Social Demands From World’s Future Workforce

Socially conscious millennials are demanding a business sector that addresses society’s challenges and embraces ethical operations, new global research suggests.

Data company Deloitte’s third annual Millennial Survey reveals that the world’s future workforce believes the success of a business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance, with a focus on improving society among the top priorities, while half of millennials want to work for a business with ethical practices.

And while most millennials (74 per cent) also believe business is having a positive impact on society by generating jobs (48 per cent) and increasing prosperity (71 percent), they also flag that business can do much more to address society’s challenges including resource scarcity (68 per cent), climate change (65 per cent) and income equality (64 per cent).

Also referred to as Generation Y and born January 1983 onwards, millennials are expected to make up 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025.

According to the research, millennials are characterised by their charitability and interest in public participation. Some 63 per cent of Millennials donate to charities, 43 per cent actively volunteer or are a member of a community organisation, and 52 per cent have signed petitions.

“To attract and retain talent business needs to show Millennials it is innovative and in tune with their world view,” Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited said.  

“Our society – globally – faces many critical issues and it has become clear no sector should ‘go it alone.’ By working together and combining their different skills, business, governments and non-government organisations (NGOs) have an opportunity to reignite the Millennial generation and make real progress in solving society’s problems.”

The survey included nearly 7,800 Millennials from 28 countries across Western Europe, North America, Latin America, BRICS and Asia-Pacific.

Other key findings included:

• Millennials want to work for organisations that support innovation. 78 per cent of Millennials are influenced by how innovative a company is when deciding if they want to work there.

• Organisations must nurture emerging leaders. Over one in four Millennials are ‘asking for a chance’ to show their leadership skills. Additionally, 75 percent believe their organisations could do more to develop future leaders.

• Across the globe, 70 percent of tomorrow’s future leaders might ‘reject’ what business as traditionally organised has to offer, preferring to work independently through digital means in the future.

• Government is not doing enough. Almost half feel governments are having a negative impact on areas identified as among the top challenges: unemployment (47 percent), resource scarcity (43 percent), and income inequality (56 percent).

Read the full report here.