22% of Gen Z and Millennials Are Motivated by Comfort

All of us are different people, and we are all motivated by different incentives. But some motivators are much more common than others. Earlier this year, we published our findings about the biggest professional strengths and weaknesses of Millennials and Gen Z. This time we’re focusing on their four most common motivations.

Methodology

Cangrade is a talent intelligence platform with deep expertise in soft skills offering a pre-hire assessment. Our machine learning and AI algorithms predict the likelihood of success in different jobs based on 50 personality factors measured in a 14-minute-long survey. These personality factors can also be used to identify other qualities and predict other outcomes, among them is identifying a top motivator. At the end of the survey, candidates are asked to confirm the accuracy of their results. Motivation results get a 97.7% agreement rate, so this data is highly reliable. 

For this study, we sampled 10,000 members of Gen Z and Millennial generations to identify the most popular motivations driving these generations at work today.

The Top Four Motivations of Gen Z and Millennials

The following are the top 4 strongest motivations found in Gen Z and Millennials. Almost 70% of this cohort will list one of these 4 motivations as their top motivation, and there is a 94% chance that at least one of the motivations will be listed in the top 3. From the most common to less common, the top motivations of Gen Z and Millennials are:

1. Comfort (21.5%)

People motivated by comfort have a drive to maintain a state of physical or emotional ease, stability, and freedom from stress or discomfort. Individuals motivated by comfort prioritize security, routine, and a familiar environment, often seeking to avoid situations that might lead to conflict, change, or uncertainty. This type of motivation emphasizes the desire for well-being, predictability, and peace.

Some of the personality traits associated with comfort motivation include tidiness, internal awareness, and preference for routine and planning.

2. Personal Connection (16.8%)

People driven by personal connection seek opportunities to collaborate, share experiences, and build a sense of community. They feel energized when part of a close-knit or collaborative setting. This motivation reflects a natural tendency to prioritize relationship-building, making these individuals skilled at fostering positive, supportive environments and bringing people together toward common goals.

Some of the personality traits associated with personal connection motivation include relationship orientation, extraversion, external awareness, concern for others, and a preference for teamwork.

3. Challenge (15.9%)

People motivated by challenge are drawn to tasks that push their limits, valuing opportunities that require resilience, problem-solving, and skill growth. They feel most engaged when facing obstacles that demand effort, perseverance, and resourcefulness. This type of motivation enables individuals to stay focused and determined, especially in competitive or demanding environments, as they gain confidence and fulfillment from successfully meeting challenges and proving their capabilities.

Some of the personality traits associated with challenge motivation include a preference for pressure, daring, grit, entrepreneurial spirit, and a low level of threat response.

4. Excellence (14.8%)

Individuals motivated by excellence are committed to craftsmanship, detail, and continuous improvement. They often set high personal standards and value accuracy and thoroughness in their work. They take pride in honing their skills, pushing themselves to excel, and are motivated by the satisfaction of knowing they’ve delivered something of value and precision. This type of motivation fuels a deep commitment to quality, making these individuals persistent and disciplined in their pursuit of outstanding results.

Some of the personality traits associated with excellence motivation include precision, social comparison, desire for recognition, patience, and a lower level of mind wandering.

How are these findings useful on an individual level?

Whether you are in a job interview, on a date, or having a social encounter with a Gen Z-er or Millennial, you can be reasonably sure that the person in front of you is motivated by one of the 4 incentives above (if not as a top driver, then something very close to it). Knowing this should allow you to pay closer attention to how you interact and identify the best way to engage them.

Knowing what motivates people enables us to connect with them more deeply, create positive dynamics in our relationships, and ultimately, compel them to collaborate. It would be difficult to guess somebody’s motivation by looking at the full spectrum of possibilities (there are 20 or so common motivations known in literature), but limiting yourself to these four most likely motivations makes your job easier.

Whatever role you hold in the workplace: an engineer, a salesperson, a production worker, a manager, or a leader – you need to constantly interact and influence other people as Dr. Dale Carnegie described in How to Win Friends and Influence People almost a hundred years ago. This has changed very little in the past century. What has changed are the tools that can help us better understand these motivations. These tools allow us to be more precise and intentional about creating better connections in the pursuit of our goals.

Cangrade offers one of these tools that not only identifies motivations, strengths, and development priorities but also accurately predicts how these factors fit into each individual’s ability to succeed in any given job.

How are these findings useful at the team level?

Any group of people has individuals with a diverse range of motivations. Unlike an individual, whose motivations you can understand by using tools, heuristics, or just really good intuition, groups are not like that. There never will be a one-size-fits-all motivation for a team. But it’s reasonable to assume that the top four motivations in question are likely to be present in almost every team.

As a leader, your job is to create a stimulating environment for your employees, not just forcing them to do their jobs because they need money to pay their bills but to motivate and excite them about their work and the organization they are a part of. When you know the top motivations of your team, you can act on them, for example:

• Provide more work flexibility, mental health days, and other perks to appeal to employees motivated by comfort.
• Have regular check-ins, cocktail hours, and charity work to build personal connections for those motivated by it.
• Introduce friendly competitions, gamification, and awards for “challenge-seekers.”

Just like with individual motivations, knowing the likeliest top 4 motivations is a great boon, but you will be best served by a precise approach, not relying on probabilities but going after exactly what your team needs. Cangrade is here to help with this task, too.

The (unexpectedly) less common motivations

Some of the motivations that many of us would expect to be fairly common are rather less frequent among Gen Z and Millennials. Here are some examples: Compensation (7%), Appreciation (6%), Purpose (4%), Novelty (4%).

A critical consideration to keep in mind is that just because something is not a motivating factor, does not automatically mean that people don’t value it. It solely means that giving somebody more of it will not get them more excited and motivated to do their job (or anything else that you would like them to do).

Compensation is a great example that seems counter-intuitive. While some individuals are motivated by compensation (and they can be really strongly motivated by it), most people are demotivated by the lack of compensation. However, giving them more compensation than what satisfies their needs will not make them perform better or do something they haven’t done before.

This point is well confirmed by decades-old studies that show that skyrocketing CEO pay levels have nothing to do with improved managerial performance. The same is true with other roles. Yet, organizations continue to make the mistake of overpaying their executives and underpaying rank-and-file employees whose hard labor is actually responsible for the success or failure of any organization.

How can we understand our own motivations?

It’s not as easy as it might seem. When asked directly, most people don’t have a ready-to-go answer. They might also misinterpret their motivations and mistake their negative motivations (something that demotivates them when it is lacking, like compensation) as positive motivations (something that really can power their growth). 

If you are curious about what motivates you, what your biggest strengths and development priorities are, or have any other questions about your career path, personal challenges, and relationships, you can find your answers with Cangrade’s Jules AI. It’s free, hyper-personalized, and will give you incredible insights into your potential and inner workings.