WHAT GEN Z WANTS: BRANDS & SOCIAL IMPACT

How 1,200 Gen Z respondents stack up against 100+ brand leaders

Published June 2024

What does Gen Z want from brands’ social impact and employee engagement strategy, and how can brands capture their attention? These questions plague marketers, nonprofit leaders, and corporate social responsibility brand leaders alike. As this generation grows into itself, carving out a larger percentage of the workforce and overall purchasing power, brands are allocating more attention, dollars, and resources to capture the curiosity and respect of this age group.

DoSomething Strategic (DSS) surveyed nearly 1,200 Gen Z’ers (13-25) and over 100 brands, including corporations, nonprofits, consultancies and universities, to understand both what the younger generation expects of brands relating to social impact and employee engagement, as well as how that compares to expectations held by brand leaders in other generations. Our survey reveals a significant gap between Gen Z's expectations and how brands perceive their own efforts. The report paints a picture of where and how brands can shift their attention to better reach younger generations.

Learn more about our methodology

Read our introductory report

Gen Z is Tougher on Brands Than Brands Are on Themselves

Fifty-eight percent of the brand leaders surveyed said their brand is meeting or exceeding their expectations to demonstrate their commitment to social impact and corporate citizenship. While brand leaders are giving themselves a pat on the back, Gen Z is saying, “not so fast.” Only 15% of Gen Z respondents said that overall brands were meeting or exceeding these expectations. 

DSS found that this mirrored the sentiment when we asked brand leaders about their companies’ unmet or failed expectations. Fourteen percent of brand leaders said their brands were not meeting or strongly failing expectations compared to the 35% of young people who felt there was more to be desired.

A surveyed professional highlighted the difficulties in effecting positive change within their global consultancy.

Backlash from employees and consumers is a common fear. However, Gen Zers repeatedly tell us that they are watching who is staying silent and who is speaking up.

Gen Z Don’t Feel They Have a Meaningful Seat at the Table

Young people want to help — just don’t put them at the kids’ table. With the growing emergence of youth advisory councils, hackathons, and workshops, opportunities are endless for brands and young people to collaborate on important issues. 

While many forums exist for collaboration, Gen Z does not think brands are doing enough. Forty-two percent of brand leaders surveyed said young people were included enough in the development of their brands’ social impact efforts, but only 13% of young people agreed, when they were asked how brands, in general, were engaging them.

How do you encourage collaboration? Some professionals cited generational differences as a barrier.

While friction exists in any decision-making process, it does not negate the fact that Gen Z will make up 27% of the workforce by 2025. And, this generation wants to be heard and taken seriously. Embrace the friction.

What Cause Areas Should Brands Support? Depends Who You Ask.

In identifying the cause areas that brands should prioritize, the survey found significant discrepancies in priorities. The divergence not only highlights the areas where young people want to see brands focus their impact work, but also where the gaps and opportunities exist to bring them to the table. Here’s what stands out: 

• A politically diverse representation of Gen Z survey respondents shared share high expectations of brands to do more. Nearly 75% of the 15 social causes and actions respondents ranked had a mean score of 4 or higher on a scale of 1 (not important at all) to 3 (neutral) to 5 (very important).

• Despite them being among the highest for young people, climate justice & environmental sustainability, physical health, gun violence were of lowest priority for brands to address, according to brand leaders. 

• LGBTQIA+ rights & gender equality was ranked higher by brand leaders for their companies to to take action on than by Gen Z. 

Despite these gaps between Gen Z and brand leaders, significant alignment exists in several cause area priorities. They both expressed that brands should prioritize taking action to address equity & justice, mental health & wellbeing, education access, and democracy & civic engagement. 

When brands ask themselves where they can do more, Gen Z will tell you, “do more… just about everywhere.” DSS does not advocate for championing a social cause that is not authentic to your brand — but sometimes looking for and investing in the not-so-obvious cause area can pay big dividends. Wondering where to start? Consider first, what your brand considers its community. Whether that’s the neighborhood of the employee headquarters or an online group of ambassadors, ask them what they want.

