By 2030, employees aged 24-35 will comprise 75% of your workforce. The question isn’t whether your organization is ready—it’s whether you’ll lead this transformation or get left behind.
The Novak Leadership Institute’s 2025 Young Employee Survey uncovered something remarkable: The core drivers of young worker success aren’t complicated or generation-specific. They’re universal, powerful, and immediately actionable. And organizations that ignore them are already losing their best talent.
The Four Universal Drivers of Young Employee Success
1. Meaningful Work = Flourishing Employees
Forget ping pong tables and free snacks. The strongest predictor of young employee flourishing is whether they find their work meaningful.
2. Leadership Communication + Recognition = Engagement
Your managers might be good at giving feedback. They might be good at recognition. But unless they’re doing both together, they’re missing the mark.
3. Development Opportunities = Job Satisfaction
Think salary and benefits keep people around? Think again. Growth and learning opportunities predict job satisfaction more strongly than compensation, perks, or even work-life balance.
4. Psychological Safety + Respect = Innovation
We know teams need psychological safety to perform. But here’s what we found: It’s not just about feeling safe—it’s about the specific combination of safety and respect that enables innovation.
Bonus: The Changing Employee Profile
Young employees have different priorities than workers from previous generations.
- 19.7% of young employees in our survey maintain side work alongside their full-time roles, and the percentage is highest among top earners (22.6%) and most experienced workers (20.8%).
- Young employees value life infrastructure benefits such as health insurance (94.5%), paid time off (96.2%), and retirement contributions (92.1%) more than perks such as gym memberships and meals.
- 73.8% of young employees report that flexible work arrangements positively impact their performance, and it’s not just about working from home. When you offer flexibility, employees hear, “We trust you to manage your work and your life.”
Are you ready to lead the transformation?
Organizations that act on these insights can expect lower turnover, higher engagement, better innovation, and stronger bottom lines. The comprehensive report includes:
- Detailed implementation roadmaps for all four universal drivers
- Industry-specific applications and case studies
- Quick wins you can implement in the next 30 days
- Long-term strategies for sustained competitive advantage
- Measurement frameworks to track your progress
The 2025 Young Employee Survey is your blueprint for building an organization where young talent doesn’t just work but thrives. Fill out the form below to download the full report and discover exactly how to implement these universal drivers in your organization.