There is a sea change happening in the business world. The next generation of leadership is stepping up, and with that they bring fresh ideas and a new way of working, writes Darren Heffernan, CEO at Trintech

This year marked the beginning of the ‘peak 65 zone’, where baby boomers are retiring en masse, leaving a vacuum in company leadership positions. This vacuum is often being filled by upcoming millennial leaders.

Today’s executives are often setting aside traditional work frameworks and actively listening to the emerging generation of business leaders. By adopting fresh approaches, organisations can tap into the innovative potential of millennial leaders, fostering sustainable growth and building a more engaged workforce for the future. Here are some ways we can create a workplace that future generations want to lead.

Value-based work

What millennial and Gen Z professionals value from work is not necessarily the same as what current leadership teams value. Instead, creativity, innovation and collaboration are key drivers for engagement and success. Flexing and understanding what makes your team tick will empower them to enjoy what they do and continue to do so as they ascend to leadership.

Regardless of seniority, each position in a company should be able to tie back to its purpose. Junior team members need to understand what purpose they are working towards as it helps contextualise why they are doing their job, especially when many junior-level tasks can feel repetitive.

Learning about the importance of carrying out their company’s purpose early on in their careers helps junior team members learn about working towards a common goal and understand why connecting to their purpose is important before entering leadership roles.

Taking a less traditional approach

The finance and accounting industry is traditionally slower to accept change. Following the pandemic, it was one of the first industries to welcome the return to office. KPMG found that 76% of UK finance industry leaders planned to encourage staff to spend more time in the office over the next year. But this traditional approach to work does not always align with employees. KPMG also found in an earlier study that just 10% of employees wanted to spend more time in the office.

There are obvious benefits to spending more time in the office, with more of an opportunity for collaboration, greater efficiency and – depending on how you look at it – clear work-life balance, as the boundaries between work and home are separated. But while I continue to believe there is huge value in an in-person experience, it is hard to deny that working from home does not offer its own benefits.

While the finance and accounting industry has remained traditional in many of its approaches to work, one area it has excelled in is its technology adoption. Its approach to technology means that most companies are in a position to effectively offer hybrid working to their teams without sacrificing productivity or security. This allows for flexibility when a team needs it while not completely losing the in-person elements that we value from the office environment.

Embracing the change

Many millennials entered the workforce at the height of the global financial crisis, and those who graduated into finance roles will remember the impact of that more than most. Not only did millennials enter the workforce at a pivotal moment in time, they are also the first generation to be digital natives. Thinking about how different their early work experiences were in comparison to their predecessors, it is no surprise that their approach to work is different too.

If I have learned anything from collaborating with the next generation, it is that while their methods may differ, I am confident the future of finance is in capable hands.