Closing the workplace-readiness gap

Early-career employees may arrive with strong technical knowledge and ambition, but the transition from education to the workplace can leave organisations carrying a hidden cost in manager time, productivity and development. AIMWA says a more structured approach can help close the gap.

For organisations competing to attract the next generation of talent, recruiting promising graduates and early-career employees is only the beginning.

The bigger challenge can be turning that potential into employees who are confident and effective in the workplace.

AIMWA chief learning and innovation officer Drew Mayhills said employers were seeing young people enter organisations with strong technical knowledge, fresh perspectives and a willingness to learn.

However, there was often a distinction between being ready for a job and being ready for the workplace.

“A lot of the things that make someone effective at work aren't necessarily taught in traditional education environments,” Mr Mayhills said.

“It's knowing how to communicate with different people, how to manage competing priorities, how to ask for help, how to receive feedback graciously and how to exercise judgement when there isn't an obvious right answer.”

The issue is not one of capability, he said, but of recognising that moving from education into a professional environment is a significant transition.

That transition can also carry a hidden cost for employers.

When early-career employees are still learning how to operate effectively, managers can spend considerable time explaining expectations, reviewing work, correcting misunderstandings and intervening in situations that more experienced employees might handle independently.

Some of this is an inevitable part of developing people. But Mr Mayhills said organisations could reduce the burden by helping employees develop fundamental workplace capabilities earlier.

“If we can help new starters build those capabilities earlier, we can reduce some of that load on managers and help people become productive and confident more quickly,” he said.

Beyond ‘soft’ skills

Communication, judgement, self-management, emotional intelligence and the ability to work effectively with others are among the areas where early-career employees can require the most development.

Often labelled “soft skills”, Mr Mayhills said there was nothing particularly soft about mastering them.

“They’re hard to do well,” he said.

“It’s one thing to understand communication or teamwork in theory, it’s another to navigate a difficult conversation, manage competing priorities or work out what your manager actually needs from you.”

Managers have traditionally shouldered much of the responsibility for teaching these skills while simultaneously inducting employees into the culture, expectations and stakeholder relationships of their organisation.

While managers would always play an important role in an employee's development, Mr Mayhills said relying on them to build workplace readiness from scratch was neither reasonable nor efficient.

Instead, structured early-career development could establish a common foundation, allowing managers to focus more on coaching employees and extending their capabilities.

“People will always learn on the job,” he said. “The question is whether we want that learning to happen largely by accident, or with intention.”

A changing workplace

The need for more deliberate development has arguably increased as the way people begin their careers has changed.

Hybrid working means some of the informal learning that traditionally happened through proximity to experienced colleagues is less readily available.

Early-career employees may have fewer opportunities to overhear conversations, observe how colleagues navigate challenging situations or absorb the subtle cues that reveal how an organisation operates.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is changing the capabilities expected of new employees.

Mr Mayhills said AI literacy was increasingly important, but workplace readiness required more than knowing how to use the technology.

“Someone entering the workforce today has access to incredibly powerful tools from day one, which creates huge opportunity, but it also makes judgement more important,” he said.

“Being workplace-ready now includes knowing how to use technology effectively without outsourcing your thinking to it.”

For employers, investing in employees at the beginning of their careers can have benefits well beyond their first year.

Structured development can help employees become productive sooner, reduce the time managers spend dealing with avoidable issues and improve employees’ experience of entering an organisation.

It can also establish capabilities that strengthen over time.

“If people learn early how to communicate well, work effectively with others, respond to feedback and take responsibility for their own development, those capabilities compound over time,” Mr Mayhills said.

The longer-term workforce implications may be even more important.

“If organisations want capable managers, specialists and leaders in five or ten years’ time, the investment in developing them cannot begin five or ten years from now.”