Why Gen Z’s Desire for Community Has Labor Relations Implications

Generation Z workers — those born between 1997 and 2012 — are in a unique position that can inform HR professionals about the future of workspaces. Those under age 30 have a reputation for favoring remote opportunities, but they are also gravitating toward in-person interaction in the workplace. Quite simply, these younger professionals crave a sense of affiliation and community, and that shouldn’t be too shocking. After all, this generation grew up behind computer screens, an issue that at-home learning during the pandemic worsened. They now want connection, including at work.

Related Article: How to Create Connection and Belonging in the Virtual Workplace

Belonging Is More Than a Perk for Gen Z at Work

The data reflect the trends. According to the EY Belonging Barometer 3.0, 75% of employees reported feeling excluded at work. A 2024 Jabra "Mind the Gap" report reinforces this, finding that Gen Z workers believe meaningful conversations with leadership help them feel connected rather than disengaged. A recent ezCater survey found that 56% of Gen Z workers would welcome socializing opportunities at work, and 85% noted that workplace friendships increase their sense of engagement. 

Gallup’s research adds the organizational view, finding that elevated stress among younger workers correlates strongly with disengagement. It follows that building community and belonging can help address both issues.

Related Article: Tackling Workplace Stress and Depression

This presents a challenge for employers: In workplaces where that community doesn’t exist, other parties are happy to fill the vacuum.

The Most Pro-Union Generation in the Workforce

Unions, however one views them, structure themselves to deliver the sense of belonging that these workers desire. They promise a shared sense of purpose and collective identity while offering to listen to workers who feel unheard, including on issues like work-life integration, artificial intelligence, and wages. Those concerns resonate powerfully with Gen Z workers, who are also more likely to be receptive to union organizing. 

To that point, a 2024 Economic Policy Institute Report, “The Rise of the ‘Union Curious,’ ” delved into data collected by the Worker Empowerment Research Network and found that 45% of workers under 30 are “union curious,” meaning they don’t necessarily favor or oppose unions, but they are open to considering third-party representation.

Gen Z workers are also open to union messaging because this might be their first exposure to organizing activity. Private sector union density has fallen to a low point in recent years, making Gen Z workers less likely to have union members as parents who could speak to the downsides of paying dues, only to experience the limitations of what unions can realistically achieve at the bargaining table.

Disengagement Is the Opening, and Proactive Employers Can Close the Gap

Younger workers will soon become a much larger segment of the workforce. Each year brings more retirements of Baby Boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — across many sectors. So, both literally and figuratively, Gen Z is the future. The connection between this generation’s community-seeking instincts and their openness to union messaging isn’t a large leap, and that gap will only grow more consequential as they become a dominant workforce presence.

Building a genuine community at work addresses these workers’ underlying needs before an organizing drive frames itself as the solution. Gen Z has a profound need for affiliation and community at work, and when employers don’t provide it, unions will.

Kimberly Ricci is a content development writer with LRI Consulting Services Inc. in Broken Arrow, Okla.