Izzy Wharton is a senior strategist, trend forecaster, editor, and futures consultant with expertise in sustainability and innovation in design. Committed to re-imagining systems and structures, she's worked across multiple sectors with some of the world’s best-known brands on research and strategy projects as well as insights content.

Sabrina Faramarzi is a trend forecaster, futures researcher and journalist who’s obsessed with all things trend, innovation and design. When she’s not uncovering patterns across socio-cultural phenomena, she can be found at the latest electronic music night, swimming marathon lengths at her local pool, or worshipping cats on the internet.

 highlighted how people were reassessing their priorities in the wake of the pandemic. In the US, 

 are actively looking for a new job or keeping an eye out for new opportunities, and nearly a quarter of Britons are planning on changing jobs between early and mid 2022. This is hindering the post-pandemic recovery, with 90% of state and local chambers of commerce across the US reporting that worker shortages are holding back their economies. In 

, governments are responding by mandating work-life balance policies such as four-day weeks, 

 for everybody, and making it illegal for employers to message employees outside of working hours.

Many white-collar workers have already benefited from 

 is finally being recognised. This increased autonomy is seeing more people than ever demanding flexibility and agency in their work. Gen Zers, in particular, want self-directed careers that align with their values, and some are looking for a 

 in response to burnout. Though workers are 

 due to productivity pressures, with many facing instability due to job losses and the economic downturn, 

 have been vital in combating exploitative practices. And in addition to expecting employers to consider personal needs, many people are also demanding they 

 and social equity. “[Gen Zers] care deeply about the environment, social justice, and human rights – to the point where they don't want to work for companies that have bad environmental policies or internal practices that are not supportive. It’s the same thing with diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice,” says leadership and Gen Z expert Corey Seemiller.

, people are now more aware of the value of self-education, and both governments and businesses are trying to 

. While some individuals are exploring alternative education avenues, businesses are investing in and utilising 

, helping their employees build their social capital. This is vital not only to encourage upward mobility but also to future-proof careers against the rise of automation. However, machines aren’t infallible within the world of work – there is a growing urgency to deconstruct the biases built into artificial intelligence tools that are increasingly used by recruiters.

In this chapter of Canvas8’s 2022 Expert Outlook, mentoring expert Isabel Farchy highlights the untapped potential of apprenticeships in social mobility, DE&I expert Naeema Pasha talks about diversity and the importance of embedding it across entire organisations, and professor Corey Seemiller explains why Gen Z’s values will come first in their career choices.

On-the-job training will become an inclusive alternative to university

Isabel Farchy is the founder and CEO of the Creative Mentor Network, a non-profit organisation that tackles the skills gap by bringing students and workplaces closer together.

What has changed in the careers sector over the past year?

In response to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and maybe COVID-19 too, there’s a greater awareness of social responsibility. Brands and creative agencies are much more aware of the moral factors involved in diversity and inclusion, whereas previously the conversation was much more about the business case. It's become a much more nuanced conversation – for example, how intersectionality can have a huge impact – and people are much more aware of how it feels to be from a minority group and the need to improve things. D&I is almost its own industry now – there are lots of organisations working on different aspects of it.

As well as companies becoming more aware, employees are demanding much more from employers. The employee value proposition is really important now to businesses in a way that perhaps it wasn't even two or three years ago, and there's much more competition to retain people. The reasons why people leave are much more about whether or not organisations resonate with your values – whether an organisation is paying lip service to a concept or whether there’s genuine action. There's been much greater demand for training and development at every stage, so entry-level but also mid-level and senior level. They are big concepts and there's still a bit of insecurity around getting it wrong. Uncommon created a campaign for 

 where the concept was that it's okay not to know – it's about being willing to find out using Google and educating yourself. It felt very inclusive in its approach to diversity and inclusion and recognised that a barrier to progress can sometimes be the fear of getting it wrong.

What predictions do you have for your sector in 2022?

Apprenticeships are something that gained traction in 2021, and there's real potential because there's a lot of government money being put behind them in the UK, but we haven't quite figured out how to make them really impactful. The work that 

 does is changing the way that we approach apprenticeships. They are potentially a game-changer for social mobility as it's a way of getting into the world of work without going to university and getting into debt. But they're not quite functioning as they should at the moment, and what Multiverse is trying to do is create a one-stop-shop experience around apprenticeships that’s similar to applying to university. At the moment, the whole landscape feels very fragmented, which makes it difficult to apply. If you don't have a supportive family or people who can help you with the application process or help you with interviews, the process can be really alienating.

