Young professionals seek more flexibility, overseas opportunities

Millennials, the keenly watched new-generation professionals, seek more workplace flexibility, better work-life balance, and overseas assignment opportunities, a global, two-year study commissioned by PricewaterhouseCoopers has found.

More than 44,000 PwC members of staff – 25 per cent of whom born between 1980 and 1995 – were interviewed for PwC’s Next Gen: A Global Generational Study, carried out with the University of Southern California and the London Business School. The project is being touted by the network of professional service firms as “the largest, most comprehensive study conducted into the attitudes and behaviours of Generation Y”.

The study found that, given the opportunity, 64 per cent of millennials (and 66 per cent of non-millennials) sought to work from home, while 66 per cent (64 per cent non-millennials) wanted the option to occasionally shift their work hours.

In stark contrast to previous generations, young professionals are no longer willing to put in as many hours beyond a 40-hour week to advance to higher paid posts: 71 per cent said their work demands significantly interfered with their personal lives.

Meanwhile, more than one-third of millennials sought international opportunities as part of their job description.

Despite these seemingly ambitious demands along their career paths, millennials do not appear to have a sense of entitlement – respondents in this age bracket said they did not deserve special treatment and were equally committed to their organisations as non-millennials.

PwC is to use this insight into millennials’ attitudes as a guide to making cultural and structural changes in how its people are managed, promoted and compensated. By 2016, almost 80 per cent of its entire workforce will be made up of millennials.