Turnover has always been part of running a business. But in the last few years, predicting who’s going to leave and why has gotten a lot harder.
We surveyed 1,000 workers to figure out what’s driving people out the door. Nearly half (46%) have already quit jobs because they felt disconnected or unsupported. Disengagement is now nearly as big a factor as compensation in driving exits.
The problem isn’t that leaders don’t care. It’s that younger workers want different things from their jobs than previous generations did. What kept Boomer employees engaged doesn’t work the same way for Millennials or Gen Z. And if you’re still using the same management playbook you did five years ago, you’re probably losing people without understanding why.
Here’s what the data revealed about what workers actually want right now.
1. Younger Workers Need Different Things Than Their Bosses Do
About 43% of surveyed Boomer leaders report feeling engaged at work. Overall, they feel pretty good about their jobs and their workplaces. Meanwhile, only 14% of Gen Z workers and 15% of Millennials feel the same way.
The gap becomes clearer when you look at what different generations say they need to stay engaged. Nearly half of Gen Z (47%) and Millennials (43%) want regular appreciation and feedback. Only 14% of Boomers say the same. When you average it across all age groups, 36% of workers identify regular appreciation as the single most important driver of engagement. That makes it the top factor overall, even though older leaders rarely prioritize it.
But the problem goes further than appreciation. A quarter of workers (25%) don’t even feel trusted to do their basic job. When people feel both underappreciated and untrusted, they leave – just like 52% of Millennials, 51% of Gen Z, and 39% of Boomers.
The disconnect isn’t a generational personality clash. It’s a management approach that was built for one type of worker being applied to a completely different one, and it’s creating preventable turnover.
What would your own workforce say right now?
Live insights on your workforce in two minutes.
2. One-Size-Fits-All Benefits Don’t Cut It Anymore
Appreciation and feedback matter, but they’re only part of what keeps people around. The majority (87%) of workers believe companies should offer benefits tailored to individual needs. More than half (53%) say that life-aligned support like student debt help or elder care makes them “feel seen.”
That feeling ranks higher as an engagement driver than having a sense of purpose at work (26%). And only 5% of workers prefer standard benefits over personalized approaches. Clearly, workers want to be recognized as individuals, not just employees.
This shift catches many leaders off guard because it contradicts how they were trained. Most managers learned to apply consistent policies and treat everyone equally. That approach worked when workforces shared similar life stages and career expectations. But now you’ve got five generations working together, and they need different things.
Younger workers (58% of Millennials and Gen Z each) say personalized benefits matter to them. Some need student debt repayment programs. Others prioritize elder care support. The specific need changes based on where someone is in life, but the desire to be seen as an individual stays the same.
Leaders who default to standard benefits packages over personalized support miss what actually drives retention.
3. Workers Want Help Before They Hit Burnout
There’s a common assumption that employees see workplace wellness initiatives as intrusive. The data says otherwise, with 59% of survey respondents sharing they welcome employers to proactively offer support when they feel they’re at risk of burnout or disengagement. Only 5% find this type of intervention uncomfortable.
Workers don’t see proactive support as surveillance. They see it as care. And that matters because waiting until someone’s already burned out means you’ve probably already lost them.
But here’s where it gets interesting. The same workers asking for more support also want benefits that aren’t tied to a single employer. Sixty percent would feel more secure changing jobs if their benefits traveled with them. Another 41% would be more likely to pursue entrepreneurship or freelance work if benefits were portable.
That sounds backwards until you understand what’s actually happening. Traditional benefits act like golden handcuffs. They trap people in jobs they might want to leave because walking away means losing everything they’ve earned. That resentment builds over time and kills engagement.
Portable benefits do the opposite. When workers know their benefits travel with them, they stay because they want to, not because they’re stuck. They feel valued and respected as individuals rather than assets the company is trying to lock down. And people rarely leave jobs where they feel that kind of support.
4. Pay Matters, But It Won’t Fix A Broken Culture
Money still matters. Half of workers (50%) say better compensation would make them stay longer. However, engagement-driven departures (46%) nearly match the number of people leaving over pay (50%).
You can’t out-pay a culture problem. If people feel disconnected, underappreciated, or trapped by benefits they can’t take with them, a raise just delays the inevitable. They’ll take the money and keep looking for a workplace that actually gets it.
And some turnover is unavoidable. Approximately 14% said nothing would make them more engaged, and 23% said nothing would make them stay longer. But for everyone else, there’s hope and a clear path. Companies offering personalized benefits, proactive support, and the flexibility workers actually want are the ones keeping people.
The workforce changed. Your playbook for managing them needs to catch up. If you’re ready to turn engagement into a retention strategy that actually works, MustardHub can help you get there. Contact us today to help build workforce culture and loyalty.
About the Author
Curtis Forbes is the founder and CEO of MustardHub, a workforce engagement platform that helps companies reduce turnover, build stronger cultures, and unlock predictive insights into employee well-being. A serial entrepreneur with a background in both technology startups and education, Curtis previously built and scaled Forbes Music Company and later expanded into a roll-up portfolio of education businesses before exiting in 2025.
With more than two decades of experience leading distributed teams, he has seen firsthand how trust, recognition, and flexible support systems shape whether people stay and thrive, or burn out and leave. At MustardHub, he is pioneering approaches to employee engagement, predictive workforce insights, and portable benefits that align with the realities of modern work. Outside of work, Curtis stays active in music, enjoys traveling, and advocates for social causes, particularly initiatives supporting foster youth in Central Texas.
