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Recruiting Young People – Top Tips For Employers

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Businesses can employ a young person who is under the age of 18, whether for work experience or in a regular job. Organisations have the same responsibilities for their well-being, safe practices and contentment as they do for all other staff. Giving young people the opportunity to work can assist them in understanding how a work environment operates and help them to decide on future careers. Communities want their young people to be provided with opportunities to develop new skills and gain practical knowledge suitable to use at work.

Young people who are over school-leaving age, in addition to being under 18, are often known as young workers. You can find special legal guidelines to safeguard the employment rights of young workers. Most of these guidelines are about their health and safety, what work they are able to carry out, if they are fit to work, and the number of hours they are allowed to work. These legal guidelines are strict and can lead to prosecution for any company acting outside of them.

Allowing young people to start work at your organisation might help them to experience work conditions, decide on a potential career path or get them ready for work. An understanding of workplace risk and how they might deal with it can be one of the most important benefits offered by a work placement.

Safe practices for young workers - what you should know

Companies should basically utilise their existing measures to evaluate and manage risks at work when they hire a young worker. If you are not employing a young person at the moment, or haven’t done so within the last couple of years, and you are hiring a work placement young person for the very first time, or one with special needs, you should evaluate your risk assessment prior to their start.

Discuss the position with interviewers ahead of time. Consider what the young candidate and the carers or parents inform you about their physical and mental capability or specific needs, for instance, any learning difficulties or medical conditions.

Benefits of hiring a young worker

Young people are committed

Despite the fact that they may not have practical knowledge, newly employed young workers are usually easier to train because they are motivated and eager to succeed.

Young workers can increase your workforce

Young workers can provide a cost-effective solution to expand your workforce. When you hire a young worker, it can lead to a beneficial return on investment, in addition to financial rewards. Hiring a young person to a workforce can provide other staff the opportunity to build their own skills. Young employees will certainly be enthusiastic about their first real job, with a real passion to learn and build their career.

Willpower to succeed

Selecting a young person for employment could also provide the business with the opportunity to become a better employer. You’ll be able to work alongside them to promote common ideals and good practices from the start. Young workers often bring their inspiration from everywhere. They seek to generate a long-lasting impression and are keen to show what they can do. Their absolute willpower to execute their work can encourage their co-workers around them.

Young people are active

There are various positive aspects to employing a young individual. They generally possess energy and a natural hunger for knowledge, which can transfer to colleagues and help revive the work environment.

Important reasons why companies bring young people to their establishments:

 • developing talent and workforce

 • young people’s unique knowledge, perceptions and enthusiasm

 • diversity in the workforce

 • brand awareness

 • cost-effectiveness.

You can look at these factors and appreciate how young people might perform in different organisations. Nevertheless, despite industry’s ever-growing confidence in hiring young people, there are still variations in requirements. For instance, in the food industry, cost-effectiveness is often the priority whilst in telecoms, digital literacy is a critical factor.

Involvement with the local community is a significant motivating factor for many sectors to hire young people, and the opportunity to gain access to a wider pool of talent as well as guaranteed succession arrangements.

Young workers might not have the range of experience that many organisations feel they require, however, they are definitely the employees of tomorrow. Any decision to invest in young workers can help companies to:

 • develop a solid pipeline of long-term staff

 • build skills transfer with young employees and retain expertise in-house

 • build a dedicated, dependable staff, able to carry through future business targets

 • develop a workforce to fit organisational requirements

 • target potential skills gaps.