Actionable Ways to Help Young Employees Improve | #hrmanagement #hrexecutive

If you’re working a nine-to-five, we are sure you remember how it felt like the first days on the job. Integrating into your new role, gelling well with everyone else, and coming up to speed with the company process was challenging. And perhaps your company has just taken on a bunch of new young hires who don’t seem to know what they’re doing.

Many people go through the same thing in the initial stages of their careers, and if you didn’t go through it, you have witnessed it. Maybe it’s because young hires lack experience, are too young, or the role demands too much of them. Whatever it might be, it’s always good to remember that most shake off their first-day jitters and move on to have successful careers.

But they need a helping hand before they can reach that stage. This article will look at how easy it is to help young employees and who should be responsible. So if you’re ready to learn more, keep reading.

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Helping Young Employees at Work – Whose Job Is It?

When young employees underperform at their jobs, there is always the question of who should be responsible. On the one hand, some things depend solely on an employee’s internal motivations, while the company should exclusively provide others for their improvement.

For instance, a company should provide training to all new hires for their roles before demanding good performance from them. This is especially true with young employees with limited experience and trying to build confidence in their skills. Training them will help them know they are doing the right thing and be more confident at work. Their direct managers should also keep an eye on them and guide them through complex processes the first few times they work on them.

Furthermore, companies should pay their young employees’ industry rates for high-skill jobs to keep them motivated and performing well. Paying such employees entry-level salaries will only lead to dissatisfaction in the job from the employees and subpar performance for the company.

In addition, young employees decide to seek out a new job because of burnout. According to Money-zine.com, 88% of millennials and 94% of Gen Zers might not be enthusiastic about working in a job where the demands are too high. 

Actionable Ways to Help Young Employees Improve

1. Allow Them to Fail

One of the best ways to help young employees improve is by letting them work out challenges on their own. Let them determine the best fixes and devise ways and processes to deal with them, but of course, within reason. Furthermore, let them know that sometimes failing is part of the process, and when they do, you will be there to help them pick up and get going again.

Letting your young employees know it’s okay to fail is one of the most empowering things you could ever do for them. It will give them the confidence to tackle challenges more confidently and improve.

2. Train Them to Succeed at Their Roles

Young employees don’t have a broad foundation of the job market’s needs besides their educational training. And sometimes, this training might not even reflect the actual job needs. So it’s essential to train them on the exact requirements of their jobs and give them the tools and processes they require to succeed.

3. Be Patient

This is easier said than done, but patience is essential for young employees to build their confidence and acquire the necessary skills. It will also help you build trust between yourself and the young employees, which could help you reduce job turnover.

4. Emphasize their Strong Points

Each employee has something different they bring to the table. So, find out each strength and allow them to tackle tasks that challenge them. You should also make a point of helping employees who are weaker than others or are weak with some aspects of their jobs. This will not only help them improve but provide job satisfaction.

Finding the Root Cause of Underperformance

Many reasons can cause young employees to underperform in their roles. However, that is not to say that they cannot improve or be made to do better. With the proper guidance, you can train young hires on a handful of things, and they can perform remarkably well. The trick is finding the root cause of underperformance and addressing those issues.

So if you’re responsible for a young employee who’s finding it challenging to do some tasks, implement some of the things discussed in this piece, and you should see some differences.