Focusing on Youth in Hiring is Hurting Your Organizational Health
In the Fall of 1984, Ronald Reagan, at the time the oldest U.S. President in history, was in a fight for re-election. In his first debate with youthful challenger Walter Mondale, he appeared tired and lacking energy. Many began to question his stamina for the job. In the second debate, he was asked a question about his age and being able to function in tough circumstances and in a crisis. Without hesitation, Reagan said the lines that we wish would be used more by older candidates seeking a job today: “Not at all… and I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” He never looked back and won re-election in a landslide. Underlying the humor of Reagan’s response (even Mondale laughed at the time) is the truth in his words. Do we, and organizations in general, consciously and/or subconsciously choose “youth and inexperience” over “experience and wisdom” to our detriment and even to the detriment of the younger employees we onboard? Are we missing training, coaching, mentoring, and even reverse mentoring opportunities that would ultimately lower turnover and benefit the entire organization? Is it time to rethink age in hiring, especially in the current “candidate’s market,” and get away from the misconceptions and perceived costs of hiring older workers and focus on the benefits? In Search of Experience and Wisdom “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” – Mark Twain Most can agree that experience and wisdom are good things, but there are clearly also times when age and health can lead to poor performance. On the flip side, performance in younger employees could be just as impacted by a lack of training (investment in your personnel), mentoring, and coaching, which could lead to increased turnover and impact the future of your entire organization. We recently placed a 61-year-old candidate into a client who simply couldn’t ignore the fact that she would make the entire department better. Instead of age being a negative, this particular person’s depth of work and life experience, high energy, and continual learning mindset, as well as the fact that she had been a coach and mentor to several in the same field for decades, became a major positive. She didn’t need training— she was going to become the trainer. The client saw that this was a resource that many of his Millennials could tap into, and concerns over age and longevity in the position were overcome. Too often as business leaders, we look for “shiny and new” over “tried and true.” On the flip side, the disdain that many in the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have for Millennials (and vice versa) is not a new phenomenon. Saying that Millennials are more prone to leaving jobs and switching companies than previous generations is misleading. They leave jobs because they are young and new to the workforce, and there was probably little in the way of training investment, coaching, and mentoring to keep them there and get them through the rough patches. According to Pew Research and a study they did comparing Millennials to Gen Xers, the percentage of 18-to-35-year-old employees who stayed with their employers for 13 months or more was 63.4% for Millennials in 2016 and 59.9% for Gen Xers in 2000. In addition, the percentage of these same groups who had been with their employers for 5 years or more was 22% for Millennials in 2016 and 21.8% for Gen Xers in 2000. It is easy to form generalizations about generations and blame the Millennials for leaving because they do not “have a strong work ethic.” It is also envy, and we have all been there. Ask an all-star major league baseball player from the 70s or 80s if he wouldn’t want the salary of even the most mediocre ballplayer today? What about Millennials just entering the workforce out of college? According to Mike Brown and the “The Class of 2018 Career Report” conducted by LendEDU, 41.3% had already found a job, and of those, only 37% envision staying at that same job for over 3 years. 28% of those who had found a job envisioned staying at their job for up to 3 years, while 25% thought they would last 6 months to a year, and 10% said they would leave as soon as something better came along (click here for the full study at LendEDU). The research indicates that younger workers are leaving your company, not because they are “Millennials.” They are leaving because they don’t see the career path and opportunity they’re looking for, and they may indeed have higher expectations, or they simply need guidance. They may have been thrown into a position without proper onboarding or training and are learning simply by making mistakes, which can be soul-crushing. In a recent Udemy “Workplace Boredom Report,” 46% of employees are looking to leave their companies because of a lack of opportunity to learn new skills. This is when a more experienced and wise counterpart can provide the training, skills, career/life guidance, coaching, and patience that can help them learn the position, see their fit within the company, adapt to the culture, and see a future. Do you have a mentoring program? There is a wealth of company, industry, and subject knowledge in older workers that Millennials can tap into and that employers should value. Programs that enable knowledge transfer and connect younger and older workers have been found to have a high return on investment because of the impact they have on increasing retention rates, promotions, and overall employee satisfaction. There is also a benefit in reverse mentoring in which older executives are paired and mentored in turn by younger employees on technology, social media, and trends. After all, what organization couldn’t benefit from a free exchange of ideas, wisdom, and engagement between employees in different generations?
