Young people don’t like a company like Shell very much. The climate-conscious generation does not see themselves working for the oil company. This is evident from the annual survey by Intelligence Group, which collects data on the labor market.
Youth chooses green, Intelligence Group notes in its annual report. Adding all age groups together, Shell is still in third place, but those under thirty put Shell in fourteenth place in the list of favorite employers. More than 16,000 people participated in the study.
Women in particular make more socially conscious choices. Employers who receive criticism in the field of climate and the environment are still higher on the list for men. They do not hesitate to work at Shell (2), KLM (5) or Schiphol (15), while women put those employers in 14th, 13th and 81st place.
Climate quitting
Due to the shortage on the labor market and the fact that jobs for both MBO and HBO graduates are readily available, it is also easier for the younger generations to opt for a company that fits their ideals well. Economist Wim Davidse recently spoke about it at a lecture in Drachten: “Young people don’t come to work for you if you don’t have a good goal in their eyes.”
Taking sustainable steps is important. When an employer does not do this, young people sometimes quickly look the other way. This is also known as ‘climate quitting’. It is something that is still mainly done by highly educated people, who know that they have other options. Banks are popular in Intelligence Group’s list. ING is at 5, Rabobank at 10 and ABN at 11. ,,They don’t have to worry about the growth of young talent,” says Intelligence Group.
‘Bad PR is also PR’
The government is still the most popular employer, followed by the police, as was the case in recent years. Chipmaker ASML returns to the top 10, where the NS and ING also occupy a place since this year. The big jump from Schiphol, from 57th to 21st place, is striking. The Tax and Customs Administration is also still a popular employer, just like GGZ and KLM.
There was also a lot of negative publicity around Schiphol Airport and the Tax and Customs Administration, for example about holiday delays and the benefits affair. Something like this can still have a positive outcome, says Geert-Jan Waasdorp, director of the Intelligence Group. “Bad PR is also PR. This is certainly true in the labor market, in which employers who do not necessarily receive positive news are not penalized in terms of preference or even make a profit. What works positively is that as an employer you actually show that you are going to work with the feedback from the market and that you are vulnerable in this respect. Employers who stoically ignore the feedback will disappear from the preference lists over time, such as KPN, PostNL, Heineken, Ahold, and Unilever.”
Heineken, for example, is under fire because the beer group is still active in Russia despite the war in Ukraine.