4 of 4. Work expectations: career happiness is the priority

13 July 2021

More than any other generation, Gen Z’s  believe that career happiness is fundamental to future success. Indeed, when asked to define a successful life, ‘being happy in my career’ was the top answer out of 21 choices, ahead of ‘having really good friends’ and ‘owning my own home’.

They are desperate to grow and thrive, and greatly value skills and training opportunities.

The assumption that brands get respect by associating themselves with culturally cool things does not hold as true for Gen Z as it does for older groups.

BAE SYSTEMS recently teamed up with Fuel Change, a platform to help create a low carbon environment, to challenge young people in Scotland to help lower the carbon footprint of its shipyards in Glasgow. As part of Fuel Change Challenge 2, the business is asking teams of apprentices to develop innovative yet practical ways to upgrade its buildings to lower its carbon footprint and benefit communities.

While our own work for Sky’s graduate recruitment team, saw the business dial into direct insights from the people they were previously struggling to recruit.  Doing so enabled more relevant engagement and raised awareness of their diversity commitment – increasing graduate applications +60%.

Today’s emerging talent are more career-savvy than any generation before them.  With that comes deep exploration of questions such as ‘will I be happy working at this company?’.  Conveying how and why they will find career happiness with your organisation has never been more critical.