The Truth About Gen-Z and Millennial Employees

LONDON, United Kingdom — In order to better understand the evolving relationship between fashion companies and their employees, BoF surveyed nearly 3,500 professionals working in more than 70 countries to identify the issues that will define the fashion workplace of the future.

In the first of a three-part BoF Careers white paper series, we deep dive into how fashion companies big and small can engage, develop and retain Gen-Z and Millennial talent. We share objective feedback from both generational cohorts and reveal the disparity between employee sentiment and action on key substantive issues, The Truth About Gen-Z and Millennial Fashion Employees provides HR professionals and business leaders an unprecedented insight into what drives fashion’s youngest professionals.

“Millennial and Gen-Z [employees] will walk if they don’t feel like they’re being respected,” says Molly Logan, co-founder of Irregular Labs, a Gen-Z think tank. Indeed, Deloitte reported last year that more than 90 percent of Millennials expected to stay in a job for fewer than three years, compared to the 37 percent of Gen-X leaders who said they are contemplating leaving their current role to advance their careers, the Harvard Business Review reported this year.

But the task of choosing how to effectively engage with an increasingly demanding and less loyal workforce is highly complex. “Anything from climate change, class or diversity issues, race, internal culture problems — if those things are not addressed properly and there’s a lack of interest or progress, Gen-Z will simply not work there,” Jonah Stillman, co-author of Gen-Z @ Work: How the Next Generation Is Transforming the Workplace, tells BoF.

However, by analysing proprietary data from our global community of diverse, innovative industry professionals, and sharing access to HR experts and business leaders, BoF Careers is in a unique position to provide fashion employers with constructive guidance and industry-specific advice on the HR issues that will define future market performance.

Click here to download The Truth About Gen-Z and Millennial Fashion Employees.