Salary, obligations, telecommuting… expectations of young graduates from their first job

After the waves of Covid and growing concerns about the environment or purchasing power… here are the big expectations young graduates have for their future employer and manager.

Searching for meaning…

After the health crisis and the promotion of professions or useful companies against Covid or protecting the environment, more than half of young people believe that they are more looking for meaning and commitment within their studies or their professional lives. (56%). 1/3 believe that environmental protection is a priority topic in the commitment of companies, and this percentage is increasing compared to 2021. 13% would like to participate more deeply in the company by purchasing shares.

…but above all professional implementation

40% say that one of the main roles of a company in 2022 is to provide its employees with the means to thrive professionally (compared to 34% in 2021), and 38% say to be useful to society. Two-thirds of working young people want to be able to free up time to fulfill obligations while earning wages (67%), especially for young people aged 21-24 (71%).

In terms of management, 31% of the young people surveyed expect their manager to create a comfortable working environment and recognize the work done (30%). For 37% of the young people surveyed, the idea that they are bored at work and are not interested in their work is alarming. While 29% of young people note a lack of confidence and autonomy on the part of their manager, more than one in three young people regret that the company does not take into account the voice of employees (34%).

Salary remains an important criterion

For 51% of the young people surveyed, the main role of the company is to create jobs and hire employees, which is slightly lower than in 2021 (57%) … before becoming useful to society or foreseeing the social and environmental transformation of society. For 17% of them, the company must also provide access to financial autonomy. As in 2021, young people expect from their work, first of all, a good salary (43%), as well as an interesting occupation (32%). At the same time, for almost half of young people (46%), the thought of not earning enough is a source of concern, and money is the reason for a successful life for 21% of them (25% among men).

Regarding working conditions and telecommuting, the main element of office life in recent years: 44% would like to take advantage of this (and 63% of young people with a diploma equal to or greater than bac +3), and only 13% of young people would like to have, for example, the ability to work in a flexible office (sharing unallocated offices).

The ideal employer is a local company!

Local business remains the ideal business model for the relative majority of young people, ahead of social and solidarity economy businesses and start-ups. There seems to be one element to this new wave of survey: the need for young people to be grounded, calm and stable in their professional lives and in life in general. This demand for more roots is illustrated, for example, by the fact that almost 40% of them (37%) dream of joining a local business (which here should be understood as a business connected to its territory, as opposed to a “ground” company). ), well ahead of startups (23%) and CAC 40 companies (14%).

The health crisis leads to a need for more stability stability at home: for example, 30% of young people imagine themselves as long as possible in one company (2 points more than in 2021), compared to 20% who rather imagine changing the company several times. once.