‘Disengaged’. ‘Entitled’. ‘Lazy’. The usual tropes, dusted off again for Gen Z. And at first glance, the stats seem to back them up. Gallup reports a mere 31% of Gen Z employees feel engaged at work, whilst Deloitte finds only 49% of the Gen Z workforce consider work central to their identity, compared to 62% of millennials.
Warnings about a ‘lost generation’ of workers are becoming harder to ignore. But haven’t we seen this film before?
Every generation gets its turn in the firing line. What’s different now isn’t Gen Z’s attitude – it’s the workplace they’ve walked into. Digital-first, hybrid-heavy, stripped of the casual intimacy that stitched teams together. No corridor chats or coffee break moments. Culture turned into a calendar invite.
The real challenge is understanding what drives each person, not each age bracket. That takes more than virtual quizzes and surface-level perks. It takes real curiosity and a willingness to rewire how we think about people’s engagement from the ground up.
Looking beyond generations
Picture this: A manager drops a meeting for 5:30 pm, expecting full attendance. A younger employee politely declines, citing personal commitments. The manager sees this as lack of dedication; the employee is simply maintaining a healthy work-life boundary. Elsewhere, a senior manager adopts a light-touch style, assuming trust in their people. Their new report, who craves clarity and the details, feels abandoned.
These aren’t generational differences – they’re personality mismatches. Each person brings a unique combination of values, motivators and communication preferences to work. These characteristics aren’t determined by age but shaped by individual experiences, temperament and disposition.
Leveraging technology to build self-awareness
These days, many HR teams deploy psychological frameworks to assess employees, but these often become forgettable one-off exercises with limited practical application. Technology offers a solution. While it might feel counterintuitive to suggest more digital tools to solve disconnection, thoughtfully implemented tech can revitalise workplace relationships.
Psychological insights don’t have to live in slide decks or forgotten workshops. They can show up where the work actually happens.
Imagine messaging a colleague and seeing a nudge about their preferred communication style – direct or collaborative, detailed or big-picture. This transforms abstract personality insights into practical, daily guidance.
Strategy to improve connection and engagement long-term
The opportunity isn’t just to deploy tech-tools, but to use them to build deeper self-awareness across the business. When we ground our practices in personality insight – not demographics shorthand – we see people show up as individuals, not stereotypes.
Every generation has a mix of drivers, temperaments and working styles. What fuels one person might drain another, regardless of their age. The trick is learning how to spot those differences.
Rather than making assumptions, organisations should use personality insights to inform broader initiatives and improve employee experience. This demands personalised engagement strategies that connect with individuals on their terms.
Adapt leadership to build stronger teams
Effective leaders don’t expect conformity; they flex their approach to meet diverse team needs. By understanding their own preferences and recognising varied personality traits within their teams, managers create more communicative, responsive groups. Leadership development should abandon generational labels and instead help managers adjust their approaches to support each team member’s unique working style.
Rethink mentorship as a two-way learning experience
Traditional mentoring assumes knowledge flows from older to younger workers. True growth happens when both parties contribute and learn. Pairing mentors and mentees based on complementary personalities and skills creates dynamic, meaningful relationships regardless of age or experience level. This reciprocal model breaks down generational barriers while maximising knowledge transfer.
Build teams around strengths, not stereotypes
High-performing teams aren’t built on demographics; they’re built on difference. Difference in thought, difference of style, and different approaches.
What makes the difference valuable is understanding. When teams share a common language around how they work, collaboration becomes real. Friction turns productive, hidden strengths emerge – and your birthday doesn’t count in that equation.
Personality insights can help. Knowing who thrives in ambiguity and who needs structure, who will spark that brilliant thought. This kind of personalisation doesn’t just fix today’s engagement dip drama. It future-proofs your team.
