The Importance of Hiring Early Talent: Why Companies Need to Look Beyond Experience When Hiring

In today's fast-paced and highly competitive business world, companies are always looking for ways to gain an edge over their competitors. With millions of university students and school leavers entering the workforce each year, employees can get many long-term competitive advantages by hiring talented individuals early in their careers.?

Early talent refers to those who are just starting their career and have less than five years of professional working experience. This can include recent university graduates or school leavers who have undergone training programmes and other skilling avenues. By specifying many years of experience in their job requirements, companies often miss out on opportunities to hire early talent, who can bring new skills, perspectives, and knowledge to the table. Furthermore, early talent today are often from Gen Z and are uniquely positioned to help businesses grow.?

Here are some key reasons why hiring early talent can be beneficial to your business:?

Fresh perspective and ideas

Hiring talent early in their careers can bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to your company. As fresh graduates from university or other learning programmes, these individuals have recently been exposed to the latest academic theories, cutting-edge technologies, and innovative approaches to problem-solving. They are eager to apply their knowledge and skills to real-world challenges and can offer valuable insights that more experienced employees may not have considered. Furthermore, as digital natives who grew up using technology, these young talents often can bring invaluable expertise and insights, especially for companies looking to stay relevant in this digital age. This expertise can come in the form of using technological platforms, or even social media expertise.?

Long-term loyalty

By investing in talent early in their careers, you can build a strong sense of loyalty and commitment among your employees. College and school leavers are often looking for their first professional opportunity, and if they find a company that values their skills and invests in their growth, they are more likely to stay with that company for the long term. Gen Z employees are also increasingly deciding where to work based on their personal, social, and environmental values, making these ESG values extremely important for companies looking to attract young talent. Building long-term loyalty can help reduce turnover and increase employee retention rates, which can have significant benefits for your bottom line.

Diverse perspectives

Hiring talent early in their careers can also help your company build a more diverse workforce. Gen Z is often considered the most diverse generation yet, looking at sexuality, religion, and gender diversity. Coming from a variety of backgrounds and cultures, they can bring a range of perspectives and experiences to your team. This can help your company better understand and connect with diverse customer groups, as well as bring fresh ideas to the table.

Succession planning

By hiring talent early in their careers, you can also create a pipeline for future leadership positions within your company. With economic instability leading to early retirement and labour shortages around the country, it is important for companies to be prepared to replace people in managerial positions when they retire. By starting early, these young talents can be trained for management roles over time, which can help ensure continuity and stability for your company's future. Additionally, having a strong succession plan in place can also help attract and retain top talent, as employees are more likely to stay with a company that offers clear opportunities for growth and advancement.

Adaptability

In today's rapidly changing business environment, companies need to be able to adapt quickly to new technologies, market conditions, and customer demands. Hiring talent early in their careers can help your company build a more agile and adaptable workforce, as these individuals are often more open to learning and trying new things. This can help your company stay ahead of the curve and respond quickly to emerging trends and opportunities.

How Phoenix 51 can help you

There are many compelling reasons why it's important to invest in talent early in their careers. By taking a strategic approach to talent management, companies can build a strong and agile workforce that can help them achieve long-term success in today's competitive business world.

Here at Phoenix 51, we have developed an in-depth expertise in the field of early careers. With our team of in-house recruitment experts, we work closely with business leaders to find the right young talent for their project needs. Our digitised recruitment funnel allows us to deliver the most seamless hiring experience for businesses and candidates, by efficiently streamlining the funnel of applicants, mitigating bias, and delivering high-quality individuals to businesses.?

To find out more about our state-of-the-art recruitment technology and process, reach out to us here!?