Money Meaning Wellbeing: the winning combination for Gen Z
Why won’t Gen Z just settle for a payslip?
For most organisations Gen Z retention is at least as big a problem as recruitment.
If you can't afford to pay them what they want, how do you keep them?
It's a question rooted in an outdated assumption that salary is the primary lever for talent retention.
Have you actually asked them what they want? Or did you assume money was always the answer?
The Deloitte 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey reveals a fascinating tension that defines this generation's workplace expectations. Roughly nine in ten Gen Zs consider a sense of purpose to be important to their job satisfaction and wellbeing, yet nearly half report feeling financially insecure.
Money, meaning and well-being all matter.
But how to achieve all three? It isn’t that clarity over the purpose of the work will offset an uncompetitive salary or vice versa.
The good news? It's more achievable than most leaders assume, though it requires rethinking some fundamental assumptions about what employees truly value and how organisations demonstrate that value.
Here's four aspects to consider when two out of three is bad.
TL;DR
Gen Z won't choose between financial security, meaningful work, and wellbeing. The Deloitte 2024 survey reveals 89% want purpose-driven work whilst 48% feel financially insecure. Success requires organisations to deliver all three simultaneously, not trade them off. This means transparent career pathways showing long-term financial prospects, authentic purpose demonstrated through actions not slogans and genuine wellbeing support creating psychological safety. Those treating this combination as negotiable will continue to struggle with Gen Z retention.
1. Clarify long term financial security prospects
The Deloitte survey also confirms that the majority of Gen Z is living payslip to payslip (and it continued to rise).
Any organisation that thinks they can offset below market salaries with ping pong tables and free fruit is worse than tone-deaf. You cannot inspire someone to deliver meaningful work when they're struggling to meet basic needs.
Gen Z's financial prudence is realism born from experience. They've seen what happens when economic security proves fragile. Before any conversation about purpose or wellbeing can land authentically, organisations must demonstrate they understand and respect the genuine financial pressures this generation faces.
They are not all in the same boat, but on average they are worse than the generations who came before them.
Show your young employees what their financial future can look like if they stay, with case studies in video and written form.
Speculative guessing at a salary in three years’ time does not help anyone plan. Show them what is genuinely possible and how they can get there. Through this you demonstrate the value of hanging around, and give them a figure to compare with their daily job alerts.
Don’t leave them to get a clearer answer from their future employer than their current one.
2. Purpose cannot be performative
According to Deloitte’s survey nearly nine in ten Gen Zs consider purpose important to their job satisfaction and wellbeing.
But so many of my generational peers do not understand Gen Z’s finely tuned radar for corporate insincerity. What looks polished to you is ‘ick’ to them (if in doubt, that’s not a positive word).
They've grown up with unprecedented access to information about organisational behaviour. A company's environmental policy isn't just what's written on the website. It's what employees share on Glassdoor, what journalists uncover in investigations, and what former staff reveal on social media.
Gen Z’s standard for what is clear, transparent and authentic is likely much higher than yours. When you think you are ‘telling them as it is’ they may have heard it all before.
You might be perfectly trustworthy, but the gap between know, like and trust is likely much wider than you imagine. Closing that gap takes time, effort and a lot of feedback. Assume your deficit is worse than it is and you will likely show the kind of humility they are looking for.
Purpose isn't a marketing slogan or a mission statement gathering dust in reception. It's demonstrated through consistent decision-making that aligns with stated values, even (or perhaps especially) when commercially inconvenient.
When Gen Z workers see their organisation claiming to value sustainability whilst pursuing environmentally damaging practices, they don't just notice the hypocrisy. They leave.
The Deloitte survey shows that half of Gen Zs have rejected jobs based on personal ethics, and 44% have turned down employers entirely.
For Gen Z, purpose must be embedded in operational reality, not just aspirational communications. The question isn't whether your organisation has purpose. It's whether you can demonstrate it authentically through actions that Gen Z can observe, evaluate and verify.
They want to know how it really is, that you are prepared to tell them that and stick to it.
The audiobook version of The Snowflake Myth is OUT NOW across all audiobook platforms including
Amazon (if you are going to click on one make it this one - helps with rankings!)
The price may vary from one to the other (I don’t control it unfortunately) but approximately £8 seems typical, but for those who subscribe to these services it should be available at no extra cost!
And yes the image above is AI generated by Gemini - but I think a few thought it was for real
3. Wellbeing underpins it all
The same Deloitte research reveals that finances and family welfare are the top stress drivers for Gen Z, with work-related factors like long hours and lack of recognition adding to the burden.
