Sep 30, 2026 · 42 min · 11 segments
In this episode of Mind the Generation Gap, host Louise Kennedy is joined by Natalie Henson, People Director at Sage, to explore what Gen Z really wants from the workplace - and how businesses can…
So as part of that, then you obviously must make quite an investment in your managers to be able to ensure that not just Gen Z, but in general, that people understand how to be an effective manager with the biggest impact.
And I think sometimes I have a conversation with my husband about, you know, one person's actions and they might not think about it again, but actually it has a significant impact on somebody else, you know, positive and negative.
You know, but sometimes you can make a real positive impact on someone by saying something that you then don't think about again.
But actually somebody else is really taking that on board and it's made a difference to them as part of their life.
of work with your managers to ensure they are really efficient? We absolutely do.
We as an organisation, we invest heavily in what we call our manager essentials programme.
So a bit of a one-on-one on how to be a manager, everything from having that difficult conversation to the career conversation, how to manage them through their performance, how to give clear direction.
And we've just actually launched a new Manager Essentials 2.0, which is an enhanced version of that.
We also focus on things like psychological safety, having those really open conversations and gaining trust and confidence with colleagues.
So the colleague needs to be comfortable to be able to share how they're feeling with the manager, but the manager also needs to be able to receive it personally.
they receive isn't it i think that's one of the biggest things of um that we talked about i haven't recently done some work with um kind of like abuse organizations and um kind of you know so it's then you know we're talking about somebody could come and share with a manager exactly how they feel or their personal situation it's on that manager then to do something about it isn't it it is but it's so important it's like a crucial part of this it's
about asking the right questions at the right time yeah so if If a colleague shares something with them that, depending on what it is, that they respond in the right way, they're not always going to get it right, but we can provide the tools for them to be successful and we really work hard at trying to do that.
to give managers every opportunity to thrive within the workplace and give colleagues what they need.
We also, to the point about reverse mentoring, we always also encourage colleagues to feed back to the managers as well on how things are going or how things can be better.
So as part of that, then you obviously must make quite an investment in your managers to be able to ensure that not just Gen Z, but in general, that people understand how to be an effective manager with the biggest impact.
And I think sometimes I have a conversation with my husband about, you know, one person's actions and they might not think about it again, but actually it has a significant impact on somebody else, you know, positive and negative.
You know, but sometimes you can make a real positive impact on someone by saying something that you then don't think about again.
But actually somebody else is really taking that on board and it's made a difference to them as part of their life.
of work with your managers to ensure they are really efficient? We absolutely do.
We as an organisation, we invest heavily in what we call our manager essentials programme.
So a bit of a one-on-one on how to be a manager, everything from having that difficult conversation to the career conversation, how to manage them through their performance, how to give clear direction.
And we've just actually launched a new Manager Essentials 2.0, which is an enhanced version of that.
We also focus on things like psychological safety, having those really open conversations and gaining trust and confidence with colleagues.
So the colleague needs to be comfortable to be able to share how they're feeling with the manager, but the manager also needs to be able to receive it personally.
they receive isn't it i think that's one of the biggest things of um that we talked about i haven't recently done some work with um kind of like abuse organizations and um kind of you know so it's then you know we're talking about somebody could come and share with a manager exactly how they feel or their personal situation it's on that manager then to do something about it isn't it it is but it's so important it's like a crucial part of this it's
about asking the right questions at the right time yeah so if If a colleague shares something with them that, depending on what it is, that they respond in the right way, they're not always going to get it right, but we can provide the tools for them to be successful and we really work hard at trying to do that.
to give managers every opportunity to thrive within the workplace and give colleagues what they need.
We also, to the point about reverse mentoring, we always also encourage colleagues to feed back to the managers as well on how things are going or how things can be better.
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