9 in 10 UK business leaders say young people hit by COVID-19 “development dip”

I recently took the plunge and went back into the office for the first time since March last year. I was delighted to be back, but as I entered the lift with a colleague - my first in-person encounter at work for nearly 18 months (!) - I really struggled to find a conversation opener.

This slightly awkward first encounter got me thinking: imagine entering the workforce for your first job during a pandemic, and having zero experience of a workplace and its culture.??

The pandemic has had an impact on the way all of us work and live, but for young people who are at the start of their careers, the prolonged period of working from home might have had a greater impact than we imagined.?

According to new research from LinkedIn, 9 in 10 business leaders in the UK say young people have been hit by a “development dip” during COVID-19. C-level executives say the key development experiences that young people have missed out on during the past 18 months include learning by “osmosis” from being around more experienced colleagues (36%), developing essential soft skills (36%), and building professional networks (37%).?

Furthermore, nearly a third of leaders believe it’s been challenging for young people to onboard when starting their first day from home, and two-fifths recognise it’s been difficult for young people to build meaningful relationships with colleagues while working remotely.

Young professionals agree - 69% of young people (aged 16-34) told us that they believe their professional learning experience has been impacted by the pandemic. Over half (57%) of those asked to return to offices feel their ability to make conversation at work has suffered, and 71% say they’ve forgotten how to conduct themselves in an office environment. The vast majority ultimately feel “out of practice” when it comes to office life, particularly with delivering presentations and speaking to customers or clients.?

While seemingly insignificant, the loss of office conversations could have a detrimental impact on career development. Workplace psychologist Anjula Mutanda told me: “Younger people especially haven’t had time to build up office conversation skills, and many may have started jobs in lockdown without ever meeting their colleagues in real life which makes it very hard to connect on a more personal level. Trusted relationships and small talk can sometimes lead to big things in business environments, so if we’re out of practice, we could be missing out on opportunities.”

Helping young people catch-up

As we collectively experience the biggest workplace change in a generation, it’s natural that many young people are feeling mixed emotions about their professional development and career trajectory right now. It’s positive to see leaders recognise the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on them as they consider their future workplace policies.?

With over half (56%) of UK businesses planning to move to hybrid working, it’s reassuring that three-quarters of leaders are looking to introduce training courses to help employees adapt, and around half will be increasing budgets for employee social events to encourage relationship building. The top two skills employers say it’s important for employees to have include collaboration and communication - skills that can best be developed by working closely with more experienced team members.??

A company that understands the importance of this is BT. BT Group’s HR Director Alison Wilcox said, “At BT, we still see our shared workplaces as very much central to the company’s future. They will be places where colleagues can come together to connect, collaborate, learn and develop, build friendships and share their experiences. As one of the largest employers of graduates and apprentices in the UK, our state-of-the-art offices will be places to learn from more experienced colleagues and where new joiners will learn the ropes, meet new teammates and bring fresh thinking to drive growth in our business; they will continue to make a significant contribution to their surrounding micro and local economies; and above all, they will be the place where our teams come together to foster collaboration and creativity that will deliver for our customers.”

To help young people develop the skills they need to succeed, companies must aim to truly understand where the skills gaps are, introduce mentoring schemes and bolster learning experiences that cater for a hybrid workforce to help younger workers get back on track. To help people develop essential soft skills, LinkedIn has made a number of LinkedIn Learning courses available to everyone for free until 15th October. There are courses available on: Speaking Confidently and Effectively, Communicating with Confidence, Critical Thinking, Strategic Thinking, Time Management Fundamentals, Unconscious Bias, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and more.

I hope that by shining a light on the struggles of young people in the workplace, we can encourage conversations that help more organisations implement policies to encourage young people to continue to develop essential soft skills, despite the shift in the way businesses are choosing to work post-pandemic.?

I’d love to hear about the initiatives your organisation is putting into place to help foster successful careers for young employees. Please share your insights and comments below. #FutureOfWork #ConversationsForChange