How Young Professionals can Fuel High Performance 

For decades, leadership conversations have been largely shaped by hierarchy, experience and convention. Today, however, the values of the next generation of young professionals are steadily disrupting those norms, reshaping boardrooms, workplaces and organisational culture. 

This next generation of young professionals are entering the workforce at a moment of significant economic, technological and societal change. As digital natives who have grown up through financial crises, political fragmentation, climate anxiety and the rapid acceleration of technology, this generation is bringing fundamentally different perspectives to work across business sectors, including in the cross-border fund administration space. 

In doing so, they are challenging long-held assumptions about what ‘good’ and success looks like, ultimately helping to fuel high performance, innovation and new perspectives. 

Purpose

One of the defining characteristics of this generation of young professionals is the importance placed on purpose and the expectation that a business needs to stand for something beyond profit alone. 

Whether focused on sustainability, social impact, mental wellbeing or ethical governance, young professionals are increasingly scrutinising whether organisations align with their values.  

This creates a challenge for businesses, but also an opportunity. Organisations that fail to articulate a clear sense of purpose risk appearing disconnected from the expectations of emerging talent. This is particularly evident in sectors such as finance, including fund administration and professional services, where younger professionals are often seeking careers that combine commercial success with measurable impact. 

Conversely, those organisations that can successfully embed a sense of purpose within their leadership decision-making; that can articulate its values; that can demonstrate a genuine commitment to work-life balance; and that prioritise mental health and career development, will thrive and attract the best people. 

Diversity and Inclusion

Alongside purpose sits another major driver of change: diversity and inclusion. 

For young professionals, diversity is often viewed not as a compliance exercise or reputational consideration, but as a baseline expectation. Having grown up in highly connected and globally exposed environments, younger professionals tend to place significant importance on representation, equity and inclusive workplace cultures. 

As a result, leadership conversations are evolving. Increasingly, leaders are being challenged to think not only about who sits around the executive table, but also whose voices are heard within organisations more broadly.  

At JTC we are seeing this play out in real time, through our Young Leaders Forum (YLF), which was established precisely for this reason – to bridge the gap between younger and experienced leaders, foster innovation and address issues within the organisation. The YLF includes members from various teams and roles, meeting monthly to discuss key topics, such as technology, flexibility, sustainability, process improvement and mental health. 

It’s a live example of how young professionals are helping to redefine inclusion as a driver of performance and innovation. 

Technology

Meanwhile, technology is another area where the influence of young professionals is particularly pronounced. 

As the first truly digital-native generation, young professionals often approach technology not as an operational tool but as an integrated part of everyday life. Expectations around speed, connectivity, flexibility and digital experience are reshaping workplace dynamics, and these are all significant in a data-heavy, time-sensitive, multi-jurisdictional fund administration environment. 

They are often quicker to recognise the opportunities, including improved productivity and streamlined operations, as well as the risks associated with emerging technologies such as AI and automation – and are ready to challenge established workflows where technology can deliver faster, more accurate results. 

At JTC we have seen this through the implementation, supported by the YLF for example, of specialist technology solution Alteryx to strengthen our fund reporting processes. In a high-volume trade process environment, this sort of solution brings speed, efficiency, less risk, greater accuracy and enhanced consistency to a process that has in the past been highly manual. 

It’s another example of how younger employees are challenging working models to accelerate innovation. It’s about working ‘smarter’, not harder.

Agility

This willingness to challenge convention has the potential to create tension within organisations led by more traditional leadership structures, but there is value in this tension, and forward-thinking firms like JTC recognise that. 

Engagement with young professionals brings flexibility, curiosity, and a willingness to embrace transformation in fast-changing work environments, such as fund administration. And the benefits of that are not limited to younger employees; they are felt across a business. 

An appetite to challenge assumptions can help organisations remain adaptive, relevant and forward-looking and that is increasingly important in a complex cross-border funds landscape, where managers, investors and intermediaries all need to face up to changing societal expectations, technological transformation, regulatory shifts, and geopolitical uncertainty. 

While experienced leaders bring knowledge, resilience, experience, commercial judgement and strategic perspective, younger professionals bring fresh thinking, technological fluency and a heightened awareness of emerging social expectations. Organisations that are able to bring those qualities together and that can embrace a culture of collaboration, will be the ones that will thrive. 

At JTC, we see the benefits of this through the lens of staff retention. Nurtured through the firm’s shared ownership model, JTC’s above-benchmark 96% staff retention rate is a real differentiator; it’s the basis upon which our relationship-driven ethos is built and a key driver in nurturing a culture of collaboration across our teams. 

As the critical link between managers and investors, service providers need to be increasingly mindful of the ability of young professionals to reflect the changing external landscape, and the potential they have to help shape organisational culture and support innovation. 

By fostering an inclusive culture, listening to its people, embracing technological change, communicating authentically and remaining open to challenge, JTC is actively championing the potential of its young professionals, with the support of the YLF. And that is helping to fuel high performance.

This article was authored by Kimoshnee Govender and Wesley Stoffels, who form part of JTC’s Young Leaders Forum and originally published in The Collaborative Exchange, considered to be one the leading independent information sources and advisory services in the South African investment landscape.