Youth employment. It’s not the 1950s!

I’m now 8 months into my role as MD! The months are flying by! I promised to share with you an honest view of my journey and the struggles I face running the business, along with some of the strategies that appear to be working in my favour.?

In my last article, I talked ‘money’ and engaging in meaningful conversations with staff about the cost of living crisis. Today I’m all over the topic of youth employment.?

A lack of candidates in the market is putting considerable pressure and stress on my existing employees who are having to take on additional responsibilities.??

This worries me. I don’t want my teams to burn out.?

It’s time to think outside the box and try something new. I personally think that engaging people at the start of their career is a great way of finding talent to plug the skills gap. ?

Apprenticeships, for example, have become an increasingly popular alternative for Generation Z as they begin their working life.?Going down the university route is no longer the only option for young people starting their careers, especially with the debt they can get laden with, which they carry with them when they start work.?

Apprentices get paid and learn on-the-job while developing their understanding of working in your industry, both of which provide value to your company.??

By making the most of the levy funding available, much of the cost of taking on an apprentice can be offset. This government funding is so under-utilised!?

There’s also a common misconception that apprenticeships are only for those starting their career by providing entry level qualifications, but this is simply not the case.?The funding can also be used to re-train people interested in a career change or to help older workers back into work. We have people doing MBAs under this scheme.??

Apprenticeship Levy funding?

I can’t stress enough how valuable this scheme has been for us.??

If you are eligible for the scheme, get out there and start making some connections with learning institutions. Think local sixth form colleges, offer work placements, run workshops, offer time slots for informal chats. And think about which of your existing staff might benefit.?

It’s not the 1950s – milk rounds at universities, formal interviews and static job specs are a thing of the past. Or they need to be!??

Its about finding people with the right personality and interpersonal skills needed. My top tip -?Seek out and eliminate any bias that might be floating around your company and proactively hunt applicants from diverse backgrounds.?

?Exploring new initiatives?

?We’re exploring all sorts of initiatives at the moment.?

One I absolutely love, which is gathering weight internally, is for us to partner with an apprenticeship provider to roll out an apprenticeship programme for a cohort of our HR software customers, to help them upskill their HR team.??

The Apprenticeship Levy is paid by employers with annual salary bills in excess of ￡3 million, so it’s kind of big business giving back to smaller ones – in our case, us giving back to our customers by enabling them to access our levy funding.?

We recognise that investments in tech and the skills of your employees go hand in hand so by helping to develop digital skills in our customer base, they will be able to draw more benefit from our tech.?

Apprentices that take part will gain knowledge in business culture and change, analytics, remote working, business ethics, recruitment, wellbeing, flexible working, reward and performance management. ?

We will offer ‘on the job’ support, 1-2-1 coaching and group activities, setting the scene for how to use tech as part of the HR process, hopefully then linking grads and apprentices to our customers to help them find skilled young talent.?

It’s a very clever win win. Out the box, modern day, not bound by old, non-functional, or limiting structures, rules, or practices and it’s going to be brilliant!?

Standing out?

For small businesses, it can be difficult to know how to appeal to budding apprentices.?From the job description to practical tasks, it's important that your company has a stand out hiring process that job seekers can understand.??

Here’s some things that I think might help you stand out from the crowd??

• Don’t add too many mandatory skill requirements as that can put off talent from applying. Show off your company culture. So candidates can align their values with yours.?
• Offer a flexible working environment that facilitates a healthy work/life balance.?
• Offer new starters a clear career development timeline and demonstrate the value you place on training.??
• Provide human interaction to prospective employees by hosting a virtual session or simple coffee catch up, or?an informal format.?

Well I hope this insight has been useful and has inspired you to think outside the box when it comes to finding talent.?

Happy new year and may 2023 be a prosperous one for all of you.?

Until next time.?

Steph xx??