A Gallup employee engagement survey has raised concerns regarding the significant decline in Gen Z employee engagement since March 2020. Following the pandemic, employee engagement levels have consistently been a matter of concern and it has seemingly worsened with each passing year. We could perhaps blame the unstable job market or the rising inflation concerns for this disengagement, but it is likely a lot more complex than just one or two major factors causing the disruption. While the engagement differences in generations in the workplace are interesting, they all point to a complicated relationship with work that appears to be unstable on the best of days.
Employees have had to force themselves to fit into an online system and now that many have found their groove, return-to-office mandates are pulling them back into the office instead. Somehow, the conditions of work appear to be disrupting Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z workers more than the Baby Boomer generation, who seem to be maintaining a positive engagement ratio with their work.
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Understand The Gallup Numbers: Gen Z Employee Engagement
Reviewing the exact number of the Gallup employee engagement survey, there are a lot of different elements to understand here. The number of baby boomers who are engaged with work has gone up from 34 percent to 36 percent since March 2020, while the number of actively disengaged baby boomers has decreased by two points to 15 percent. Essentially, for every actively disengaged baby boomer, there are more than two engaged ones, considering the positive engagement ratio of 2.4. This means that even when you have actively disengaged employees there are sufficiently engaged ones who can pull their weight and get things done.
When you turn to Gen Z employee engagement and Millennials engagement at work, the numbers are not so reassuring. The number of actively engaged employees has fallen by five points to 35 percent while the number of actively disengaged employees has gone up from 13 to 14 percent. So for the millennial and Gen Z crowd, the employee engagement ratio has fallen from 3.1 to 2.5 percent. Considering these numbers, even the previously engaged employees seem to be losing their focus and drive to keep performing for the organization, which is never a good sign for a company or the industry as a whole. Considering that this group is set to make up the majority of the workforce in the upcoming years, something has to change to ensure their engagement levels pick up.
The worst-hit cohort here, however, is not the oldest or the youngest generation currently in employment. Instead, it appears to be the older millennials, those born between 1980 and 1988. Generation X in the workplace, those born between 1965 and 1979 saw their employee engagement ratio fall from 2.1 to 1.7, but for their slightly younger counterparts, the employee engagement ratio fell from 3.3 to 1.9. The Gallup employee engagement survey saw the biggest decline in active engagement among these older millennials by seven points, falling from 39 percent to 32 percent. It seems that the oldest group of workers, those nearing retirement, are the least affected by the work environment today.
Understanding the Differences in Generations in the Workplace
There will perhaps be a day when we stop talking about the far-reaching impacts of COVID-19 but we don’t seem to be there just yet. The pandemic significantly shifted everything we knew and understood about work and the job market hasn’t truly settled down ever since. Despite the effects of the pandemic being universal the differences in generations in the workplace show how each group has been affected differently by the changing times. For the baby boomers, it is likely that many of them are at the end of their careers and perhaps more unaffected by work trends such as AI and automation. A Barna study found baby boomers to be the least trusting of AI and also the least likely to be currently using it, creating a distance between them and the shifting work trends.
It is also more likely that the older generations are in more senior positions that are not as quickly affected by the weak job market while millennials’ engagement at work is on the decline because their responsibilities are the highest with their jobs also constantly being at risk. This group is the most likely to have a family depending on them, leaving them no choice but to work unsatisfying jobs just to ensure they can make ends meet. Working under such pressures leaves no room for proactive interest and engagement. The low levels of Gen Z employee engagement are also inevitable as they appear the easiest to replace for most organizations, with little hope for building “careers” in this economy.
“Millennials and Gen Z employees have seen the greatest decline in feeling cared about by someone at work, having opportunities to learn and grow, feeling connected to the mission of the organization, having progress discussions with managers, being given opportunities to develop, and feeling that their opinions count.” —Gallup
The Gallup employee engagement survey makes it very clear that the priorities that the Gen Z employee engagement numbers as well as those for millennials hinge very carefully on the work culture and future prospects that they have available to them which are things that organizations are failing to provide. While older employees already have a sense of purpose and direction for the work they do, the younger employees have no such guarantee, forced to work multiple jobs or constantly switch roles based on the kind of work that is available to them.
How to Build Millennial and Gen Z Employee Engagement
Employees who are not actively engaged can have low motivation to work, rarely take initiative on their tasks, avoid asking questions to understand their role and feel indifferent towards how their task or their company fares overall. Those who are actively disengaged can further drain employee resources, do the bare minimum for their projects, and be on the constant lookout for an opportunity elsewhere. You might assume that identifying and firing these workers can solve your problem but unless the cause for such disengagement is addressed, you’ll only see your new hires also meeting the same fate.
Positive Gen Z employee engagement will mean an active workforce powered by creativity and initiative and the results of such enthusiasm will be incomparable to any other performance boost an organization can hope for. Engagement of Generation X in the workplace will open an organization up to critical insight and wisdom that might otherwise lie untapped as the employee moves from task to task. There are many ways to build employee engagement across the different generations in the workplace:
- Conduct employee survey: Not all employees are disengaged because of job insecurity. Ask your workers what would help them work better.
- Prioritize communication: Employee engagement plummets when employees do not know what is going on within the company or what is expected of them in particular. Communicate consistently.
- Establish mentorship programs: Maybe the managers at your company can’t be everywhere at once but employees can at least turn to their mentors to see insight when they feel lost with regard to any aspect of work
- Training takes first place: From DEI regulations to hybrid work formats, the nature of work is changing and management teams need to be guided on how exactly to help the rest of the organization navigate these changes
- Consider working on internal mobility: Millennials’ engagement at work can improve significantly when employees are allowed to see their career trajectory within the organization rather than feeling like a vestigial part of it. Work with employees of career planning and see them take a greater interest in meeting their goals
- Plan policies with greater care: Whether it is the consideration around a 4-day workweek or the regulations around returning to in-person work, consider your employees and their concerns before making any decisions
- Facilitate Employee Resource Groups: Gen Z employee engagement can be addressed significantly when they are allowed to feel like a part of the organization and have a place for their voice to be heard
Despite the differences in generations in the workplace, most employees are united by their desire for community and success. By involving employees with the company’s direction and treating them like valued members of the team, organizations will see their engagement increase considerably. It is never too late to prioritize millennial or Gen Z employee engagement so understand the makeup of your organization and get started with creating a welcoming work environment for your employees.