The New Generation Challenge: Identifying Retention Drivers and Strategic Solutions for Gen Y and Z Employees at K-Electric

Degree

Master of Business Administration Executive

Faculty / School

School of Business Studies (SBS)

Year of Award

2026

Advisor/Supervisor

Dr. Yasir Mansoor Kundi, Assistant Professor, Department of Management

Project Type

MBA Executive Research Project

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Retention, Employees, Strategies

Executive Summary

Employee retention and engagement have emerged as critical challenges across Pakistan’s corporate landscape, particularly with the growing dominance of Generation Y and Z in the workforce. High turnover, rising recruitment costs, loss of institutional knowledge, and declining employee loyalty are pressing concerns. Organizations must adapt to shifting expectations, as these generations increasingly prioritize flexibility, career growth, digital enablement, inclusion, and alignment with organizational values contrasting with earlier generations that valued stability and job security.

K-Electric (KE), Pakistan’s only vertically integrated power utility, offers a compelling context for this study. With a legacy of more than 100 years and responsibility for supplying electricity to over 3.7 million customers, KE combines scale, complexity, and continuous transformation. Employing three distinct generations, the organization reflects both continuity and evolving workforce expectations, making it an ideal case to examine retention dynamics.

Our Capstone project specifically chose KE because it represents a unique organizational environment where multi-generational coexistence intersects with digital and cultural transformation. Its critical role in powering Pakistan’s economic hub makes employee retention not just a human resource concern but a strategic imperative. KE is already experiencing a 10% turnover rate among its Gen Y and Z employees, and this challenge is expected to intensify as more Gen X employees phase out, and the workforce becomes increasingly dominated by younger cohorts. This shift poses risks such as workforce instability, loss of institutional knowledge, and potential disruption to operational excellence. This study aims to identify the key factors influencing retention of Gen Y and Z employees and based on these findings, recommend strategies to strengthen engagement and ensure a sustainable, future-ready workforce.

Management Problem: 

K-Electric (KE), Pakistan’s leading player in the energy sector, is recognized as one of the most secure employers in the industry. However, despite its strong position and organizational stability, KE is currently experiencing a 10% turnover rate among its Gen Y and Gen Z employees. This challenge is expected to intensify as more Gen X employees, who traditionally value stability, exit the system, and the proportion of younger cohorts in the workforce continues to increase. With the workforce mix shifting from stability-seeking Gen X to challenge-driven Gen Y and ever-mobile Gen Z, the risks of attrition, knowledge loss, and disruption to operational excellence are becoming more pronounced.

The central question guiding this project is: What are the primary drivers of employee retention and attrition among Gen Y and Z employees at K-Electric? The insights from this study will help shape strategies to strengthen engagement and retention, enabling KE to proactively manage these challenges and build a future-ready, multi-generational workforce.

Aim & Objectives:

This project aims to identify and analyze the key factors that influence younger employees’ retention at K-Electric while benchmarking best practices across industries. Tentative objectives include

i)  Determine factors of employee retention in Gen Y and Z employees

ii) Recommend strategic interventions that are aligned to the best international practices to enhance retention

Methodology:

The project will adopt a mixed method approach in the sense that it involves both the qualitative and the quantitative methodologies which enables a better understanding of the generational workforce dynamic as well as provide statistically sounding results.

Through a combination of the data gathered via interviews and the organizational data collected using a survey, the study becomes rich in context and the results obtained can be generalized to provide concrete, data-backed, actionable recommendations and strategies

Pages

x, 45

Notes

The project is subject to NDA

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