The Future of Professional Services Talent: Building Workplaces Where Young Professionals Can Grow And Adapt

Clarity, fairness and voice: What will keep Gen Z in professional services? Across the table from leaders in consulting, staffing, legal and outsourcing firms, one worry almost always comes up. Their young people are bright, ambitious and quick to learn. They are also quick to leave.

The numbers bear this out.

Gaurav Chaudhary, Director – Professional Services & Education Vertical at Great Place To Work® India, shared The Future of Professional Services Talent: Building Workplaces Where Young Professionals Can Grow And Adapt.

A Great Place To Work India study of more than 1,10,000 employees across 130-plus professional services organisations found that Gen Z now makes up 34% of the sector’s workforce, double its share in 2023. Yet only two in ten say they are not looking for another job.

It is easy to call this impatience. Young professionals want what every generation has wanted: fair pay, recognition, growth and a manager who cares. The difference is what they do when the path ahead is unclear.

AI has made that path harder to see. Nearly six in ten firms in the sector use AI meaningfully, but only 21% of employees strongly agree anyone has explained its benefits and risks to them. Imagine being 24, two years into your first job, watching a tool do much of what you were hired to do, with no one telling you what that means for you. Worry fills the silence. Firms that talk openly about AI, and invite young employees to shape how it is used, give them a reason to stay.

Fairness is the other test. Employees in the sector are least positive about how rewards are shared, how decisions are made and how opportunities are handed out. These are also where the Best Workplaces pull furthest ahead, by 11 to 16 percentage points.

People always want a say. Involvement in decisions that affect their work is the weakest of the wellbeing measures we track, at 74%. Being asked before a decision, rather than told after it, is often what makes pressure bearable for Gen Z today.

None of this needs a grand programme. People rarely leave over one big moment. They leave after hundreds of small ones: good work nobody noticed, an idea that went nowhere, an appraisal that felt arbitrary. When leaders consistently thank, listen and invest in growth, our data shows employees are two to three times more likely to want to stay.

Getting this wrong has a cost. Willingness to go the extra mile has already slipped three points in a year.

Every week, a young analyst somewhere quietly asks herself one question: The firms that help her answer yes, with a clear path, fair treatment and a voice in decisions, will build teams that grow and adapt rather than walk away.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arti Adke

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Arti Adke, hailing from a respectable family with strong principles, pursued her passion for journalism. She is a Senior Sub-Editor and Senior Reporter, leading the Education and Food pages. Arti's journey in our organization continues to thrive as she strives for journalistic excellence.

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