Gen Z: 30% of the workforce in five years’ time
Law firms need to start adapting to the concerns and motivations of ‘Gen Z’ as they begin to enter the workplace, an International Bar Association (IBA) report has warned.
By 2030, Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) will account for more than 30% of the working population and the report, commissioned to answer the question of whether this generation was losing interest in legal careers, found no sign that it was.
However, “employers wanting their pick of the best lawyers will need to be conscious of the concerns and motivations of this generational cohort”.
The report, Is the law still an attractive career for Gen Z, explained: “Gen Z will not be bullied or tolerate harassment to the same degree as previous generations. They want interesting and challenging work but not at the expense of the rest of their lives.
“Although they may come into the workforce better qualified on paper than their predecessors, they will all have missed out on important formative social interactions because of Covid-19 and the toxic effects of social media, which stunts attention spans.
“They may well need more support, especially in the early years of their careers, to find their way effectively into a world of work. The legal sector will quickly need to get better at supervision and mentoring.”
The report was commissioned by the IBA’s Future of Legal Services Commission and written by UK-based legal consultancy Hook Tangaza. It draws on data from 28 jurisdictions, including England and Wales, which between them account for half of the world’s population.
It found no statistical evidence of any fall-off in the relative attraction of law as a subject of study. “Over the past decade, law has consistently attracted between 0.5% and 2.5% of 18-25-year-old population cohorts. These proportions vary by country but are remarkably stable over time.”
It described Gen Z as a “generation of contradictions, craving both security and independence” – they wanted the freedom to be creative but with the safety net of mentoring and support from employers.
Surveys of the characteristics that Gen Z might look for in an ideal career “suggest that the legal sector should be a good match”, Hook Tangaza wrote.
But it cautioned too that Gen Z was not necessarily looking for a lifelong career: nearly two-thirds of trainee accountants surveyed worldwide, for example, expected to have multiple careers in different disciplines in future.
The financial side of a job was of course important to Gen Z but they did not want to earn more money for its own sake, “rather to ensure that their salaries are sufficient to support the lifestyles they aspire to”.
This meant that interest in high-paying, entry-level jobs “will not necessarily translate into long-term careers with the same employer”, the report went on.
“Gen Z is interested in creativity, flexibility and variety. Legal sector employers are likely to need to start thinking about how to manage a less stable workforce.
“They will need to be creative about how they allow staff to work, even potentially allowing them to build portfolios of other entrepreneurial activity alongside a mainstream career.”
Legal employers that want to stand out to Gen Z “will identify and articulate their social values”, the report went on.
“They might be members of the UN Global Compact or have signed up to some other form of environmental or sustainability commitment. However, these efforts must be authentic as Gen Z will not be fooled by greenwashing nor accept lip service being paid to diversity and inclusion initiatives.”
With purpose-driven work and careers that align with their values “important to Gen Z”, it was “less likely” than its predecessors to be influenced by the brand names of long-established firms and would instead be “more persuaded by the views of trusted networks and peer groups”.
Hook Tangaza advised: “Building a reputation as a good employer at target institutions through campus relationships looks to be one way to achieve this.”
It concluded that, to some extent, the impact of Gen Z “will merge into wider shifts in societal attitudes towards work” – it was not only new entrants to the job market who wanted to work in diverse and supportive environments, and for organisations with strong values”.
The report stressed that the significance of Gen Z went “far beyond” an HR issue: “Because it arrives into the workplace at a time of profound change, driven by technology and changing demographics, this cohort will help to bring to the surface many of the underlying evolutionary currents shaping the legal sector and catalyse challenges to the status quo.”
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