Professional values are shifting. Here’s how your association should adapt.
- Association leaders should embrace professional values like inclusion, less vertical hierarchies and more flexible approaches to work in order to create a workplace that’s more appealing to their younger employees.
- Doing this can help you recruit and retain talent, as well as improve your overall organizational performance.
- You’ll also typically benefit by exploring how younger employees’ values can complement more traditional workplace standards rather than assuming there’s a conflict.
Associations are experiencing a period of generational change. The makeup of their workforce is evolving, as baby boomers retire, Gen X steps into leadership roles and millennials or Gen Z occupy a growing percentage of positions within association organizations.
As a result, professional values are also changing, with millennial and Gen Z workers reshaping expectations around how work gets done and what employees look for from their organizations. Younger generations grew up under different circumstances than their more experienced colleagues and often bring different attitudes about work into the office.
This can be a source of conflict — or it can help make your association organization stronger. Keep reading to learn more.
What workplace values matter most to younger professionals?
While any group of people will contain a broad range of beliefs and values, there are certain trends in how many millennials or Gen Z show up at the office. Members of younger generations are often less comfortable with hierarchy, care deeply about inclusivity and may sometimes be quicker than their older colleagues to weigh the cons of using AI against the pros.
It’s also worth noting that older generations may often share these values, but feel less able to discuss them in the workplace than their younger colleagues due to past cultural norms.
Common millennial and Gen Z workplace values that often show up in the workplace as either core beliefs or daily behaviors include:
1. Inclusion
Younger employees tend to genuinely care about diversity and creating a workplace where people from different backgrounds feel comfortable and included. This doesn’t just involve annual DEI training programs, but embracing a more welcoming office culture and a more expansive definition of what it means to be a working professional.
2. Sustainability
Millennials and Gen Z tend to be especially conscious of human impact on the climate. Younger team members will want to see similar concern demonstrated by their employers, and may also be skeptical of organizations that blindly embrace technologies like AI without considering ethical and environmental impact.
3. Less hierarchy
Older generations cut their teeth in a hierarchical workspace. Younger employees, though, often don’t immediately defer to authority and understand that every role in an organization matters, including their own.
4. Communication
People of all generations appreciate honest, straightforward communication. But younger employees may be more willing to speak up if they don’t feel that’s happening. Transparency is huge for rising professionals, who often expect to be told not just that a change is being made, but why.
5. Shared decision-making
The instinct toward less hierarchy can also translate to younger employees wanting more of a voice in decision-making processes. They don’t expect to make the final call, but often sincerely appreciate being included in discussions — to which they can bring a fresh perspective.
6. Respecting different work styles
Younger generations often recognize that there isn’t just one way to work. Not everyone fits the traditional office mold, and many employees may actually deliver more via remote work, flexible scheduling or other adaptive arrangements. This holds true for all generations, but is something younger employees are often more comfortable discussing.
7. Desire to feel supported at work
Finally, younger employees are often more willing to speak up if they don’t feel supported by their employer. This is a genuine cultural shift from previous workplace standards and reflects a broader desire to see employers back up their stated values with action.
Why should associations care about millennial and Gen Z professional values?
Embracing the professional values of your workforce helps your association recruit and retain talent. It also leads to stronger organizational performance, bolsters your reputation, helps you connect with your younger members and helps you reap the benefits of learning from a wide range of perspectives.
- Increased talent retention: Listening to your talent is an essential talent retention strategy. Your younger team members know their skills are transferable from job to job, so if you want them to stick around (and to avoid the high cost of having to make a new hire to replace them), you need to deliver a workplace culture that they won’t want to leave.
- Stronger organizational performance: People who feel good about working for your association are going to perform better. If your employees feel like your organization respects them, they’ll be more invested and care more about your success.
- Better reputation: Organizations that stand by their values are often well-regarded by others, especially in comparison to organizations that are perceived to care only about the bottom line. For associations, specifically, this can help not only with talent recruiting, but with member attraction and retention.
- Diverse perspectives: The most effective teams typically bring together a range of diverse perspectives. By creating a culture where your younger employees feel valued, you’ll benefit from more of their insights, creativity and experiences in a way that complements rather than crowds out the perspectives of your more seasoned team members.
- More growth opportunities: By creating room for different perspectives, ways of working and backgrounds, you’ll also open up new avenues for growth. Simply by bringing more voices into the conversation, you’ll gain opportunities you would not have otherwise considered — and you’ll also be more comfortable appealing to younger members.
What are your next steps here?
Association leaders who want to better integrate millennial and Gen Z professional values into their organizations may wonder how to turn this intention into impact. Here’s how to start:
1. Get your leadership team on board: Generate support among your leadership team and department heads for action on creating a workplace culture that supports the values of your younger employees.
2. Strengthen your HR capabilities: Give your HR department the resources to support a stronger culture, including time to research trends, talk to your actual team members and go to conferences to understand how culture is evolving in 2026.
3. Listen to your team: Give your team members (of all generations) opportunities to talk about the workplace values that matter most to them — and listen to what they have to say. Here, it can be helpful to create working groups within your organization to discuss these questions in a more informal setting.
4. Embrace a willingness to change: Respecting a younger generation’s values is not about replacing traditional workplace values wholesale but rather complementing or evolving older standards. A willingness to embrace this approach will benefit employees of all ages and backgrounds, allowing your whole organization to grow.
How Wipfli can help
We advise associations on improving performance, navigating change and growth. Let’s talk about your goals and how we can help you achieve them. Start a conversation.
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