Purpose - Employee engagement has become a central strategic priority for organizations navigating rapid technological shifts and increasing competition for young talent in the Indian IT sector. Generation Z employees born between 1997 and 2012 enter the workforce with expectations shaped by digital fluency, global exposure and heightened awareness of well-being. Prior research suggests that Gen Z values work–life balance, supportive leadership, psychological safety, and meaningful development opportunities (Leslie et al., 2021; Barhate & Dirani, 2022). However, the majority of engagement studies rely on quantitative measures, leaving a gap in qualitative evidence capturing the lived experiences of Gen Z professionals within IT workplaces (Jayathilake et al., 2021; Das & Malik, 2024). This study addresses this gap.

Design / Methodology - This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach to analyze open-ended responses from 30 purposively sampled Gen Z IT employees. The participants were asked to identify the top four engagement practices influencing their intention to stay longer in an organization. Through thematic analysis, engagement drivers were identified.

Findings – Four dominant engagement drivers emerged: work–life balance, supportive supervisor behaviour, fair reward and recognition systems and opportunities for career growth. Other themes included autonomy, psychological safety, realistic workload distribution and healthy work culture. These results reinforce that for Gen Z ,engagement is multi-dimensional and to improve retention, IT organizations would need to focus on adopting empathetic leadership styles, maintaining transparent recognition practices, and offering developmental paths.

Originality - The paper has contributed to the limited number of qualitative studies on Gen Z engagement in India The participants were asked to identify the top four engagement practices influencing their intention to stay longer in an organization and has also provided actionable insights for HR practitioners who intend to align organizational practices with generational expectations.

Paper Type - Qualitative descriptive research