In the study carried out by PwC, Well.HR, and Absolvent Consulting we decided to have a closer look at the expectations of the Generation Z – people who are making their first steps on the labor market right now. It was one of the first studies carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the new normal. How did those events impact the attitudes of the young people? What conclusions can be drawn for employers?

1. Young Poles on the
labor market in the
new normal
June 2020

2. PwC
New generations on the labor market
It is said that young generations, those already present
on the labor market and those who are entering it
right now, have excessive aspirations, completely
different priorities, and unrealistic expectations. A
decade ago we could hear exactly the same being said
about Millennials, now 30-year-olds, who changed the
face of the labor market. It was not a drastic change
that happened overnight - it was rather a gradual
evolution process, facilitated by negotiations between
employers and young employees.
In the study carried out by PwC, Well.HR, and
Absolvent Consulting we decided to have a closer look
at the expectations of the Generation Z – people who
are making their first steps on the labor market right
now. It was one of the first studies carried out during
the COVID-19 pandemic, in the new normal.
How did those events impact the attitudes of the
young people? What conclusions can be drawn for
employers?

3. PwC
Main conclusions
✔ 51% of respondents want a job that
is also their passion. 66% want to
have a job that matches their own
values.
✔ Things that are most important in
the first job: friendly atmosphere,
opportunities to gain professional
experience, feeling that one’s work
is meaningful.
✔ Building relationships based on
trust as well as maintaining good
employer reputation are influenced
by: pay transparency (56%) and
opinions of friends (54%).
✔ 81.5% of young Poles today
would be more likely to choose
stable and permanent
employment instead of self-
employment.
✔ Young people need authorities
- 67% of them would like to work
with a boss whom they consider
an authority figure, rather than
with a boss whom they see as a
friend.
✔ Young people focus on face-to-
face interactions with others -
61% of respondents want to
work in one team with
experienced colleagues.

4. PwC
About the study
The survey was carried out online in March and April 2020. The group of 1813 respondents included mainly students.
What is more, the vast majority of respondents was under 25 years old.
Respondents come from the
following regions:
● Warszawa 25.6%
● Kraków: 21.1%
● Poznań: 13.2%
● Katowice: 11.9%
● Wrocław:11.9%
● Gdańsk: 9.3%
● Łódź: 6.9%
Education:
• secondary: 52.7%
• higher: 46.3%
• basic vocational education
or lower: 1%
Occupation:
• studying: 41.3%
• studying and working: 38.1%
• working: 14.8%
• neither studying nor working:
5.8%
75% women 25% men
Age:
• up to 20 years old: 14.3%
• from 21 to 24 years old: 65.7%
• 25 years old and more: 19.9%

5. PwC
How would young Poles like to work?
What is most important
for the young people
today?

6. PwC
New normal - what is most important for the young people today
What do you choose?
Stable employment Self-employment
81.5% 18.5%
What do you choose?
A manager who is a
role-model
A Manager who
is a friend
67% 33%
What do you choose?
Work-life balance High income
59.5% 40,5%

7. PwC
What is most important and what is most difficult to accept at work?
What is most important at work according to you?
(select the top 5 answers)
Friendly atmosphere 50.00%
Gaining professional experience 49.40%
Feeling that your efforts are meaningful 43.20%
High income 42.50%
Work that is aligned with your interests 36.40%
Stable and secure employment 35.90%
Interesting tasks 32.90%
Flexible working hours 31.70%
Maintaining work-life balance 31.00%
Rich training package 27.20%
Working remotely 22.90%
Low stress level 21.70%
Work adequate to skills 16.70%
Working with new technologies 15.90%
International work environment 10.30%
Teamwork 9.50%
Ability to make your own independent decisions 9.40%
Working in a young team 5.80%
Quick promotion 5.70%
Polish capital 1.90%
What would you find difficult to accept at work?
Lack of career opportunities 53.1%
Salary that does not match your expectations 51.7%
Conflicts within the team 49.4%
High level of stress 47.8%
Lack of promotion opportunities 34.0%
Repeatable, boring tasks 29.3%
Manager that can't teach you anything 29.2%
Long commute to work 24.6%
Overtime 13.8%
Lack of independence 9.6%
Non-flexible working hours 9.6%
Frequent business trips 6.4%
Lack of remote working 6.4%

