Katherine Bindley and Chip Cutter:

Gen Z workers are expected to outnumber baby boomers in the U.S. workforce this year. If only their bosses could understand them.

Companies find their youngest employees the most difficult to work with, surveys show. Now executives are making efforts to engage them more. They are arranging mentorship for employees who entered the workforce remotely during the pandemic; they are giving guidance on how to communicate and when to keep their thoughts to themselves; and they are offering new kinds of perks, like an on-site therapist.

Each new generation coming up in the workforce tends to confuse corporate management, at least initially. Members of Gen Z—generally defined as born between 1997 and 2012—are no exception. Dozens of board members from public companies gathered in June at the Sheraton hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., to discuss the questions this latest cohort raises.

Christine Heckart, who has worked as an executive in Silicon Valley for more than 25 years, told the audience that younger generations want meaning, mentorship and a sense of purpose.