Gen Z managers give good feedback to their direct reports and Transparency is key to boosting Gen Z Engagement!

?? 81% of direct reports agreed that their Gen Z managers are good at giving useful feedback on how they are performing, a higher percentage than all other age groups outside of Millennials.

? But when it comes to motivation, Gen Z managers are the least motivated by the fact that their company motivates them to go above and beyond what they would do elsewhere.

?? According to their direct reports, Gen Z managers demonstrate an ability to deliver feedback and address poor performance and in fact, better at communicating than many of their peers in other generations.

?? Open and honest communication and appropriate involvement in decision making are more important drivers of engagement for Gen Z managers than for other managers, according to a new interesting research published by Culture Amp using data ?? from a customers data set of 100k+ managers and 300k+ of their direct reports from ~2,400 companies.

?Gen Z managers have strong communication skills

Researchers found that Gen Z managers score highest (81%) in providing performance feedback to their direct reports compared to other generations or age groups.

Also they found that more than half of direct reports of Gen Z managers agreed that when someone is not delivering in their role, something is done about it, a finding which is 7% higher than it is for direct reports of managers between the ages of 35 - 44, and at least 11% higher than for those whose managers were older than 45.

?Gen Z managers are less motivated than individual contributors (ICs)

Researchers noticed that only 62% of Gen Z managers (18 - 24) agreed that their companies motivate them to go beyond what they would elsewhere but of the same generation, they found that 71% of Gen Z ICs agreed with this statement, higher than any other age group of ICs.

Researchers found that the gap between individual contributors (ICs) and managers between the ages of 18 - 24 is the largest compared to all other age groups.

?Why is there such a motivation gap between Gen Z managers and Individual Contributors (ICs)?

Researchers believed that Gen Z managers are more likely to be first-time managers since they are earlier in their careers.

Indeed, other research proved that first-time managers experience a drop in how positively they feel towards their companies when they are promoted.

As Gen Z managers have become managers at a pretty young age, it’s highly likely that they are more intrinsically motivated than the average employee. As a result, they may also be less likely to attribute their motivation to their companies.

?Top key drivers for motivating Gen Z managers

Researchers found the top two key drivers for motivating Gen Z managers are:

1?? Leadership: “The leaders at my company demonstrate that people are important to the company's success”

2?? Company Confidence: “My company is in a position to really succeed over the next three years”

?Increasing communication transparency is key to driving Gen Z engagement

Researchers also discovered that one of the top five drivers of engagement for Gen Z managers was having “open and honest two-way communication” at their organizations, with a strong positive correlation (r = .61).

?Appropriately involved in decisions at work in another top-five driver of Gen Z Engagement

Researchers also noticed that being “appropriately involved in decisions at work,” has a strong positive correlation (r = .59) with engagement.

?? Transparency is uniquely engaging for Gen Z managers and is strongly correlates (r = .67) to their interest in staying with their companies and not looking elsewhere for employment (retention).

?? Researchers conclude that as this study demonstrates that organizations have an opportunity to uniquely support them by communicating their role in their companies’ longer-term plans for success. It's also necessary to shift the conversation from “Why is Gen Z difficult to work with?” to “How can we support Gen Z to bring their unique strengths to work?”

?? ???? ???????????????? ????????: This wonderful research busts the myth that Generation Z is harder to work with than previous generations. It demonstrates that Generation Z managers are excellent at giving performance feedback to their team so their direct reports are inevitably satisfied. Organizations also need to establish transparent communication with these Z managers and thus involve them in their company's decision-making. Transparency, especially when it comes to organizational communication and decision-making, uniquely drives engagement for Gen Z managers.

Thank you ?? Culture Amp researchers team for these insightful findings:

Didier Elzinga Doug English Sally Bruce

Dave Ulrich George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL

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