Doing More: Actions to Take

In delving deeper, DSS asked respondents to identify specific actions that, in their view, brands could and should undertake to show their commitment to creating social change. Because not every brand could take action on the questions we posed (for example, an insurance company might have a hard time speaking to their sustainable product design initiatives), we filtered to the top actions that we deemed most brands could take action on.

Here’s what you need to know:

• DSS found significant differences in the importance of brands taking action on supplier ethics, but saw shared sentiments on community investment, activism & awareness campaigns, and political advocacy. 

• Supplier ethics being most important to young people reveals they want to see brands take action behind the scenes, but it should not come at the expense of other public-facing measures. 

• With community investment ranking high in importance for young people and brand leaders, consider what initiatives your organization might take to do more to fund and empower local neighborhood initiatives alongside Gen Z.

Stark Generational Differences in Employee Engagement Preferences

When looking at what young people (18-25 for this particular analysis*) want from their future or current employers and what brand leaders cited their companies already prioritizing, they agree on one thing: the importance of work-life balance. That’s where the similarities end. The biggest differences show up in how much they value things like a competitive salary and wellness programs. 

In our introductory report, we mapped Gen Z's priorities to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The employee engagement policies that resonate with this generation cascade down in the chart below similar to how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs cascades up. For young people, meeting, their physiological needs and feeling safe and secure (bottom of the hierarchy) was more important than reaching a heightened self-esteem and self-actualization (top of the hierarchy).

Gen Z's need for economic mobility, because of the mounting financial pressures they face, explains why they prioritize salary and benefits.

On the other hand, more seasoned brand leaders may have more stable financial footing allowing them to place a lower value on their company to do more to support employees. This shows a clear picture: businesses need to recognize and meet the varied needs of early starting employees and more seasoned employees.

In our qualitative responses, Gen Z respondents repeatedly told us the perks and benefits cannot come at the expense of finding purpose in their work. For them, it’s all connected.

What Does All of This Mean For Your Brand?

You’re on the clock. Gen Z is expected to surpass Baby Boomers in the workforce in 2025 and they have a lot to say. It’s time for brands to adjust their efforts to address social issues and embrace employee engagement policies. Here’s what to remember:

• Gen Z Holds Brands to High Standards: Young people want to see brands take more risks in addressing social issues. That said, we recognize that no brand is perfect, nor should they have an opinion on every single social issue that arises. We recommend that brands decide with their staff and other stakeholders what flags they’ll plant and do so authentically.

• Invite Gen Z to the Table, Just Not the Kids Table: Young people are not asking you to replace your board. But they are asking you to hear them out and create avenues for dialogue and discourse. We recommend that you start with youth advisory councils or hackathons that lead to ideas for new initiatives. You’ve got to start somewhere.

• Diverging Priorities on Causes Areas: While many brand leaders expressed that their brand had less responsibility to address climate justice & environmental sustainability, physical health, and gun violence, Gen Z disagreed. Our recommendation is to consider the unexpected connections between your brand and the ways it can contribute to social issues that go beyond the obvious.

• Shared Priorities Do Exist: Despite differences, there's consensus between brands and Gen Z about the importance of brands taking action on equity & justice, education access, mental health, and community investment.

• Gen Z’s Work Hierarchy of Needs: Mapped to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the big three practices brands should speak to and invest in when appealing to Gen Z are balance, fair compensation and support to take care of their mind and body. What Gen Z wants from a job is interconnected to finding purpose — help them find it.

Let’s close the gap between what young people want from brands and how brands deliver. To learn more about these findings:

• Read the introductory report where we unpacked more Gen Z sentiments 

• Explore DoSomething Strategic’s work to support brands in developing their youth engagement strategies 

Interested in more?  Reach out to connect with our team. 

Written by: Walker Post
Contributions by: Ashley Montcrieft, Yasmine Mahdavi, Sahil Gupta, Max Steinman

Want to explore the survey design? Read about our methodology below.