Personal fulfillment: The new key metric underpinning the workplace contract

For decades work was more than a paycheck – it also provided an identity, sense of belonging and fulfillment. But that social contract eroded in recent years as jobs became leaner, faster, and more dispersed. And now AI is creating new ways of working, necessitating different skills and increasing uncertainty.

Work still matters, but it no longer delivers the meaning it once did. Instead, a new employment contract is emerging that prioritizes fulfillment, continuous skill-building and empathetic leadership rather than tenure or titles.

Employees rank fulfillment as their second highest workplace priority, tied with work-life balance – climbing from eighth place in 2021, according to a new report by the Oliver Wyman Forum that includes survey data of nearly 300,000 people globally over the past five years. Workers, especially younger ones, also want more empathetic managers, ranking emotional intelligence (EQ) as the third most desirable leadership trait behind strong communications and objective decision-making. But 80% of workers said they rarely encounter it.

While all generations are eager to learn skills essential for our rapidly changing world, less than a third believe they're getting what they need. Only 34% said they’re given monthly chances to develop new skills, and that access drops sharply with age, from 44% among Gen Zers to just 22% for boomers.

The result: Just 44% of employees feel as if they are thriving at work, down from 66% in 2024, according to Mercer’s annual Global Talent Trends study. Some 26% said: “I’m unsatisfied, but I don’t have a choice at this point and will be staying for the next 12 months.”

But there is hope for business leaders. Those who provide their workforces with appropriate training and more fulfilment opportunities, and make more of an effort to understand Gen Z employees, can stem the rising tide of dissatisfaction – and maybe reverse it.

Businesses recognize it’s easier to reskill existing employees than hire new ones. But the gap between the training workers want and what they receive represents one of the most critical vulnerabilities facing companies today. Demand for development has doubled since 2021, according to the Oliver Wyman Forum, but most organizations aren’t meeting that need.

Over half of employees say their biggest concern about the future of work is not having the right skills, but only two in five believe their manager understands their skills, interests and gaps, according to Mercer. Despite being the least requested, the most commonly offered corporate training is in the areas of compliance, health and safety, and customer-service programmes, while employees most want cross-functional, data and leadership skills training to prepare them for the future. This disconnect undermines both trust and engagement.

Rather than starting with more programmes, businesses should train managers to better understand employee skills and aspirations using AI-driven tools and create opportunities for continuous skill development and expression through cross-functional projects and gigs that are embedded in daily work. They should create clear milestones with personalized learning journeys and feedback cycles that showcase progress in weeks and months, not years.

Employees want more fulfillment from work. Human resource professionals recognize this: 34% say investing in employees' personal growth would make the biggest difference to workers’ day-to-day experience. But fulfillment means something different to nearly everyone. For some it's purpose; for others, autonomy, recognition or growth. For others still, it's the ability to be fulfilled outside of work. That ambiguity has made it easy to relegate fulfillment to culture decks and employer branding, rather than treating it as something that can be measured and managed.

Our data suggest that's a mistake. The real risk isn't turnover. It's the workforce that shows up but checks out: adequate performance, minimal discretionary effort and steady consumption of management attention, without the engagement that drives innovation or growth.

Fulfilled employees are the foundation of a thriving workforce, and the differences across an organization are exponential. Such workers are more than twice as likely to believe they can build a meaningful career at their company (50% vs. 24%) and to feel that their input is genuinely valued (46% vs. 22%), according to Oliver Wyman Forum survey data. They show 67% higher confidence in senior leadership.

Organizations that want to operationalize fulfillment should start by breaking it down and measuring its components: Clarity about how work connects to outcomes that matter; recognition that feels timely and credible; growth pathways that are visible and real; and the sense that strengths are actually being used. It also means recognizing that for many employees, fulfillment at work might hinge on fulfillment beyond it. Leaders should identify where the gaps are widest and hold managers accountable for the specific dimensions they can influence.

Gen Zers’ early frustration with the workplace was real. They entered when the scaffolding that once shaped early careers – such as predictable paths, in-person mentorship and shared rituals – was dismantled by remote work, economic uncertainty and rapid technological change. In 2021, Gen Zers trailed older cohorts on nearly every dimension: Fewer liked their managers (49% vs. 61-64%), colleagues (58% vs. 67%-70%), or company culture.

Surprise! In just four years, Gen Z has gone from the least satisfied generation to among the most, with satisfaction scores climbing 21 to 31 percentage points across every measure. They now match millennials and exceed Gen X and boomers on job satisfaction.

Their relationship with work remains transactional, but in the best sense: effort in exchange for visible progress, not assumed loyalty. The view that "working long hours is a necessary trade-off for financial security" jumped 79% among Gen Zers since 2022, more than double the figure among millennials. The share of Gen Z with a side hustle dropped from almost half to 34% in the last three years.

For business leaders, the implications go beyond hiring and retention of a generation that leads in AI adoption and sees it as a career accelerator rather than a threat. Some 87% of these digital natives use AI weekly, and 63% report productivity gains – more than 2.3 times the rate of boomers. Gen Zers experiment first, iterate fast, and scale what works, making them organizational force multipliers.

Companies can deploy Gen Zers to train other generations on AI strategies and formalize the "experiment-then-scale" approach that comes naturally to them. But the deeper opportunity is recognizing that what Gen Z expects from work – including clarity, honesty about technological change, and genuine investment in development – is increasingly what every generation desires.

The organizations that dismiss these expectations as entitlement will find themselves out of step not just with young employees, but with their entire workforce.

In the years ahead, the companies that are most proactive in understanding their employees and meeting their needs are the likeliest to develop motivated and AI-enabled workforces that can drive growth in an era of rapid technological change.