Much has been said about the quest for meaning that employees need today at work, the need to feel useful or even the search for a better balance between professional and personal life. After all, perhaps they are not so different from their elders.
Salary remains the primary source of concern for French workers in 2024, reveals a study by Randstad, a world leader in the human resources sector. This year, almost one in two employees (43%) say that remuneration that is too low compared to the cost of living remains the main reason for changing employers, just like in 2023. A reason which remains all the more important that the country has gone through months of high inflation. Two in five workers say they have not received any compensation for the price rise and among them, almost half are considering leaving their employer.
However, the reasons for changing employers vary depending on age. Young people from Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) attach less importance to remuneration: 38% of those interviewed put salary first, compared to 45% for Generation Y or Millennials (1981-1996), 42 % for generation X (1965-1980) and 41% of baby boomers (1946-1964). “GenZ employees, on the other hand, attach greater importance to the interests of their mission (24%) than other generations: this is the case for 20% of Millennials and Generation X and 16% for baby boomers,” the study says.
While teleworking has largely become established and the government has opened the subject of the four-day week, it remains important in 2024 for employees to benefit from a balance between their professional and personal lives. “This aspiration, essential to the happiness, development and health of employees, appears in third position in the top 5 criteria for choosing an employer, after salary and the quality of the working environment,” indicates the Randstad study.
Thus, 32% of employees say they could leave a company because of an imbalance between their professional and personal lives. Millennials are those who attach the most importance to it (34%). On the other hand, more than one in four employees (28%) think that their employer does not give them enough means to progress in their role. The lack of career development prospects is considered sufficient reason for resignation for more than a quarter of employees (26%).