Mazars’ Global Generation Z study

Mazars is an influential player in a talent-intensive industry and this has a fundamental implication on our business: our economic pattern is based on an ‘up-or-out’ system, which means that 20% of our workforce is being renewed each year with fresh young graduates. Therefore, our model very much depends on our ability to attract sought-after resources.

Getting to know our younger staff in-depth is a basic requirement in our business

Considering our position as influential challenger, we foster our entrepreneurial spirit through innovative and cutting-edge talent management initiatives. Already in 2013, Mazars had leveraged its vanguard organisation to study its largest population at the time: the Generation Y, of which some were already even Partners within the firm. Mazars had decided to launch its very own global study amongst its ‘GenY’ population to understand their hopes & needs for the future, providing us with valuable data that helped streamline our strategic HR orientations and transform our organisation (modernising our workplace, promoting new management styles, revamping our performance review processes and learning & development strategies…). Today, this same Generation Y population occupies the majority of our managerial positions.

For the past two years, our youngest recruits now belong to the next generation, that is the Generation Z. This population was born in 1995 or after, and they will soon make up for a huge part of the global workforce. So, based on the success of our 2013 global study, Mazars conducted at the end of 2018 an internal worldwide survey among the so called ‘GenZ’ to get to know them better, instead of relying on general assumptions portrayed in the wider media.

Our GenZ wants to have a say

We are very proud to have received a 60% participation rate for this comprehensive survey made up of 60 questions, collecting more than 6 000 qualitative comments thanks to the great contribution and active involvement of almost all of Mazars’ countries. Thus, our first takeaway: this generation wants to talk and they have something to say!

Our three main takeaways: 

1/ Their number one expectation is to learn further

For 70% of our respondents, working in a company means ‘Education for life’, i.e. a place where you learn and develop yourself constantly. Therefore, their number one expectation is to learn further, not only technical knowledge but also general business knowledge and management. In other words, this is a clear call for on-going feedback, coaching and experiential learning. 

2/ Their career is a top priority

The results of the survey confirm that long careers in the same company are over. Moreover, despite having grown up in an environment where everybody seems to say that only work-life balance matters, our GenZ staff members appear quite conventional as 3/4 of them have a clear defined career plan in mind.

3/ Less forward-looking than their predecessors

Although our GenZ “Mazarians” stand at the early stages of their career, they appear more risk adverse and more focused on the present, than their predecessors, namely members of the GenY. For example, only 59% see themselves as innovators (vs. 75% of GenY).