Half of young graduates from business and engineering schools do not dream of working in a company.
The company no longer makes young graduates dream and managers say they are ready to change things,
franceinfo: This is the surprising result of two studies carried out by Ifop and the Bona Fidé institute, explain to us?
Sarah Lemoine: On the one hand, 470 young graduates from engineering and business schools interviewed; on the other, 500 directors and managers, et a common question: what is your perception of the company in 2030? Well, that’s annoying.
Because only 54% of young graduates dream of business, that’s a very small majority. In detail, they maintain a very good opinion of SMEs, a little less of large private companies and 60% reject multinationals.
Permanent employment, no thanks!
It’s a real paradigm shift. 87% of these young graduates do not plan to pursue a career in the same company. Among them, a third want to change employers regularly. A third prefer to alternate statuses and professions, and a handful plan solely on freelancing and business creation.
Behind all this, it is the relationship with work that is disrupted. 92% of respondents say that the success of their personal life is more important than their professional life. A large majority choose free time over money, especially young women from engineering schools.
What they dream of is more autonomy, the extension of teleworking, the 4-day week and extra-financial indicators. They are moderately optimistic about companies’ capacity for change. And they judge great leaders harshly: according to them, they understand neither the world, nor the climate emergency, nor the social and environmental impacts of their activities.
Yet do leaders seem ready to change?
Almost all of the managers say that their company will have changed a lot by 2030. They affirm that the strongest impact is the new relationship with young people at work, the difficulties of recruitment and retention.
Whether it is lucidity or pragmatism, more than 70% want the extension of teleworking and the 4-day week. Finally, they place improving the quality of life at work, and increasing salaries, at the top of their priority. The whole question is whether they will move from words to action. Knowing that managers, who are on the front line, express much more resistance.