The Centrepoint

Generation Next: Deloitte’s Insights into the Attitudes Shaping the Future of Work

In this issue of the centrepoint we discuss Deloitte's 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey and what it means for you and your business or career.
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“The best time to embrace Purpose was yesterday. The second best time is today.”

—Jon Duschinsky

 

Key Insight: Purpose-driven businesses have a clear competitive advantage over traditional business models.

Food for Thought: 

Check out Deloitte’s full report here.

In this issue of the centrepoint, we discuss Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey and what it means for you and your business or career. 

Disruption.

It’s a buzzword that for some businesses is their reason for being. The products and services they sell seek to unseat incumbents with challenger offerings that undermine the competition.

The word can also strike fear in the hearts of many an established C-Suite executive because it represents an existential threat to their firms and their careers.

Yes, getting blindsided by an upstart threatening to eat your lunch has been a reality of the marketplace from time immemorial.

But never as much as today, with AI and other disruptive technologies reaching critical mass.

And it doesn’t stop there. Disruption can take many forms. Sometimes it can emerge from the characteristics and values of a new generation of team-members.

Employers are facing increasing expectations from Gen Z and Millennials, which is tilting the playing field toward a more committed, productive, and adaptable workforce ready for a world that is changing fast.

That’s because great numbers of Millennials and Gen Zs seek employment that is driven by a Higher Purpose, and they are not afraid to decline jobs that don’t fit with their ideals, or leave jobs where companies are not walking the talk.

The experts at Deloitte have taken perhaps the deepest dive ever into the trends of an emerging workforce. For 13 years its Gen Z and Millennial Survey has monitored the attitudes and trends influencing these generations. Elections, pandemics, and worldwide crises have all been tracked in the survey participants’ lives and occupations.

Deloitte’s study tracked 22,841 people from 44 countries—including North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific—who were questioned for Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey. The respondents included secondary school pupils, gig economy workers, executives, and students. While millennials were born between 1983 and 1994, Gen Z respondents were born between 1995 and 2005.

The upshot?

You can be sure that Generation Z and millennials will demand that companies are socially and environmentally responsible and expect them to have a positive impact on the world’s pressing problems. Additionally, they seek flexible work schedules, supportive work environments, opportunities for career growth, and competitive pay and benefits.

This is a highly disruptive trend for businesses who cling to old, top-down leadership models and business models that are all about the almighty dollar. BUT it represents a major opportunity for those who lean into the new cultural norms.

The massive upside to this generational disruption is that purpose-driven employees are more likely to perform at their best, be more inventive, creative, and passionate, and stick with the company longer when they arrive at work feeling that they’re not just contributing to something that matters to their superiors – but also to something that matters to them on an emotional and spiritual level.

Deloitte’s survey clearly demonstrates that companies hiring today need to embrace Purpose in order to have a workforce that is adaptable, productive, engaged, and happy. Furthermore, a comparable proportion (26%) of Gen Z and 32% of millennials report that their top leaders don’t discuss how important mental health is to their companies. This represents another opening for companies willing to invest in their employees’ well-being.

For both Gen Z and millennials, environmental sustainability is still a major worry; in the last month, 62% of Gen Zers and 59% of millennials reported feeling nervous or concerned about climate change. Both generations actively work to reduce their environmental impact. They urge businesses to support consumers in making more sustainable decisions and for governments to press companies to take greater climate action.

And the employment choices and purchasing habits of millennials and Gen Zs show this. In order to better match their employment with their environmental beliefs, two out of every ten Gen Zers and millennials have already changed careers or industries, and a further quarter of both cohorts plan to do so in the future. In addition, they actively investigate the environmental policies of the businesses they do business with and are prepared to pay a premium for sustainable goods.

While many may curse under their breath about this massive cultural shift, the astute among us will see Purpose as an engine that can bring a competitive advantage – one that just might decide who wins and loses in the coming years.

A feeling of purpose, according to the majority of Gen Zers (86%) and millennials (89%) is crucial to their general job happiness and well-being. Furthermore, the willingness of these generations to turn off jobs or employers that don’t share their ideals is growing.

In order to reap the most from their human capital, the smart leaders are listening.

Are you ready to ride this wave of disruption and make it work for you? We here at centrepoint have the expertise, trainings, and experience to provide clarity of purpose to businesses, executives, team leaders, right down to the rank-and-file. It’s what we do.

Drop me a line at jon@jonduschinsky.com.

Or, book an appointment here. 

I connect people with purpose. 

My purpose is to help organizations and leaders find their centrepoint — their purpose — and through the clarity and energy that this unleashes, create more meaningful relationships and more impact on the things they truly care about. Purpose is where capitalism meets sustainability. And pretty soon, it will be the only way to do business.

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