen Z. That means turning abstract values into long-lasting behaviour.
Transformational learning works best for this, which is why we home in on it at Keystone.
But motivating Gen Z relies on more than this.
Gen Z Expects Growth, Skills and Progression
This generation’s relationship with learning is different from the one most leaders grew up with.
One motivator that appears in every study of managing Gen Z in the workplace is growth.
Gen Z has been practising fast learning for years – through online courses, YouTube tutorials and self-driven teaching.
Ignoring any pejorative ideas about “influencers”, you will probably discover that many have run micro-businesses or side hustles since their teens! They arrive comfortable with experimentation and accustomed to levelling up quickly.
So they look for workplaces where learning isn’t an afterthought. And where progression isn’t blocked by fixed or inflexible structures.
They expect visible pathways, clear progression routes and early responsibility. So you need to show a clear development ecosystem.
And your managers need to encourage growth, not just task completion. You can’t avoid this issue if you want motivated Gen Z workers.
And that involves communicating with them…
How to Manage Gen Z Communication and Feedback
When people talk about “how to manage Gen Z,” they often jump straight to communication as a catch-all. But the issue here is really about clarity.
Gen Z wants – and is motivated by – feedback that moves them forward. Not check-ins for their own sake. But frequent guidance they can use.
Why does this seem different? Because for Boomers and Gen X (even Millennials) monthly reviews are the norm.
Gen Z has grown up receiving real-time signals from the digital world. From platforms, dashboards, analytics, and instant responses. A six-month appraisal cycle feels useless for making progress.
Does this help explain their frequent questions? They simply want the feedback that will help them progress.
Of course, as a senior leader, you don’t have to give feedback personally – though they may text you casually, saying “Hi X,” and ask for it!
Rather than getting annoyed at the onslaught from Gen Z challenges, consider developing a workplace culture where everyone understands each other. Where they accept individual and unique needs for communication as a benefit for the whole team.
And finally, there’s the thorny problem of flexibility and mental health – the main cause of the “snowflake” epithet.
Motivating Gen Z with Flexibility and Wellbeing
The conversation about Gen Z in the workplace often circles around flexibility. However, for this generation, being allowed to work flexibly is evidence you trust them. Not so much a motivator as having autonomy over how work gets done.
They also talk openly about mental health and wellbeing, and expect psychological safety. But this is fuelled by the years they’ve grown up in more than anything else.
On the other hand, as you know, flexibility and mental health support that works for Gen Z will also benefit everyone! So it’s worth investing in.
How Do Senior Leaders Build a Multigenerational Workplace That Attracts Gen Z?
Understanding what motivates Gen Z in the workplace acknowledges broader shifts in how people relate to work.
Purpose, progression, clarity, flexibility – Gen Z may voice them more clearly, but the rest of the workforce increasingly wants them too. This generation is simply the first to treat them as standard, not optional.
That gives you a chance to look at your organisation with fresh eyes. Managing Gen Z in the workplace becomes a pathway to modernising your systems, cultures and leadership practices so they work better for everyone. It’s a win-win.
Keystone Can Help You Motivate Gen Z in the Workplace
We’ve shared information from our experience of working in all verticals to help you understand and work with the possible challenges of Gen Z in the workplace.
Capability is the next step!
Keystone’s development programmes are about partnering with you to enable your multigenerational teams to excel.
If you’d like to explore what this could look like in your organisation, let’s talk.
Esther Patrick is a Client Accounts Director at Keystone and a member of the Senior Leadership Team. An experienced consultant and management author, she has nearly 20 years’ experience leading client partnerships across sectors from construction to healthcare and designing leadership, culture, and team development programmes aligned with their strategic goals and values. Esther is passionate about creative, human-centred learning.
