Explore this subject further: What support is available for transition?.
Your people help determine the success of your business. They bring the knowledge, skills and judgement needed to serve customers, operate assets, solve problems and improve performance. They also make choices about where they want to work, influenced by their values, expectations and opportunities. For younger people in particular, an employer's environmental performance and willingness to engage employees in meaningful change can influence its attractiveness. Climate transition brings these interests together, creating opportunities to strengthen enterprise performance while changing the capabilities, roles and working conditions people need to succeed.
The question for leaders is how to develop and engage the workforce capabilities that will sustain performance and deliver future enterprise value.
People move with their values
Deloitte's Australian Gen Z and Millennial Surveys provide insights into the environmental considerations, purpose and values that respondents report in relation to employment. These are different aspects of employment decisions and workplace experience, not a single employee engagement measure.
Environmental responsibility and values influence employment decisions
2025 Australian Gen Z and Millennial Survey
2026 Australian survey · Employer choice
Over 40% of Gen Z and millennial respondents reported rejecting a potential employer because of values misalignment.
Deloitte's Australian research suggests that values and environmental responsibility can influence how younger people evaluate employers, while their reported experiences also indicate a willingness to advocate for environmental action at work.
Purpose and values alignment extend beyond environmental performance. They sit alongside pay, job security, career development and working conditions in the decisions people make about employment.
These findings describe the views and reported experiences of younger cohorts. They do not establish the recruitment, retention or productivity outcomes of an individual business. Leaders need to investigate what matters to their own workforce and how those expectations influence employment decisions, participation and performance.
People influence enterprise performance
Workforce knowledge and judgement can reveal opportunities that financial or climate analysis might miss. People working with customers may identify emerging service needs. Technical specialists can see where new tools, practices and partnerships could improve outcomes. Involving them early can help leaders test the feasibility of a response before committing resources.
People need to see a future in the transition
Environmental expectations sit alongside the practical considerations that shape people's working lives: pay, job security, career opportunities, working conditions and the capacity to develop new skills.
Deloitte's 2026 Australian Gen Z and Millennial Survey identified cost of living as the leading concern for both cohorts. This provides context when businesses ask their workforce to support changes to equipment, processes, roles and skills.
“Australians want action on climate change, and they also want good secure jobs in their communities.”
A credible transition involves more than communicating environmental commitments. Leaders need to explain why change is necessary, how it could affect different roles and locations, and what support will be available to people whose work is changing. Workforce participation can improve decisions and identify implementation risks early.
Engaged and capable people make transition deliverable
New technologies, customer expectations, physical climate conditions and business models can change the work people do and the capabilities they need. Leaders need to understand where existing skills can develop, where new capabilities are required, and how to provide training, recruitment, partnerships and resources. Credible climate action depends on people being able to deliver the responses that leaders choose.
For a service business, the relationship between workforce capability and enterprise value is particularly direct.
Fieldwork Technical & Digital
This fictional technical and digital services business earns value from specialist knowledge, intellectual property and customer relationships. As clients consider new requirements for lower-emissions operations and climate resilience, the business is investigating services it could develop. Its ability to win and deliver that work depends on attracting and retaining skilled people, listening to their ideas and investing in capabilities that customers value.
Alex Morgan — Founder and CEO
Alex wants the company to be a workplace where people can contribute to meaningful work, and to develop the technical and commercial capabilities needed to deliver new services. Alex must distinguish employee expectations and emerging client interest from demonstrated demand, and decide which skills and partnerships justify investment.
Leadership question: How can Fieldwork attract, retain and develop people who want to contribute to meaningful work, while building the technical and commercial capabilities needed to deliver new services for a low carbon, resilient economy?
For Fieldwork, values and engagement may help attract people, but commercial value depends on whether their capabilities translate into services customers need and will pay for. Alex must connect workforce development with customer demand, service performance, delivery capacity and profitable growth.
What workforce capabilities will your transition require?
A credible transition plan needs to identify the people, skills and organisational capabilities required to deliver its intended commercial outcomes. Five questions can help leaders assess whether their business is ready.
- Workforce knowledge: What do our people know about operational risks, inefficiencies, customer needs and opportunities that could improve performance?
- Future capabilities: Which skills, roles and workforce arrangements will need to change as we implement our strategy?
- Values and engagement: How do our environmental performance, employment practices and opportunities for participation influence people's decisions to join, stay and contribute to the business?
- Investment and delivery: What training, recruitment, partnerships and resources will be required, and when?
- Enterprise performance: How will we assess whether workforce capability is contributing to productivity, service reliability, innovation and financial returns?
The aim is to understand how the capabilities of your people contribute to enterprise performance, identify where those capabilities need to evolve, and invest in the workforce required to deliver the business's future.
At Sightlines Advisory, we use the Climate Value Framework to connect climate-related risks and opportunities with enterprise value, including the workforce capabilities needed to respond. Beginning with the business model, operating requirements and value drivers, the approach considers how people's knowledge, skills and capacity influence the feasibility, cost and potential value of different responses. This helps leaders recognise workforce dependencies, assess implementation requirements and incorporate capability investment into strategic and financial decisions.
For your next leadership discussion, consider one important climate-related response your business is planning. What will your people need to do differently to make it successful? What knowledge and capabilities do they already have, and where will investment or support be required?
Leaders strengthen enterprise value when they recognise workforce capability as part of the investment and implementation decisions that shape business performance.
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