If you live In a place that has 4 seasons, spring is a wonderful time. It’s the end of winter and new growth is everywhere. The dull endless brown has been replaced by the many variations of green. The cold air has become warmer and the sun’s heat is more intense.
This is also an exciting time for many students who are leaving school to find a job and begin their careers. They want to put into practice the things that they’ve learnt. For employers, it’s an opportunity to add some new blood to their existing work force.
Graduated students bring many things to the workforce: a keenness to learn and grow their skills; a different outlook; a clean slate; a high level of comfort with new technology; and they give companies a hope for the future.
– Every student is coming out of an educational environment. They’ve had to learn to manage their time, learn and master new concepts, and likely had to pay for that privilege.
– They know that they’re going to be working for the next 40 years.
– They know that despite all school gave them, it can’t give them real-life experience.
– They know that they can’t just step into the workforce and take over; there are too many gaps in their knowledge.
– They’ve taken time and money to prepare themselves to be presentable for their new employer.
– This is a different generation entering the workforce. The obvious sign is the many articles and seminars available for helping employers understand the Millennials.
– They communicate differently.
– They learn differently.
– Their view of the world is different.
– These young students can help bring about the different outlook you’re going to need to adapt to the new changes coming to your company.
– Students are very flexible; they haven’t learnt all the different ways of doing things.
– Sometimes companies want to bring about change in how things are done. With fresh minds, this is a good time to do it.
– McDonald’s (the hamburger people) are one of the companies, who do very well with these clean slates. They’ve figured out how to teach them good work habits and apply them in their jobs. These are taught skills that can be easily transferred to other industries.
– Of course, our own experience tells us that when we were fresh and impressionable, we learnt things that have been with us all our working life.
– Older workers can view technology as a competitor; or worse, a constant reminder of how out of step they are in the new work environment.
– Younger workers see the automated world as a friend. It can make them more productive and can eliminate the drudgery of repetitive jobs. With new technology, even if they don’t know how to use it, they know that it can be learnt and mastered: no problem.
– They’ve spent a lifetime using products that are constantly being upgraded: for better or worse.
– Having older and younger generations work together can benefit everyone. Older employees can share their wealth of knowledge and experience with new students, and the new students can help older employees with new technology.
– Whether you like the thought or not, no company will exist without adding “new blood” into the business.
– No matter how much you love your old faithful employees it doesn’t stop the aging process.
Students can bring good things into a business. Of course, it doesn’t mean you should load up on them. But they can be gradually integrated into the business. You need to remember every good employee you have (or had) all had a beginning, (and the beginning might not’ve looked very bright). But, over time they’ve learnt and mastered and became great employees.
Cheers,
Ron-Son’s Torch
