Determinants of Gen Z Employees' Job Commitment in IT Organisations in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's IT industry is fighting a retention war it doesn't fully understand. Gen Z now forms a growing share of the sector's workforce, yet employers apply retention playbooks built for previous generations — while this cohort makes career decisions under conditions no prior generation faced: post-crisis inflation, currency volatility, and a global remote-work market that prices their skills in foreign currency.

This study tested four hypothesized determinants of Gen Z job commitment — inflation and purchasing power, financial literacy, technological advancements, and employers' social responsibility — through a quantitative survey of 386 Gen Z employees drawn from major Sri Lankan IT organizations in the Colombo District, including WSO2, IFS R&D, Knovik, and Prime One Global.

Analysis was conducted in SPSS using reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and chi-square hypothesis testing across all four independent variables, producing a ranked view of which determinants most strongly predict commitment — and therefore where retention investment actually pays off. Employer social responsibility emerged as the strongest predictor of job commitment (r = 0.52), while financial literacy showed no significant relationship.

Beyond the academic contribution, the findings translate directly into HR strategy: the study produced prioritized, determinant-specific recommendations for IT employers competing for Gen Z talent in a market where replacement costs for skilled engineers run 90–200% of annual salary.