Bridging the Gap – Making young people a vital part of every workforce

This report from the Institute for Employment Studies  is part of a three-year research project for the Health Foundation’s Young People’s Future Health Inquiry, focused on understanding how to develop effective approaches in policy and practice which will improve access to good quality youth employment and achieve systemic change across the four UK nations. 

The inquiry is a wide-ranging, multi-year programme aimed at influencing the policy agenda to recognise that young people’s experiences between the ages of 12 and 25 have crucial consequences for their future health outcomes.

This report looks at employers’ perspective on and experience of good quality youth employment. The aim of this report is to understand how employers’ perceptions and experiences of youth employment are evolving, how they compare to young people’s own experiences, and how this can inform policy and practice around good quality youth employment.

Key Findings 

• Although large numbers of young people are currently looking for work, employers in the research are not always hiring from these age groups. 
• Employers are most likely to hire young people to build a talent pipeline but being able to pay young people lower wages is still a key consideration for many.
• Employers have limited experience hiring young people who experience disadvantage.
• There is a discrepancy between employers’ and young people’s perceptions of good work. 
• Employers are aware of what makes good work and are confident that they offer it to young people, but their perception of this varies from young people’s.
• Employers look for the ‘right fit’ when recruiting young people and place emphasis on their digital skills but struggle with young people’s expectations of work given their relative lack of experience.
• Unsuitable applications, a perceived lack of interview skills and smaller pools of skilled candidates are common challenges in the recruitment of young people.
• Employers have a positive experience of managing young people but find meeting their support needs challenging.
• Employers view young people as prone to ‘job hopping’ but recognise the role good work plays in retention.
• Employers engage with universities and colleges more often than with schools and employment services but feel that careers services do a poor job of preparing young people for work.
• Employers want more support to manage young people’s health in the workplace and call for improvements to careers guidance and education, but do not know what else could support them to provide better quality work.
• Employers’ age appears to influence attitudes and behaviours around youth employment.
• Employers in small organisations encounter more significant challenges around youth employment compared to those in larger organisations. 

Recommendations

• Incentivising employers to hire young people. This can be done by central government through financial incentives, as evidenced in international practice.
• Building better pathways from education to work through improved investment in high-quality careers guidance and support. 
• Strengthening the role of intermediary organisations. Central and local government should increase resourcing for intermediary organisations, ranging from local Jobcentres to third-sector organisations, which play a vital role in providing local employers with the support that can help improve their hiring practices and advance their equality, diversity and inclusion ambitions. 
• Improving standards of pay for young people. In order to meet their ambitions for good work and to attract and retain young people, employers need to increase their standards of pay for young people.
• Strengthening young people’s voice and involving them in decision-making. Employers should ensure young employees can consistently access voice and representation platforms, and are mindful of the barriers they may encounter due to their age and power imbalances in the workplace.
• Developing strategies for the employment of young people. Employers can place a focus on developing practices that can support disadvantaged young people into the roles they offer
• Supporting youth-friendly business cultures. Employers should view, treat, and value young employees in the same way as their other employees, and ensure their recruitment and workplace practices are not biased against young people – particularly against those from disadvantaged groups
• Improving mental health literacy. A collaborative effort is required to develop universal guidelines on supporting employees’ mental health in the workplace.
• Supporting inclusive practices. Employers can adopt practices which encourage their employees to safely disclose information on their health, wellbeing or any complex circumstances they may be facing.
• Investing in health and wellbeing support. Government should support employers to invest in providing better health and wellbeing support in the workplace