Youth of today? They’re still in the office

Jo Faragher

Anyone who still crows about ‘the youth of today’ would be shocked by figures released by OfficeGenie this week showing that 16- to 24-year-olds actually put the most overtime in of any age group.

The company’s research showed that this age group put in an average of seven hours and 22 minutes extra each week – pretty much a full day’s work. Older workers, comparatively, put fewer extra hours in – employees in their thirties and forties worked around five and a half hours extra per week, around the average for all the groups surveyed.

As Ciaron Dunne, OfficeGenie’s CEO, points out, this goes against popular opinion that tends to paint younger workers as “workshy with a sense of entitlement”, not to mention a number of studies by employer bodies such as the CBI that have claimed young people are ill-prepared for the world of work.

True, school leavers or fresh graduates may not be as used to making decisions or know the art of good business communication, but this suggests they are not afraid to stick around the office and absorb the fruits of others’ experience. Arguably there’s an opportunity here for employers to boost young people’s skills during that extra time they give back to the business – perhaps through mentoring or the chance to discuss their career plans with someone they admire?

The rise in apprenticeships and other vocational routes means that there are far more viable alternatives to university than there used to be, and savvy employers recognize that they can’t expect the education system to make their new recruits ‘oven ready’, but that they need to take some responsibility for this themselves. There are great examples of projects where employers take on young people for pre-employment programmes that offer work experience and support with things like CV writing or preparing for an interview – all things that they may be tackling for the first time.

And once they’re in the business, they should be providing the best role models possible so that young people come up to speed quickly, not just with the job itself, but with vital life skills such as the confidence to deal with new people.

Couple this support with the enthusiasm for hard graft the OfficeGenie survey suggests young people possess, and we should be breeding a healthy new generation of managers, business owners and engaged employees.