How to Bring Out the Best in Your Gen Z Team

People born between 1997 and 2012 are part of Generation Z. Each generation has unique ideas and characteristics due to the formative experiences they had growing up. These are influenced by a range of factors, including social, environmental, and technological experiences. These play a huge role in Gen Z’s opinion on the working world and what they value in a job.

Firstly, let’s take a look at what this generation are good at and how they can improve your business:

They’re Big On Technology

Gen Zers are genuine digital natives: the first group to have the internet, apps and social media woven through daily life from primary school onwards. They’re able to adapt quickly to the latest technology and use it to their advantage. Several people from this generation are making the move to work in social media marketing, as they tend to understand it a lot better than other generations. Their grasp of new tools can pull a company’s online profile into the present day faster than any training manual.

Meaning is Important to Them

Pay checks matter, but so does purpose. When Gen Z are searching for a job, they’re often looking for something that matches their passions. This might be something personal to them, like an interest or a job that relates to their university studies. But this generation are also passionate about topics like mental health, the environment, and social issues. If your business has strong messaging and cares about factors like sustainability and diversity, your Gen Z employees will be passionate too.

What Gen Z Look Out For

As Gen Z grows up and enters the workforce more and more each day, employers need to be prepared to accommodate them.

Flexible Working Opportunities

Working from home: Research from Finder shows that as of April 2025, 39% of people in Britain work from home at least some of the time. This equates to around 21.5 million people. While not all of these work from home exclusively, remote work has multiple benefits, such as removing travel times to save money. Some businesses utilise a hybrid work model, allowing employees to enjoy both remote and in-office benefits.
Flexible workdays: Some people prefer the traditional 9-to-5 schedule, while others opt for 10-to-6 or 8-to-4 workdays. This could be for a specific reason as a one-off, like needing to take their car to the garage, or a more permanent reason, like having evening commitments. The message is simple: trust them to get the work done and they’ll repay that trust in hard work and commitment.

Mental Health is on Their Priority List

Gen Z loves travelling, enjoys making memories, and prioritises self-care. Although growing professionally in their career is important to them, they also want to maintain a sense of balance. Without this, people can become overwhelmed and quickly experience burnout. You can support them by:

Outsourcing: Heavy workloads can be stressful, and it’s become very common for modern day workers to be spinning plates. Here at Virtual Hand we can help support your employees, by handling inbox management, minute‑taking or data entry, freeing your team up for the more creative work they are passionate about.
Wellbeing days: These enable employees to take a judgement free day off, which is separate from a sick day or annual leave, if they feel like they aren’t mentally at their best. This allows employees to come back to work feeling recharged and motivated. UK employers usually introduce one per quarter.
Approachable managers: Being able to communicate openly is key, and if Gen Z feel unable to talk to their manager about something personal, this can be frustrating for them. Organising meetings where you can check in every month is a productive way of making sure everything’s okay – while also preventing any issues from snowballing.