Discussions around class, social capital, and connections are much more nuanced now. An organisation called 

 works on a similar problem and created a campaign recognising the connections that people have benefited from in their careers. It was a great demonstration of how impactful social capital can be. Soho House is also really interesting as it has really invested in the programme of mentoring young people. Not only do they get matched up with a mentor, they also get house membership, which means they can take advantage of their social capital. We see a lot of organisations starting to create pathways into their businesses like this that are not graduate schemes but pipeline programmes specifically targeting more diverse candidates, and I only see that growing.

Gen Zers have varied paths to employment beyond higher education

People want a human touch when applying for a job

Naeema Pasha is the director of equity, diversity, and inclusion and director of Henley Careers and Professional Development. She also established World of Work (WOW) to explore the future of work readiness, and her research looks at a range of influences on work, from AI and climate change to diversity and inclusion.

The main kind of career shifts are due to the effects of the pandemic, and that has meant a few different things in how people see their careers changing and what they want. The ‘great resignation’ is a result of people having had time to think about what's important and what brings them satisfaction and purpose. There's also the experience of hybrid working that people are kind of grappling with. Other influences that we've seen through this past year are the increase of AI and technology and also political changes. We've seen in the UK with Brexit that there are trading pattern changes, and that means the actual structures of industries change. And, last but not least, social movements such as Black Lives Matter have affected career choices.

We all want to feel satisfied and we want to be able to use our skills in an organisation that gives us some kind of certainty, and that’s the main difference now. We're in a period of uncertainty, exaggerated by the pandemic, the type of work people do, and the rise of AI. What's important in terms of work is to not think of our career as static but fluid. We will no doubt change careers, jobs, might work part-time, and maybe even supplement jobs with a side hustle as gig economies rise again. People are moving for a number of reasons, having had this time to reflect on what is important to them. Maybe they want to get paid a bit more, do things that are more fulfilling, or don't want to commute again. People got used to this flexible work life and don't want to go in and spend four hours a day commuting.

We’ll continue to see the push-through of diversity. Organisations need to think differently about what that means, what it is to be fair in an organisation. In a business-oriented piece of research on equity in the workplace, focusing on race equity in particular, Henley found that organisations that invested in race equity measures had an increased revenue of 58% over those that didn't. In fact, the research showed that those organisations that started embedding diversity also had a positive orientation to climate change and sustainability. It's interesting that for organisations such as AstraZeneca – which was working to get the vaccination out – this was also a focus. It's really important to recognise how important diversity and race equity were for the success of the organization when the stakes were so high.

When I look at what is happening in recruitment and careers, AI tools are hyped up by many organisations. Sometimes, it's barely more than an Excel spreadsheet and it's just working on the mechanisms the organisation has in terms of recruitment, so it's not supporting fair recruitment. Also, with emerging ‘emotional AI’ that can read your emotions on a Zoom call, it will know what you're thinking of me and you’ll know what I'm thinking of you secretly. And it'll do that in recruitment and people will say, ‘this is not right’. We've got to go back to work where people are looking at us on Zoom and making reviews. We need scepticism, we need critical thinkers. Without them, we won’t progress.

Flexibility and inclusivity are non-negotiable factors for more and more employees

Employees will shun companies that aren’t transparent and truthful

Corey Seemiller is an award-winning professor of organisational leadership at Wright State University. She’s a leading expert on Gen Z and an authority on leadership education.

We probably won't fully understand what's going on for another three to five years, but the idea of flexible workplaces is something that young people have already been looking for, and it's just now that their older counterparts are realising they want that too. Young adults have long been looking for this, but they exist in a world where they work for organisations that aren't structured in this way. Now, it's almost like the older folks are catching up. I don't think that the older generations were even listening to them when they were saying this stuff, but the pandemic really forced everybody into this. I think there are more companies that are doing it right and sticking with this idea of customised work situations, and those are the companies that are probably going to continue to thrive and recruit and retain talent.

This idea of the ‘great resignation’ is really bringing to the fore that people who’ve been working for a company for even 20 years are all of a sudden holding leadership accountable and saying, ‘well, I've got other options. Look at all these thousands of job listings where I can work remotely, make more money, and I can also work for myself – I might do that as well’. The companies that are savvy enough to understand this are the ones that are going to thrive. Now, through freelancing, people are not beholden to their jobs and their employer the same way that they used to be. I think the primary thing that's got people holding on to a job, particularly in the US, is that they rely on health insurance from their employers. The freelance economy would be through the roof in the US if people had access to healthcare without needing an employer. If we see any policies move forward in healthcare post-pandemic, we might see more and more people making the decision to leave.

