CKGSB Publication

As Gen Z prepares to make up the largest segment of China’s workforce, it’s critical to grasp the distinct preferences and challenges they face in the workplace. Understanding China’s Gen Z in the Workplace is an innovative report spearheaded by CKGSB’s Professor Zhang Xiaomeng. Drawing from a comprehensive study that encompasses 17,000 responses and 2.4 million data points across several generations, Professor Zhang offers invaluable insights into Gen Z’s values, career goals, preferences, and unique characteristics.

The report starts by exploring Gen Z’s value preferences and reveals that their priorities primarily revolve around physical and mental health, followed closely by wealth accumulation. It then dives into some of the obstacles they face in the workplace, including anxiety, low mental resilience, and dissatisfaction with pay, career prospects, and work-balanced life. Finally, the report examines how factors such as educational background, corporate rank, and work experience affect Gen Z’s workplace resilience.

Understanding China’s Gen Z in the Workplace is essential reading for managers seeking to retain and motivate Gen Z employees and offers useful management strategies tailored to the unique needs of this generation.

Professor Zhang notes in the introduction, “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for both corporations and employees. From the perspective of companies, there are greater difficulties in recruiting, training, and retaining a younger generation of employees due to increasingly complex internal and external factors. From an employee perspective, job opportunities have hit a 10-year low in China. Under such circumstances, it is crucial for corporate leaders to understand the factors that make Gen Z employees thrive in the workplace.”

By leveraging the insights provided in this report, organizations can foster a supportive and engaging work environment that not only addresses the concerns of Gen Z, but also maximizes their potential.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Professor Zhang Xiaomeng
A Glimpse of the Report’s Key Findings
Chapter 01: Value Preferences – What are Gen Z’s Values?
Chapter 02: Career Choices – Investigating Gen Z’s Career Choices and Attitudes Toward the Workplace
Chapter 03: Building Resilience – Exploring factors that affect Gen Z’s resilience in the workplace.
Conclusion