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Make leadership attractive again for young talent
If organisations want employees to step up into management positions, they must start by building a culture of psychological safety.
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Amid a tight labour market and widespread layoffs, the employment situation for today’s young workers is much more precarious than that of previous generations.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PIXABAY
Henrik Bresman
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The first decade of an employee’s career path used to be relatively straightforward: Enter a company as an individual contributor and gradually work your way up to a managerial position. But as recent research reveals, climbing the traditional corporate ladder is no longer the default – or necessarily desired – path for many young workers.
The research, published by recruitment firm Robert Walters in September 2024, suggests a growing disdain for people management and disillusionment with mid-level management roles among Gen Z professionals. According to the poll, 72 per cent of those surveyed favoured an individual route to career progression over managing others, while more than half did not harbour middle-management ambitions. Additionally, 69 per cent perceived mid-level management roles as being high stress and low reward.
