Welcome to The People Insider — a weekly brief for anyone who employs people in South Africa.

Every Wednesday: one headline, one tool, one leadership story, one stat and one question. Under five minutes. No fluff. Let's get into it.

Remember 10-12 years ago when the media loved bashing millennials at work all the time? Yeah, we’re super glad Gen Z came in to take the flak today, allowing millennials to move in and virtually take over the modern workplace.

Millennials now make up 45% of the South African workforce; more than Gen X and Boomers combined. Yet over 70% of them plan to leave their current employer within five years and fewer than 30% are actually engaged at work.

So when you bumped salaries in March, there’s a reason it didn’t move the retention needle…

The SA data is in

A new local study on millennial reward expectations in South Africa looked at millennial professionals working inside the country and what they actually want from work. The big surprise: Pay matters, but not as much as it used to.

One participant put it bluntly: "Many people would probably say they're not here for the money, but of course, you are here for the money… Looking at what you are paid will give you an indication that you are valued."

But 5 clear themes emerged that seem to be equally important to why South Africans stay or go…

What millennials are actually measuring you on

The five things, in the order they ranked: 

The hard part: If you miss these, people don't always quit out loud. Globally, 59% of employees are quiet quitting (still showing up, contributing the minimum). In SA, 27% of working adults now have a side hustle, rising to 43% in mid-to-top income households. 

Your best people may already be running a second business.

How does SA measure up?

Generally, not well. 60% of SA employers are reversing remote work policies, right as petrol hits R22.49 a litre at the coast. Hybrid isn't a lifestyle perk; it's a stealth salary increase you're quietly taking away. Meanwhile, 71% of SA employees are disengaged and 36% report daily stress, suggesting most corporate wellness programmes aren't landing.

Some companies get it, and they’ll reap the rewards.

For everyone else, now’s the time to take note that replacing a senior employee in SA costs 90-200% of annual salary, and 63.5% of terminated senior managers in SA had over 5 years of service. That's institutional knowledge walking out with a cardboard box.

Knowing how to make them stay is a moat. If you don’t have it yet, get one.

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 dropped last week. The alarm is loudest where most boards aren't looking: the middle of the org chart.

Manager engagement fell five points in a single year: from 27% to 22%. Since 2022, it's dropped nine points in total. The "engagement premium" managers used to enjoy over their teams has essentially vanished as they now report stress at 45%, higher than individual contributors.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 20% of employees are engaged, below the 21% global average. The global cost of all this checked-out work: roughly $10 trillion, or 9% of GDP.

The question worth sitting with: When did you last ask your managers how they're doing, not just their teams?

R12,000

is the estimated annual cost of a single disengaged employee to a South African business, per Harvard Business Review analysis cited in a 2025 study on SA workplace motivation. Multiply by your headcount, and the number gets uncomfortable fast. For a 200-person business carrying even average SA disengagement levels, you're looking at more than a million rand a year walking out the door quietly; no resignations, no exit interviews, no line item on the P&L.

Source: IntechOpen, Future of Employee Workplace Engagement and Motivation in South Africa

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