NEW YORK, May 20 — Often said to be less committed but more demanding, young workers don’t have the same professional aspirations as their elders. They are far more attentive than their predecessors to their employer’s environmental impact. And, according to a new survey, they don’t hesitate to look elsewhere if they’re not satisfied.

Young people are particularly conscious of environmental issues. This is reflected in the criteria they prioritise when looking for a job. A quarter of the Generation Z and Millennials polled in the latest edition of Deloitte’s "Gen Z and Millennial Survey” said they had already researched a company’s environmental impact and policies before applying for a job. More generally, some 70 per cent of young working people say they place importance on environmental credentials and policies when looking for an employer.

In this sense, they have a much more proactive attitude than their elders. They also differ from their elders in their desire to be useful to society. For young people, working in a profession that goes against their value system is out of the question. That’s why 20 per cent of Generation Z and 19 per cent of Millennials have already decided to change their job or sector of activity because of environmental concerns. Others plan to do so in the future to avoid a potential conflict of environmental ethics at work.

While some young people change jobs to be more in line with their personal convictions, others prefer to act from within. Nearly half of Generation Z (54 per cent) and Millennials (48 per cent) say that they and their colleagues are pressuring their employer to take action on climate change and its impacts. This trend has been growing steadily since 2022: at the time, 48 per cent of Gen Z and 43 per cent of Millennials said they were doing so.

Steps in the right direction

The young professionals surveyed by Deloitte are not short of ideas on how their employers could take concrete action to help fight climate change. They would, for example, like employers to offer workers training to help them adopt more ecological behaviours in their daily lives, or to rethink their offices in line with climate issues.

The expectations placed on companies by the younger generation to take positive action on climate change are commensurate with the urgency we face. While efforts are still needed on the part of senior management, the young working people surveyed have the overall impression that their employers are taking the seriousness of the situation into account. In fact, 59 per cent of Generation Z and 58 per cent of Millennials feel that their employers are taking steps to address climate change.

*The 2024 edition of the Deloitte "Gen Z and Millennial Survey” polled 14,468 members of Generation Z and 8,373 Millennials (22,841 respondents in total), from 44 countries. The survey was carried out via online questionnaires, which participants were asked to complete themselves. — ETX Studio