What a generation wants: purpose and security
The contest between companies for well-educated top talent is in full swing. The skills shortage that already exists is being sharpened by a demographic shortage of young people coming through. Companies need to engage now with what the coming generation of specialists and executives expects, if they want to win them over.
The current generation of young professionals and soon-to-be graduates is marked out by a very high level of education and a strong affinity for technology. Their training and studies push them hard on analytical thinking, resilience and creativity. Solving problems with the help of up-to-date digital tools makes up a large part of that. Their feel for the internet, in all the different ways it can be put to use, will do a great deal to change how challenges inside a company are approached in the first place.
As an enthusiastic working student in recruitment, talking to people my own age about exactly these questions is part of my everyday life. In this first article I want to draw attention to two central points that come out of those daily conversations and out of my own views. Later articles will pick up further points.
Purpose
For companies it will come down to creating an environment of inspiration for the coming generation of specialists and executives, one that makes us burn for our work. Defining a clear mission and vision provides the basis for identifying with an employer. For that identification to work, the values the company actually lives have to line up with the values of our generation.
Among the things that carry weight here:
- Sustainability
- Protection of the environment and the climate
- Diversity
- Equal opportunity
Companies that do not give these values enough weight should not be surprised in future when passionate commitment to the company's goals starts to fall away. We want work in which we can take responsibility for these values together with our company. We want to be proud of being part of something that strengthens them instead of disregarding them.
It is not only values that matter, though, but the basic purpose of our job. If our work is not going to save the environment or improve society, we at least want to be part of a company whose reason for existing is not limited to making its shareholders richer. If the main reason for our overtime is the eagerly awaited full leather interior of a new Porsche, my advice would be to disguise that rather well.
Financial security
Our generation is also marked by a high standard of living and high spending. There is no sign of any great willingness to scale that back. And yet an entire generation is at risk of poverty in old age.
Young adults do well to think about their financial situation in retirement now. Given current demographic trends, it is doubtful whether the solidarity-based pension system will offer enough protection. We know interest on a bank account only from our parents' tall tales. Retirement provision therefore has to be taken in hand personally. The money for it has to be there at the end of the month, after rising living and consumption costs and after allowing for the things people want to finance in life: starting a family, buying a home, going on holiday.
That will show up as an expectation of high salaries. Financial stability and the ability to plan should not be something you first have to climb a career ladder for twenty years to reach. Ideally it is a permanent state from the moment you enter working life.
Finally, any debts incurred during training or study have to be paid off. One in three people finishes their degree in debt.