Calls for transparency are also increasing due to more tools online where people can make companies be transparent without their permission. This is going to grow as there is just so much public access to information, and there are other issues around values-based organisational choice – going into careers where the company aligns with a person’s values or at least doesn't conflict with them.

We're also seeing growth in the freelance economy. Young people don't have to apply for a job with some typical company, they can actually work for themselves. They’re thinking that as long as they have enough to live, they could be a contract worker for a while until they find somewhere they feel comfortable and aligned with, or maybe they’re just a contract worker or a freelancer forever, or maybe they piecemeal a few things together. I think the freelance economy is a perfect example of working around the system. We're finishing up a global study right now of Gen Zers and young adults across 31 countries. We asked people what they had done due to the pandemic and nearly 10% of them said that they changed career paths and nearly 15% of them said they looked for a new job. There’s a lot of soul-searching and thinking ‘what industry am I going into? Is that the kind of industry I want to work for? What's important to me?’ The belief is that life's too short to go into a career they don't want to do. Some of them are looking for new jobs because they lost their jobs, and that makes sense. But a lot of them said that they are changing career paths and that's indicative of a reassessment.

Employer branding has never been more important in attracting talent

How our mindsets will shape the Careers sector

For the Culture Steward, a career needs to be aligned with their core values – and not just for themselves but also the values that fit with their wider communities. These communities don’t need to be local ones either. “The definition of local is probably changing, and those people in their inner circle might not be next door to them,”

 saying they will quit their job after the pandemic, employers face a challenge in establishing purpose and community in fragmented and remote workspaces. 

 is just the start. The Culture Steward wants to build communities and elevate the people and places they come across. From 

workplace initiatives for neurodiverse staff

, they want employers to benefit not just for themselves but the communities they surround themselves with.

For the Systems Sceptic, careers are all about deconstructing and rebuilding world systems. “There are a lot of young people in particular who are saying these systems don't work, they're almost too big to break, they're almost too big to change. So, they’re going to work around it and maybe build a micro-system next to it that works for them or undermine the system altogether by not participating in it,” says Seemiller. These alternative systems manifest in the form of 

 to organise their lives, redefining work culture 

 for remote workers. For Gen Z Systems Sceptics, a career within climate change is a no-brainer, 

with 76% of them saying that addressing the crisis

 is one of their biggest concerns. The Systems Sceptic is also more likely to have a portfolio career and will look for services to help manage them, such as 

For the Contrarian, work is just a means to an end. They work to live, find satisfaction in being appropriately compensated for their time, and want to work with their friends. But they’re beginning to dip their toes in hustle culture and are interested in new ways of working and the creator economy. “People are more aware of the concept of self-care and don’t want to work for a big organisation or have a nine-to-five corporate job anymore. They want to build a portfolio career,” says Farchy. 

 among Gen Zers during the pandemic, with nearly a quarter saying they’ve taken up a pastime during lockdowns. In the US, smaller cities are using 

bosses are leaning into corporate retreats

 aims to make apprenticeships more accessible, offering a one-stop-shop experience that’s similar to applying to university. This can help bring apprenticeships to a broader, more diverse audience.

 ran a campaign focused on social capital, getting professionals to call out how they’d benefited from their connections.

 is matching young people up with mentors and offering membership across its locations, which ensures that mentees can take advantage of their new social capital.

 is a community group created to raise awareness and appreciation for traditional crafts in minority communities.

 was set up by a young person who had acne himself and wanted to create skincare that was organically sourced. It’s an example of how young people can achieve incredible success by launching brands based on what they're interested in.

Dr. Corey Seemiller is an educator, researcher, and speaker on Gen Z. She has been featured on NPR and in The New York Times as well as in other news publications, podcasts, and journals around the world. She also consults with major marketing firms and companies on Gen Z. With nearly a quarter of a million views, her TED Talk showcased how Gen Z plans to make a difference in the world. She has conducted four major studies, and her books include Generation Z Goes to College, Generation Z Leads, Generation Z: A Century in Making, and Generation Z Learns. Dr. Seemiller serves as a professor in the department of leadership studies in education and organizations at Wright State University.

Can apprenticeships offer social mobility? How can employers align with post-pandemic values? What impact will Gen Zers have on the working world? In this part of the 2022 Expert Outlook, we speak to three experts about how people are demanding more and compromising less in their working lives.

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