8. PwC
Professional aspirations
of the young generation

9. PwC
Professional aspirations of the young Poles - types of contracts
The majority of young people is looking
for a permanent employment contract.
The importance of this form of
employment increases with age - almost
84% of people aged 25+ prefer
permanent employment contract, while
only 55% of people up to 20 years old opt
for it.
Younger respondents are more flexible
when it comes to the preferred type of
employment - 20% of people aged 21-24
declared that they have no preference in
this matter, while around 13% of them
would choose contract of
mandate/contract of specific work.
Preferred employment type
B22 No preference Permanent employment Contract of mandate/
contract Contract of specific work
up to 20 years old
from 21 to 24 years old
25 years and more

10. PwC
Professional aspirations of the young Poles - salary
Salary evokes the strongest emotions among both the employers and young employees. Therefore we asked what net salary would be
acceptable for the young people in order to consider a job offer.
• The median of all the expectations was around 4000 PLN net.
• Both men and women declared similar expected salaries. Students of art, humanities, and social sciences have the lowest financial
expectations – around 3600-3800 PLN.
• Students and graduates of economics, science, and technology expect around 4000 PLN.
• Students and graduates of medical, biological and natural sciences have the highest financial expectations - around 4500 - 4600
PLN.
What salary would you be willing to accept (full-time, net)?
Arts
Biological and
natural sciences
Economics Humanisties
Medical
studies
Social
Sciences
Science Technical Other
Minimum 2000.00 1800.00 1900.00 - 900.00 - - 1600.00 2000.00
Median 3600.0000 4600.0000 3950.0000 3800.0000 4500.0000 3600.0000 4000.0000 4000.0000 4150.0000

11. PwC
What grabs young people's attention when they are choosing a job?
Young Poles carefully check their future employers before
they apply for a job.
• Almost all respondents check the company's profile
and salary information, 78% of candidates also check
the information about benefits.
• 86% of respondents check opinions about the
company on the Internet, 72% visit the employer's
career website and 71% ask friends for their opinion.
What is more, 60% of survey participants check social
media profiles of their potential companies.
• Company's values, mission and vision are important
for almost 70% of respondents.
What do you check before you decide to apply for a job?
Information about the leaders and other employees
Social media profiles
Mission and vision
Company’s values
Friends opinions
Career website
Company’s address and the office
Benefits
Opinions on the Internet
Salary
Industry

12. PwC
In search of a good
employer

13. PwC
What being a "good employer" actually means for the young
people?
• Trust in the employer and perception of their brand are primarily influenced by the
transparency of salaries (56%) and opinions of friends (54%).
• According to young people, a good employer should build relationships based on
partnership, and focus on topics that are important to them from the very start. Such
topics include professional development, knowledge sharing, and support while they
are still studying at the university. Preferably, it should happen during meetings that
enable mutual interactions.
• A good employer should organize workshops at universities or in their own
headquarters (44.7%), organize online training/meetings (44.5%), support student
organizations and universities (44.3%), and participate in job fairs (43.1%).
• Subsequently, they listed brand building methods based on the standard, one-way
messages such as: promotion of the brand in the media (20%) or cooperation with
bloggers (4%).
72% of young Poles believe that
good employers should pay
attention to the onboarding
process. It is worth to describe
the onboarding process in
details on the career website,
because 1/3 of respondents
believes that the site tells a lot
about the their brand.
72%

14. PwC
Benefits that are most important for young people
How employers can stand out on the
market?
• Remote work - most valued by the science
students.
• Co-financing of the cultural activities - important
for humanities students as well as for the
biological and natural sciences students.
• Private healthcare - crucial for art students.
• Flexible working hours - most important for
technology students.
• Opportunity to participate in trainings – key for
the science students.
Young employees who are just entering the labor market
as well as their more experienced colleagues appreciate
such non-salary benefits as:
● Access to trainings - important for around a half of the
respondents.
● 41% selected health insurance, 30% expect private
medical care.
● The opportunity to work remotely is important to 31%
of survey participants.
● Flexible working hours are valued by 37% of
respondents.

