Managing a Gen Z workforce is a leading worry for professional service chief executives, as fresh data revealed they lack the confidence in handling the younger employees.
Only 38 per cent of chief executives are ‘very confident’ in tackling the demands from their Gen Z workforce on wanting more pay, according to a new report exclusively shared with City AM by The PHA Group.
The report honed in on what keeps bosses awake at night, which was answered by 150 chief executives of professional services business in the UK, across legal, insurance, and accounting and finance firms.
The Gen Z workforce is noted to be the lowest confidence level across all risk factors and threats for the firm leaders.
Less than a third of chief executives have a crisis communications plan in place to navigate a Gen Z workforce demanding more pay and workplace benefits.
Pay is not a unique issue for the younger generation, but the workplace benefits play a huge factor.
According to Hayes 2024 salary and recruiting trends report, professionals under the age of 30 believe the important factors to help attract job-seekers to a role are job security (66 per cent), an engaging and supportive team culture (60 per cent), tailored flexible working policies (50 per cent).
As well as a clear commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) (42 per cent) and an organisation’s trajectory and growth (38 per cent).
That report, which was quoted, noted that the majority of young professionals are also keen to work for an organisation with a strong sense of purpose, where their values will align.
Tough times ahead for CEOs
It’s not all doom and gloom, the report highlighted eight in 10 chief executives are confident about navigating the next 12 months, while seven in 10 business leaders feel that they are prepared to manage the macro-threats facing their businesses.
However, when the issues are boiled down, the confidence starts to shrink.
Whistleblowing continues to challenge corporate transparency and ethics, as well as climate change demand for sustainable business practices.
Almost half (48 per cent) of top firms are worried that the climate crisis will impact their business.
Despite that concerns, only 17 per cent reported to be investing in sustainability initiatives in the next 12 months to reduce their company’s carbon footprint.
“In the immediate term, navigating the climate crisis is being knocked down the priority list in favour of delivering financial shareholder returns,” the report noted.
Not surprising, the data shows cyber is still a headache for leaders of professional firms.
Less than half (43 per cent) of the leaders were very confident in their businesses’ ability to navigate the threat of deepfakes or malicious AI content that could cause reputational and commercial harm over the next 12 months.
But contradicting this concern is the 34 per cent that said they planned to reduce investment in software and technology over the next year, more than any other investment area.
Commenting on the findings, Stuart Skinner, managing director at The PHA Group stated that chief executives “can’t cover every challenge on their own and it’s no wonder many feel under-prepared.”