Why Lack of Trust is at the Heart of Graduate Frustration
David Shindler
Writer. Mainly. Coach. Often. Volunteer. Sometimes. Learning to Leap. Always.
In my recent research into job searching in your 20s, graduates express frustration at their ability to progress, whether in getting hired or growing once employed. Several barriers emerge, some externally-focused to do with employers and others internally-focused about being personally ill-equipped. As a new Milkround report reveals, graduate attitudes during recruitment are hardening. It strikes me that an issue common to graduates and employers is a lack of trust. What can be done to reduce their frustrations?
The trust deficit
We trust someone if we believe they are competent and capable and we warm to them as a person (because they have integrity and we believe they have our interests in mind). One without the other often means trouble. Trusting people in the new world of work drives innovation, values autonomy, forges relationships, and is fuelled by emotional intelligence. I'd argue that the trust deficit between graduates and employers arises from differing perceptions of priorities and where the balance lies.
Graduate frustrations include:
- Unhelpful and disengaging recruitment systems and processes. Mindset: They don't respect me.
- Unfairness because experience is seen as trumping potential. Mindset: They don't believe in me.
- Employers valuing commitment based on how long you will stay. Mindset: They don't value my contribution.
- Lack of meaning in the role and opportunities to develop. Mindset: They don't empathize with me.
Employer frustrations include:
- Poor applications. Mindset: They lack employability skills/are not job-ready.
- Reneging on job offers. Mindset: They are being unprofessional and unreliable.
- Job hopping. Mindset: They are showing a lack of dedication and commitment.
- Unrealistic expectations of progression. Mindset: They have to show they can hack it first.
How to reduce the trust deficit
Engagement
Employers could do more to get to know potential applicants and preferred candidates through online and offline engagement. Build a warmer relationship - more inquiry into what graduates want and need, sharing views on industry and professional topics, greater transparency and better information about the recruitment processes, outlining two-way expectations when applying for a job, and so on.
The process of applying for jobs is dull, uninviting and the whole process can be intense. Graduate
The way in which graduates are assessed could be less lengthy, more inspiring, creative, and strengths-based to tap into potential. Authenticity is stifled by dull assessment lacking relevance to the actual work. Graduates feel they have to conform to playing the game rather than be themselves.
It’s often a tick box exercise so really hard to get across who you are as a person. It always involves an application form which seems a really out-of-date approach. Graduate
Every generation deserves attraction, selection, and retention by employers in effective and engaging ways. Everyone wins when hiring is designed deliberately to enable young people to show their full capabilities and potential.
Professionalism
How can employers who fail to acknowledge and give feedback to applicants and candidates criticise graduates who renege on job offers for being unprofessional? It's a two-way street. Timing, inefficient recruitment processes, and personal ambitions dictate graduate decisions. They've swallowed the marketing hype of 'follow your dream job', so why is it a surprise if they then hold out for it?
In an age when branding is a key component of an employer's reputation, it makes no sense to score an own goal by seriously frustrating your future talent pool. It's a dangerous game to take them for granted and often conflicts with espoused corporate values.
Do the benefits of genuine and appropriate acknowledgment and feedback outweigh the financial and reputational costs? Resourcing the process is an ethically responsible investment in positive brand awareness and commitment to service excellence. Remember the Golden Rule.
Commitment
Graduates know about the low engagement scores in the workplace. They meet the people who have stayed in jobs too long and pass on their resentments and bad practices. Tired, stuck employees often feel powerless and become resigned to the way things have always been done. Graduates aren't hanging around if that's what they encounter.
Sometimes employers ask graduates ‘I see you’ve moved around a lot and not stayed anywhere very long, are you going to be committed to this role?’ The inference being that commitment means time served. This reveals a difference in how commitment is perceived by graduates.
It should be seen as a positive that you’ve done lots of different things. It shows you aren’t scared to change. Employers need to understand that about this generation as it’s more and more common. It’s not as easy to have a set career or profession now. Everything is changing at an exponential rate. Graduate
Culture
Fixed mindsets and behaviours often coincide with hierarchies involving multiple layers, vertical promotion pathways, and highly structured processes. Pleasing the next level up takes your eye off purpose and people. That's a barrier to growing and developing those below. Poor managers are a common cause for leaving a job.
The prevailing organizational culture can result in poor job design. Entry-level job roles sometimes seem too limiting and narrow to graduates - 'you're only here to do that', 'that's not your job'. Graduate schemes do provide variety, access, and exposure, but not every business has one.
Managers can create the conditions for graduates to empower themselves, learning opportunities, and exposure to a wide variety of skills and experiences. Holistic and flexible roles are more likely in an SME where the chance to get involved in different things is quicker and greater. Graduates want a voice:
It's like they put you through hardship but without the power to change things. Graduate
Other cultural issues:
- Are relationships between graduates and employers more transactional because of the effect of tuition fees?
- To what extent are economic priorities (housing crisis, high rents, inflation etc) putting pressure on some graduates to accept the first opportunity they get out of anxiety and fear of having nothing?
- How is the rise in mental health difficulties among undergraduates playing out after graduating?
I believe that it should not be a fight for survival which is what it feels like currently. Graduate
No one wants employers hiring the wrong person or graduates settling for the wrong job. Both employers and graduates can do more to create trust. A start would be for each to look through the other end of the telescope to see and understand their respective pressures and perspectives.
What are your views on any of the issues raised?
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David (@David_Shindler) is an independent career coach, author, blogger, speaker, and associate with several consultancies. Check out his online courses at Career Navigating for Young Professionals. He is the author of Learning to Leap: a guide to being more employable, and co-author with Mark Babbitt of 21st Century Internships (nearly 250,000 downloads worldwide). His commitment and energy are in promoting lifelong personal and professional development and in tackling youth unemployment. He works with young people and professionals in education and business.
Visit the Learning to Leap blog to read more of his work and check out his other published articles on LinkedIn:
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Writer. Mainly. Coach. Often. Volunteer. Sometimes. Learning to Leap. Always.
7 年Thanks Meredith! Is that what you're finding too?
Head of Graduate Success at University of Winchester
7 年Great article