Nearly three in ten Gen Zs worry their manager would discriminate against them if they raised mental health concerns. Whilst this is only the minority there is scope for a toxic paradox: the generation experiencing the highest levels of workplace stress is least likely to feel safe discussing it with their bosses.
And yet any employer who is not felt to take mental health seriously enough is waving a large red flag.
Wellbeing isn't about installing meditation apps or offering yoga sessions, though these may form part of a broader strategy. It's about creating psychological safety where people can acknowledge challenges without fearing professional consequences. It's about workload management that doesn't require constant availability. It's about leadership that recognises performance and contribution rather than just presenteeism.
The multigenerational workplace adds complexity here because different generations often have different expectations around work-life boundaries. But Gen Z is far less likely to sacrifice their mental health for career progression in the way previous generations did.
Organisations that view wellbeing support as a nice-to-have benefit rather than a fundamental operating principle will continue to lose talented young people to competitors who understand this better.
4. The combination is non-negotiable
The fundamental insight from the Deloitte research is that Gen Z isn't asking organisations to choose between money, meaning, and wellbeing. They're insisting on all three.
This isn't unreasonable when you understand their context. They've inherited an economic situation more precarious than previous generations faced at similar ages. They've watched traditional career models fail to deliver promised rewards. They've experienced unprecedented uncertainty and change and too many transactional employee-employer relationships.
The current state of the job market might mean they will take a job which doesn’t have all three. But if you want them to stay you need the hat-trick.
The organisations who succeed with Gen Z retention don’t see money, meaning and wellbeing as competing priorities requiring careful balance. Instead, they see them as mutually reinforcing components of a compelling employment proposition.
Fair pair reduces financial stress, improving wellbeing and enabling people to focus on meaningful work.
Genuine purpose increases engagement, driving better performance and justifying competitive pay.
Wellbeing support creates the psychological safety necessary for people to do their best work, which in turn drives organisational success and makes higher compensation possible.
Getting it right means taking these conversations beyond the boardroom into genuine engagement with your young employees.
Remember that
Purpose must be demonstrated through consistent action, not marketing communications. What you do is your best marketing for recruitment, as long as you spend some time communicating it..
Different generations may prioritise these elements differently, but dismissing Gen Z's expectations as unrealistic misses the opportunity to create genuinely better workplaces that benefit everyone in the multigenerational workplace. Every generation benefits from this.
FAQ
Q: Can smaller organisations with limited budgets compete for Gen Z talent if they can't match big company salaries?
Yes, but it helps to be particularly strong on the other two elements. Smaller organisations can offer more direct impact visibility, clearer purpose connections and often better work-life balance. Transparency about financial constraints, combined with genuine flexibility and meaningful work, can compete with higher salaries. The same applies in more frequent face to face communication with those in charge. However, the compensation gap must be within a reasonable range of market rates for your sector and region.
Q: How do we handle the generational tension when older staff resent Gen Z having flexibility they never got?
Address it directly. Acknowledge the historical inequity whilst being clear that organisational success requires adapting to current market realities. Where possible, extend new policies to all staff, not just new recruits. Focus conversations on what enables better performance now rather than what was fair in the past. The question isn't whether older staff deserve the same treatment retrospectively. It's whether the organisation can succeed in today's labour market with yesterday's practices. Young staff would love the house prices and cost of living of decades ago too but it’s not open to them.
Q: What if our organisation genuinely cannot deliver on purpose because our industry is inherently problematic?
Be honest about it. Gen Z respects authenticity more than perfection. If you're in a sector with ethical complexities, acknowledge them openly. Explain the trade-offs, the mitigation strategies and the genuine social value your organisation provides despite the challenges. Some Gen Z candidates will self-select out, and that’s fine. Others will engage with the honesty and complexity. What you cannot do is pretend the issues don't exist whilst Gen Z research reveals them anyway.
Alex Atherton is a Gen Z speaker and generations speaker who helps organisations navigate intergenerational workplace challenges.
Below is my appearance of Malarvilie Krishnasamy’s podcast - check out what she does!
Hakim Group Conference
How can I help you?
Talks, workshops and seminars - I am an award-winning speaker. My talks include recruiting and retaining Gen Z, understanding Gen Z, overcoming the challenges of the multigenerational workplace plus those relevant to the topics below. Speaker showreel here.
My book The Snowflake Myth is out now - to receive a free chapter please click here.
One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps.
Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.