15. PwC
Conclusions - expert's
commentary

16. PwC
Dorota Dębińska-Pokorska
PwC Partner, responsible for
People & Change services
The new reality we live in right now poses new challenges for employers. How
to ensure the effectiveness of teams when some employees work remotely?
How to accommodate to different attitudes that employees may have towards
sanitary recommendations? How to motivate and how to evaluate teams?
It will be impossible to find answers to these questions without regular pulse-
check surveys and new technologies. PwC and our clients use the M.A.I.A.
application. Thanks to the elements of Artificial Intelligence the tool can
analyze employees’ answers, examine trends, uncover hidden dependencies
and give pragmatic advice to managers on how to build and maintain
employee involvement. Frequent measurements make it is possible to collect
large amounts of data, and therefore to understand employees’ expectations
and behavior in a better way.
Examining the attitudes of the youngest generation makes all the more sense
at the moment. When they will gain more experience, they will probably also
change their minds about many issues. Capturing their opinion right now
ensures that the present team management processes is effective.
”

17. PwC
Tina Sobocińska
Director of the Human Capital
team at PwC
Before the Generation Z changes the labor market, employers will need to go
through a revolution that began with the outbreak of the global pandemic. In
many companies it accelerated the pace of expected changes such as: widespread
access to remote work, agile adaptation to new conditions, inevitable automation,
and changes in the way leaders think.
Generation Z is open to values and community building activities. They would
rather "be”, than "have” - ensuring that the transparency and fairness of
remuneration and benefits are provided. Young people are looking for leaders
who can show them the meaning and significance of their work, but also who can
build teams based on cooperation and knowledge exchange.
The report shows what else can be done by employers in order to proactively
prepare for the "new normal". One more question is worth asking here: Will we
face another war for talent or will it rather be a cooperation between employers
aimed to strengthen the competencies of the entire young generation? Gen Zs
will choose companies which want to make the biggest positive impact and by
those who attract all generations thanks to their mission and vision.
”

18. PwC
Joanna Kotzian
Co-founder of Well.HR,
Strategic Wellbeing
Advisor
The new generation entering the labor market appreciates transparency and the
attitude of laying all the cards openly on the table. We are dealing with a
generation of skeptics that check the employer at every step.
In particular, they value open communication regarding salaries, clearly defined
principles of cooperation and opportiunities for development. Contrary to popular
beliefs, Gen Zs are not looking for a boss who will be their friend, but would
rather work with a boss who will become their professional role-model. They
consider frequent feedback as an opportunity for development. They appreciate
age diversity in the organization, because they know that they can learn a lot from
their more experienced colleagues. They also value team support and work-life
balance, and they do not want to work in an excessively stressful environment.
The experience of global pandemic impacted Gen Zs as well. They began to value
security and stable employment. They also plan to stay in one company for a
longer period of time. They are looking closely into the company’s values. They
will be interested in those organizations which act on these values not only during
the time of economic growth, but also when the situation becomes more difficult.
”

19. PwC
Joanna Tonkowicz
Managing Partner at Absolvent
Consulting, EB and HR
Strategist
We live in a time of cultural and business transformations - it is a fact. The ability
to quickly learn new things and unlearn old habits of work and cooperation are
now the key competencies of the future. Especially in connection to technology
which optimizes and improves time and cost efficiency. The young generation will
be perfectly adjusted to such environment.
Generation Z’s expectations towards employers are also changing. Maintaining
the sense of security, respect and appreciation at work should be defined along
with those expectations, because young people want their values and beliefs to
be a part of the organizational culture at their workplace. Gen Zs and Millennials
claim that joy, life and health are the real goals, it is no longer the work itself.
COVID-19, the impending ecological disaster and the increasingly frequent stress-
related illnesses strenghten those beliefs even more. Is it possible to build a
business in such conditions? Yes. Secure industries, and leaders who are not
afraid to make bold, agile decisions, while taking the human aspect into
consideration will be valued the most. What about the preferences of the present
labor market? It's hard to say if they are the same, the next year will verify it.
”

20. PwC
Contacts
Tina Sobocińska
Director of the Human Capital team
at PwC Polska
tina.sobocinska@pwc.com
Dorota Dębińska-Pokorska
Partner at PwC Polska
dorota.debinska-pokorska@pwc.com
Joanna Tonkowicz
Managing partner at Absolvent Consulting
joanna.tonkowicz@absolventconsulting.pl
Joanna Kotzian
Co-founder of Well.HR
joanna.kotzian@well.hr