Organisations face a profound shift in the expectations of those they seek to recruit and retain. The 18 to 35 age group is redefining the conditions under which it is prepared to commit professionally: purpose, autonomy, flexibility, alignment with personal values. Understanding these expectations means giving yourself the means to respond to them concretely and to build an organisation in which employees genuinely want to invest and remain.

A Generation That Demands Choice and Meaning

A Drive for Autonomy Accelerated by the Health Crisis

The 18 to 35 generation intends to exercise its freedom of choice to the full, including in its professional life. Thomas Golovodas and journalist Mathias Thépot put it plainly: "For our generation, everything is a matter of choice. We are free to choose: our lives, our privacy, our work, our convictions. (…) If our society takes a direction, it is because we accept it. We are accountable for it."

This claim to autonomy does not imply disengagement from work. It is accompanied by a strong demand for purpose: not investing effort for weak returns, finding a role that matters, practising a profession aligned with one's own values. The health crisis amplified these aspirations, acting as a catalyst: time is precious, and work must earn it. New generations want to do work they genuinely enjoy, in good conditions, with flexibility, fewer constraints and responsibilities that carry meaning.

Professional Mobility as the New Normal

It is now rare to see employees spend their entire professional lives within the same organisation. French workers remain with the same employer for an average of ten years, placing them around the European average. For new generations, even this duration can feel long.

This mobility is clearly visible in the workplace. The managing director of Proman observes it within his own staffing company: more and more agency workers, permanent staff and employees alike are "moving on, leaving to change careers entirely." The transformation of society and the evolution of approaches to education have profoundly changed the relationship with work. Changing company, or even sector, is no longer experienced as a risk but as a natural form of progression.

Figures That Reflect a Deeper Shift

An Unprecedented Wave of Contract Terminations

This change in attitude is reflected in concrete data. Several movements have emerged to denounce working conditions deemed unacceptable, from social media testimonials to more organised movements such as the anti-work movement. These social signals are accompanied by significant statistics.

According to the DARES (Directorate for the Animation of Research, Studies and Statistics), the level of resignations in France was 19.4% higher in July 2021 than in 2019 for permanent contracts. For fixed-term contracts, early terminations exceeded the level observed two years earlier by 25.8%. These figures reflect a structural trend, not a passing phenomenon.

Talent Recruitment: The Top Concern for Business Leaders

This reality weighs directly on organisations. According to a study by Deloitte, 73% of business leaders consider the difficulty of recruiting the best talent to be the primary threat to their organisation. Faced with employees who no longer hesitate to leave and a generation that sets its own terms of engagement, organisations must rethink their employer value proposition.

What 18 to 25 Year Olds Actually Expect

Work Aligned with Their Values

The new generation is not simply looking for a job: it is looking for purpose. Julien Fanon, Executive Director of Talent and Organisation at consulting group Accenture, observes: "There is a growing concern among young people to find, in their work, a mission that responds to societal issues."

The figures confirm this orientation: 78% of 18 to 25 year olds state that they will not accept a job that no longer holds meaning for them. The mission, the company's values and the impact of its activities have become selection criteria on a par with remuneration or prospects for advancement.

The Strengths and Barriers They Identify Themselves

Young people aged 18 to 25 have a clear-eyed reading of what facilitates or hinders their access to employment. They identify three main assets for being recruited: personality and academic qualifications, professional experience, and the coherence of their career path. Criteria that reveal a generation that is aware of what it brings and attentive to how it presents itself.

On the barriers side, three obstacles recur: lack of experience, discrimination based on gender, disability, sexual orientation or religious affiliation, and a lack of professional networks combined with competition between candidates and the economic situation of companies. This candid assessment of entry barriers reflects a generation that analyses its market from the inside.

Adapting to Attract and Retain These New Generations

Working Conditions That Have Become Baseline Expectations

To meet the expectations of new generations, organisations have several levers at their disposal. Collaborative tools, hybrid working, the four-day week and work-life balance are no longer differentiating advantages: they have become baseline requirements. Organisations that do not integrate them into their employer offering face growing difficulty in attracting and retaining the profiles they need.

This adaptation is built progressively, on the basis of genuinely listening to the expectations expressed by both current employees and candidates. HR teams and managers play a structuring role here: identifying early warning signals, understanding what creates engagement and what drives people to leave.

Small Changes That Make All the Difference

It is not always a matter of radical transformation. Targeted, well-considered and well-communicated adjustments can have a significant impact on an organisation's attractiveness. Introducing a flexible working format, structuring an onboarding process that instils a sense of purpose from day one, creating regular spaces for listening: concrete developments that signal to candidates and employees alike that their relationship with work is understood and taken into account.

Understanding the expectations of new generations is not an end in itself. It is a starting point for building an organisation in which every employee genuinely wants to invest, progress and contribute to collective performance.