The Graduate’s 5-Step Guide to Landing Your First Internship or Professional Job
As an intern at BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group, and as a student at Indiana University, I have experienced a wide range of career courses, internships, resume workshops, and interview processes. The following is a guide and helpful tips to use when navigating the post-graduation world with a focus on entering the professional sector. Colleges have many resources available to their students for career-specific use including workshops, cover letter help sessions, mock interviews and more. At Indiana University, students like myself are required to take career courses before they can graduate. As one goes through this process, which can be seen as a waste of time by many, one thing that becomes apparent is that you are in competition with thousands of your fellow classmates. However, this competition should not be seen as a barrier but added motivation to take your game to the next level. It is important for students and newly minted professionals to hit the ground running. The current economic market is in need of young professionals, especially with unemployment at historic lows. Although many companies send recruiters to universities, there are countless other options to pursue. Time should not be wasted contemplating. Rather, it should be spent with “boots on the ground” strategies to begin searching, applying, and interviewing for positions. Although intimidating, the professional world offers immediate feedback. It is ultimately up to you to use your knowledge and skills to find a position that fits your needs and the needs of the company. Step 1: Prepare for the Search As a new college graduate, it is important to make sure you are up to date. This entails having your resume ready to tailor to any position with your latest experience, skills, and related information presented appropriately (See our post on Resume Writing). Young graduates should also make sure to leave their sweatpants in the dorm and make sure they are fully stocked with professional clothing (a nice interview suit at the very least). These seemingly small preparations can make the job search process much less intimidating. LinkedIn also plays a key role in young professional lives. As graduates enter this new world, their names are a blank canvas. There is often little to no knowledge on a young professional, other than what is listed on their resume or social media (and it is important to keep your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other media clean). LinkedIn provides employers an excellent resource to find more background information on a potential job candidate. Thus, new graduates need to have their information current on LinkedIn, along with a relevant professional picture (head shot) to post on the profile. If you can afford it, look into LinkedIn Premium and start building connections. Being up-to-date on LinkedIn is important for employers since it is often the first place they look for more information and is also a critical first impression outside of your resume. Step 2: The Search Initial searches can be done on your school’s career center website, via Google, Indeed, and other search sources, or via your network that you have built through connections. A wonderful source of job postings is available on LinkedIn, where you can easily apply for jobs as your information is already up to date. Throughout my search I had specific roles and organizations in mind. I never ruled any position or organization out of the realm of possibilities, but this can be challenging and extremely time consuming. It is important to keep the competitive motivating factors fresh in your mind to keep you moving through the entire search and open your mind to opportunities you may not have previously considered. Do your due-diligence on researching a company, not only on the job post, but also the company’s website and its employees. As discussed in a previous post, websites such as, Glassdoor.com, Careerbliss.com and Vault.com are excellent resources to use when examining a company, its culture, its interview process, structure and background. By examining companies as a whole, I was able to sift through hundreds of postings to narrow my list of interesting internships to ten. After that, I had to delve deeper into the companies to find what was ultimately the right fit for me. Step 3: Communicate It is common for young professionals to hit a wall when trying to decide which of these positions to apply for. I could have applied to all ten positions. However, I would risk being overwhelmed by multiple hiring processes, which would lead to the creation of generic cover letters and other bad habits in the application and interview process. Instead, I focused and began reaching out to my shortlist of companies and organizations in search of who was hiring the specific position I was interested in. At the very minimum, I would get a name to address my cover letter to, and with further digging, I would be able to open a line of communication with the person who had the power to potentially hire me for the position. It is vital to open a line of communication and begin a relationship with the company of interest to get a better feel for how they operate. Doing this made it easy for me to construct a tailor-made cover letter, which is becoming a lost art, specific to the organization or individual I had been interacting with. I could also alter my resume specific to the position and the company after I had spoken with someone inside the organization. In my case, the communications and personalization of my documents were convincing enough to get my foot in the door and obtain an interview, which is really the purpose of a resume and cover letter. Step 4: The Interview After steps one through three, you are either one of two things: exhausted or excited. If exhausted, now is the time where it becomes important to draw on those past college experiences to gain motivation and recall those ho-hum mock interviews, which was rare practical knowledge