Bridging the Generational Gap
For the 15th year of an ongoing global workforce study, a global professional services firm sought to continue evolving its understanding of Gen Z and Millennial professionals amid changing workplace expectations, economic uncertainty, and shifting definitions of career success. The goal was to move beyond broad generational stereotypes and ground the conversation in empirical data about what younger professionals actually value, experience, and expect from work today. The research was designed to strengthen the firm’s market-facing thought leadership, support future workforce strategy, and provide credible insights for executive conversations around the future of work.
KS&R partnered with the client to evolve and execute the latest wave of this long-standing global research initiative, combining qualitative exploration with large-scale quantitative validation. We conducted in-depth interviews with Gen Z and Millennial professionals, as well as business leaders, to uncover emerging workplace expectations, tensions, and experiences shaping today’s workforce. Building on these learnings and prior years of research, KS&R executed more than 22,000 quantitative surveys across 44 countries, providing a broad and globally representative perspective across industries and regions. Beyond research execution, KS&R collaborated closely with the client to shape the strategic narrative and thought leadership direction, facilitating workshops to develop key headlines, themes, and storylines and helping structure the published reports.
The research revealed nuanced and often unexpected insights into how younger generations view career growth, leadership, workplace flexibility, well-being, and organizational purpose. By grounding the conversation in credible, global data rather than assumptions, the study enabled the client to strengthen its thought leadership platform and support future-facing workforce strategy with confidence. The findings provided a powerful foundation for market-facing reports, executive conversations, and ongoing dialogue around the future of work, positioning the client as a credible voice on evolving workforce expectations and experiences.
