Equipment finance companies must be prepared to work with a new generation of employees that is very different from millennials, according to a new report, “2018 Industry Future Council: Preparing for Radical Customer and Employee Change Between Now and 2030,” released by the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.

The report summarizes the discussions of 16 equipment finance industry executives who convened in Washington, D.C., in February this year to bring into focus matters that equipment leasing and finance firms may want to consider as they plan for future growth.

The IFC report examines the impact of the next generation maturing into adulthood—Generation Z—from both an employee and customer perspective. It indicates that young people joining the industry will embrace change and new technologies while working with older employees who may have different business and social perspectives. Waning interest in owning equipment as members of Generation Z focus on use, rather than possession and ownership, will be among the many challenges to traditional ways of doing business. At the same time, companies will experience disruption from changes occurring in social, technological, environmental, economic and political arenas.

IFC members identified other potential issues, probable trends and scenarios about the future to understand how the equipment finance industry might look and conduct business in 2030, including:

• Fewer employees as a result of artificial intelligence and other automation;
• Employees engineering all products, services, and information to align with dominant social values, being delivered and accessed by the methods customers prefer; and
• Companies staying aligned with customers in their adoption and use of various technologies.

Jeffry D. Elliott, Foundation Chairman and Senior Managing Director of Huntington Equipment Finance, said, “The equipment finance industry is already in the midst of incredible change, and the pace will continue to accelerate. The IFC report provides industry leaders with a structured approach for envisioning their future talent and customers so they can better plan for their success.”  

The 2018 IFC was co-sponsored by PayNet and IDS. The 2018 IFC report is available for free download. All Foundation reports and studies are available for free download from the Foundation’s online library.