In the light of the government’s report into young people not in employment, education or training, Simon Kent asks what needs to happen now and how HR should respond.
It could be easy to dismiss Alan Milburn’s Young People and Work: Interim Report as something HR could worry about but be unable to act upon. After all, more than a million young people not in employment, education or training is surely first and foremost a failing of the education and welfare system rather than anything to do with the workplace? And as for their own part in this scenario, organisations could be seen on the one hand as subject to enormous pressure from AI use and the demand for efficiency to cut back on personnel – and particularly those who may take a while to bring ROI to a business, while on the other hand, if they are looking for early career talent are they actually able to find candidates with the aptitude, experience and skills they need?
In any case, at this point in time it may also be reasonable for employers to sit tight – Milburn’s current report is only the ‘discovery phase’ of the process – ‘solutions’ are to follow.
However, the crisis identified here comes at the start of the talent pipeline. That means it’s not just about what those young people are doing now, it’s about what they might be able to offer in the future. Therefore there are implications here for all employers considering their future workforce. A dearth of experienced new workers today might mean a dearth of experienced talented managers and leaders tomorrow.
“As HR leaders, we can no longer afford to sit passively at the end of the education pipeline,” says Suzanna Kemal, Head of HR at Reward Gateway/Edenred. “If the system is broken, employers have to stop being mere consumers of talent and start becoming co-creators of it.”
The HR function may not be able to influence classroom teaching – nor should it necessarily – but Kemal indicates the use of initiatives such as up-scaling non-graduate pathways, opening internships to those who need them, and offering coaching for people to achieve their potential. Through these initiatives, she says, “Corporate UK can stop the conveyor belt to unemployment.”
Workforce Planning
“This warning should not be treated as a separate youth issue as it is also a workforce planning issue for employers that are struggling to find people with the right skills,” says Imran Akhtar, Head of Academy at talent and training organisation mthree. “There’s too much focus on whether early career professionals are work-ready, but employers also need to assess their routes into work.” Again, as the traditional routes into employment evaporate and evolve the emphasis falls on reconsidering pathways to work – what kind of experience should employers be looking for before they welcome young people into their organisation? HR may not have control of the young talent pipeline, but they do hold the keys to the door of employment.
Akhtar highlights the use of Hire Train Deploy models to give employers the ability to train emerging talent against job requirements, and young people a clearer route into work. “The priority now is to turn potential into capability, quickly and deliberately,” he says.
Jeanette Wheeler, Chief People Officer at MHR, notes that 45% of young people who are NEET now report having a disability – more than double the proportion recorded just over a decade ago. “While HR teams cannot address every underlying cause of young people identified as NEET, this does not exempt them from playing their part in addressing the issue, especially given the ongoing skills gap conversations,” she says.
Keeping young people in work is as much a part of the NEET conversation as helping people into it.”
Wheeler warns against recruitment practices that prioritise experience over potential, or the tendency for employers to avoid young candidates due to economic uncertainty. These are barriers which HR teams can do something about.
“AI is undoubtedly contributing to the decline of entry-level roles,” says Wheeler. “Many of the routine tasks once assigned to graduates and apprentices, such as compiling reports, summarising documents and data entry, are now automated. As a result, employers increasingly expect new hires to contribute in different ways from day one, making it harder for inexperienced candidates to get a foot in the door.”
Ambiguity and Uncertainty
Rebecca Rodger, Apprentice & Talent Development Manager at Ricoh UK worries that UK businesses are being ambiguous about their investment and strategy for optimising AI within their organisations. This uncertainty plays forward to the young/early careers market, creating confusion for young people about where they should invest their development time and what the roles of the future might look like. “If that’s because we just don’t know what we don’t know, organisations need to get clear on that fast,” says Rodger.
“Bring intelligent, invested young people along on the journey,” she advises. “Accelerate rapidly by investing in upskilling young people to help us do that thinking. They’re more digitally aware and already contextualising AI in their day-to-day lives with ease – they’re prime placed to accelerate how organisations do the same.”
Rodger says Ricoh UK already have programmes to train Digital and AI Support Associates, and this resource is ready to be scaled.
“Businesses should recognise early years as valued, pipeline talent and not a nice-to-do social value activity,” she says. “Be strategic about early-career investment and have a plan to push those young people through the business to become the Digital Leaders of the future. By having real progression plans, it prevents stagnation at early or middle leadership levels and ensures new, diverse talent is constantly coming through the business.”
Looking to the Future
Vicky Walker, Chief People Officer at health and wellbeing provider Westfield Health warns that organisations – and the government – should not be looking for short term fixes to this issue. “Keeping young people in work is as much a part of the NEET conversation as helping people into it,” she says. For her, ensuring young people stay fit and healthy enough for work is core to meeting the challenge. As with Jeanette Wheeler she is aware of the health challenges that are sometimes preventing young people from making a full and continuous contribution to the workplace.
“Health, and particularly mental health, is the primary and fastest growing driver of young people leaving work altogether,” she says. Walker believes employers can have an impact here – they see their people every day, and are therefore well placed to notice when someone is struggling. They also have the opportunity to do something about it. “Early intervention can be beneficial both for the employee and the business in equal measure,” she says.
Westfield’s own research found that over half (53%) of 18 to 24-year-olds experience burnout all the time or quite often – a fact that Walker says should give HR leaders pause for thought. “Young workers entering the job market are doing so carrying significant stress, and in many cases that isn’t being picked up or addressed until it becomes a much bigger problem,” she says.
If you are not investing in young people today, you’re not investing in your business long-term.”
Westfield also found that only 7% of 18 to 24-year-olds used workplace support when seeking help for their mental health – one of the lowest of any channel available to them. This raises questions about whether provision is visible enough, accessible enough, or feels safe enough for younger workers to use.
“Retaining younger talent has a direct bearing on productivity, on retention costs, and on the long-term health of the business,” notes Walker. “They make up part of a workforce which requires specific attention rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Joint Responsibility, Joint Action
Advania’s COO Nick Isherwood calls on both the government and businesses to act now in order to slow down NEET numbers, adding that his company are proud to be supporting school leavers and graduates as they take their first steps in the world of work. “Many of our peers also claim to be tech companies with people at their heart, but if you’re not investing in the people who will one day be your leaders, this is a false claim,” he says. “Young people bring fresh ideas and approaches that move businesses forward, especially in the era of AI. If you are not investing in young people today, you’re not investing in your business long-term.”
Isherwood believes that the increase in minimum wages is closing the gap between experienced and non-experienced hires: “Businesses are forced to derisk the hiring challenge by paying marginally more but not having the training costs and the threat of the minimum wages being forced up and above affordable ranges verses experience offered,” he says. “The trade-off is getting too difficult to justify. Businesses need more government support to make it make sense again.” Isherwood says increasing wages at such a rate every year is a key cause of this kind of unemployment as employers don’t have the time or resources to pay the high wage bills and then also offer the required training.
Dr Marcia A Dawkins, Senior Research Scientist at Center for Creative Leadership feels that the NEET issue is a signal that the traditional pathways connecting education, work and opportunity are being rewritten, in part due to the contribution now being made by AI. “To me, the question for HR isn’t whether NEETs are ‘untested,’” she says, “It’s whether organisations are still testing for yesterday’s definition of readiness with today’s tools.”
A re-definition of easy career talent is therefore required. One which, according to Dawkins moves away from viewing the issue as a crisis to one which sees it as “an opportunity to identify resilient, adaptable and curious leaders and rethink how they assess human potential in an AI-enabled world.”
