The insurance company, Direct Line, has released its research from small and medium businesses which talks about the barriers to employing young people.

From a sample of 500 UK business owners, Direct Line has strongly highlighted their stats which suggest that that employing young people can come with problems.

People are naturally drawn to a negative bias and will share the bad experiences and thoughts first over and above any positive experiences.

The issues highlighted by this research, .i.e the perceptions of employing young people is the very reason we created Access Generation. We understand that by learning from others that do it well the negative experiences can be avoided and the benefits of employing young people can be enjoyed.

On the surface, the youth unemployment statistics have improved (12.4%) however, the government include students in full time education within their employment figures. We know that 46% students, both college and university work to sustain themselves. The number of young people not in employment, education or training stubbornly stays at around 794,000.

We want to share with your our response to the Direct Line research and our conversations from employers who have had a positive experience of employing young people.

Direct Line research:

• 1 in 6 businesses avoid employing under 21 year olds due to issues their business has faced in the past when employing young people

Our response:

From talking to businesses about their experience of employing young people we know that young people can make a valuable contribution to a business. This does take a little bit of know-how and effort.

If you relate back to your own experience of employing people then an experienced person presents a different set of challenges e.g. previous work habits/baggage or preconceived ideas and resistence to change or new ways of working.

Direct Line research:

• 40% of businesses said that a lack of experience was a major barrier to employment for young people

Our response:

Lack of experience can be a good thing. Here’s what HR Manager at Impero Software told us: “Young people without experience don’t have any previous baggage. The difference in development time between experienced employees and an inexperienced person is short but within a few weeks they’re on the phone to customers and within a month they are at the same level as existing employees.”

Direct Line research:

• 24% of businesses said young people leave after a short time with the business

Our response:

You could experience a low retention rate on employing young people if you do not have the right support in place to nurture their development on the job.
We spoke to a car benefit company, Tusker, who have an average demographic of 35 years or under. Their retention rate is 87%. Head of HR, Neil Scott, said that employee engagement is a top priority so helping new recruits embed into the workplace has been fundamental in achieving their high retention rate. So, if a business has inexperienced young people leaving after a short time then perhaps they need to look at their onboarding processes and how a new recruit is supported on the job.

Direct Line research:

• 21% of businesses said the costs of training a young person is prohibitive

Our response:

This month the government introduced the apprenticeship levy for employers paying more than £3m payroll bill per annum. If your payroll bill is less than that you get 90 to 100% of your apprenticeship based training costs covered. There really is no reason not to give it a try and employ a young person.

Here’s a reminder of the business benefits to employing a young person:

• Competitive advantage – employing young people who are born into a digital world will equip your business with the expertise to understand and drive changes in technology and consumer behaviours
• Cost saving – create your own pool of talent using your website and avoid recruitment costs and create entry level roles at a lower starting salary
• Increase sales – 25% of consumers would spend more with a business that employs young people
• Improve employee engagement – if you’re an employer that does the right thing then you will improve employee engagement. Remember, many of your employees will be parents or have young family members that may be struggling to find work.

What’s your response to the Direct Line research?

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