How Gen Z and younger millennials are reshaping what makes a “good workplace” | Priyanka Chaturvedi Agrawal | Head of Inclusional
This is not a passing trend but a structural shift that is redefining how organisations must think about talent retention. Salaries and designations are no longer the strongest reasons to stay. What truly drives commitment is culture – how safe, inclusive, flexible, and purpose-driven a workplace feels. In 2025, culture has become the real employer brand.
Millennials and Gen Z now make up over 52% of India’s workforce, compared to 47% globally. The evolving workforce is clear about its expectations. They look for meaningful career growth, mentorship that translates into action, and workplaces where mental health is genuinely supported. Work-life balance is no longer a catchphrase but a baseline. For them, inclusion is not an annual workshop; it is an everyday experience. They want to see leadership live the values they communicate. When these expectations are not met, they do not quietly disengage. They move on, and their experiences follow them into the public domain. Companies that ignore this reality risk high attrition and, ultimately, irrelevance.
Yet, many organisations still treat culture as an HR-led campaign. Posters, webinars, and yearly surveys cannot build it. Culture is shaped by leadership, by what leaders tolerate, encourage, and reward, and how they respond to feedback, conflict, and complaints. When sexual harassment prevention is viewed as a legal checkbox, companies lose the chance to build trust and safety. The costs of such failures are measurable. Globally, companies that mishandle harassment cases have seen share prices drop by up to 6.5% and shareholder value fall between 8% and 21%. Harassment-related attrition alone costs businesses USD 2.6 billion annually. In India, penalties for non-compliance have reached as high as ₹1.68 crore.
These are not abstract numbers; they are business risks that directly hit the bottom line. Forward-looking organisations are taking a different route. They treat culture as a leadership KPI rather than an HR activity. They invest in psychologically safe workplaces where employees feel secure raising concerns. They embed real-time feedback systems to spot and address gaps quickly. They train managers to lead with empathy, ensuring inclusion is not only policy but practice. By tying culture and safety to ESG goals and business outcomes, these organisations build environments where people thrive, performance improves, and brands strengthen.
The cost of neglecting culture is steep. Attrition rises, retention suffers, and morale erodes. Internal disengagement soon becomes an external narrative that influences talent decisions and investor perceptions. Gen Z and Millennials do not silently accept toxic environments; their dissatisfaction becomes visible, and companies known for poor culture lose their edge. In today’s competitive market, those that lead with culture will be the ones that stay ahead.
Culture is a hard business driver and not just a soft concept. It demands the same level of attention as revenue, product development, or market growth. The strongest organisations in 2025 are not the most polished on the outside; they are the ones where culture is authentic, lived, and led from the top.