Young people are particularly conscious of environmental issues, and this is reflected in the criteria they prioritise when looking for a job: a quarter of those 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, 70% of young working people say they place importance on environmental credentials and policies when looking for an employer.
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% of Generation Z and 19% 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, the survey revealed.
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%) and millennials (48%) say 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% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials said they were doing so.
These young professionals 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, young working people have the overall impression that their employers are taking the seriousness of the situation into account: 59% of Generation Z and 58% of millennials feel 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.