When it comes to hiring employees what do business owners value more – experience or fresh ideas? In other words hiring experienced employees or young ones? Both can be useful in their own right. Experience can help avoid mistakes that someone would make when he doesn’t quite understand all nuances of business. On the other hand fresh ideas are the lifeblood of any business. Without them businesses will not be able to compete in this hypercompetitive world. Many business owners are on the fence about hiring young employees because they think that they are not quite reliable. They tend to make mistakes hurting the business in terms of lost customers and sales. However, as I will discuss below hiring young employees does have its advantages.
Young employees are full of energy and new ideas and perspectives. Businesses that do not take advantage of these ideas stand to lose to the competitors who will. Many large corporations have dedicated programs to hire college graduates for this reason. Young employees are also willing to learn and try new things. This contrasts with older employees who are already trained who are used to working certain way and are not interested in changing it. In addition, young employees are able and willing to spend extra time and effort in learning as much as possible.
One of the big advantages of hiring young employees is that it enables you to train them at an early stage. The success of any business is largely dependent on the quality of their employees. Hiring and retaining good employees is a challenge all businesses face. When you hire young employees within some type of apprentice program it enables you to grab talent at early stage and provide training. By the time they graduate they are ready to contribute on day one without any need for onboarding or training. This can be a huge advantage when you consider the amount of effort and money businesses spend on recruiting and training.
So, how can you attract young employees to work for your business? Here are some ideas:
- Make sure you use technology to recruit them. Young employees love to use technology, so you have to place recruiting advertisement on the websites they are likely to visit.
- In addition, you have to build the company culture that will attract young employees. Companies such as Google and Facebook spend significant money in building a fun place to work and providing free lunch.
- Once you do hire young employees you need to provide them challenges and opportunities they are looking for. These employees are full of new ideas and are looking for challenge to learn and advance. If your business does not provide the challenge they are likely to move on.
- Establishing tie-ups with colleges and apprentice schools is a great way to find and attract young employees. Schools such as City & Guilds have dedicated apprentice programs by which students can get real-world experience while they are studying. If your business can participate in these programs it can help attract young employees. Many governments also provide grants and funding to run these programs.
Hiring young employees is essential for businesses. Apprentice programs provide great opportunity to attract and training these employees.
Do you have any experience with these programs? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.
