YOUNG PEOPLE BARRICADED BY RECRUITMENT PROCESSES
Future Proof, a new campaign launched by Business in the Community in conjunction with the City & Guilds Group, looks at the impact poor recruitment practices might have on an organisation’s ability to secure future talent.
Chris Jones, chief executive of the City & Guilds Group, says, “Through Future Proof, we want businesses to take a look at their practices, be honest about how youth friendly they really are – and commit to changing for the better. It’s time to act now before they miss out on the skilled, talented individuals they need for their organisations to grow in the future.”
The campaign intends to help businesses improve their recruitment processes to better attract young talent. Research commissioned by the City & Guilds Group and BITC shows that one in five young people (of the 4,000 surveyed, between the ages of 18 and 24 years-old) who had experienced a bad application process were put off the company completely, while one in ten said that they were put off an entire sector.
Barriers that the young people surveyed had encountered included their lack of previous experience (the most commonly cited obstacle), the location of the job, not having the right qualifications and the cost of the recruitment process. The Future Proof campaign aims to bring those issues to employers, helping them to find solutions and so remove the barriers between them and valuable talent.
Grace Mehanna, campaign director at Business in the Community, says, “We applaud the recent announcements from companies scrapping set UCAS points and A-level grades for entry level roles. Through our campaign we want to build on the great work that has been done and work with businesses to help shine a light on the skills they need and open their eyes to the potential of young people, not just looking at those with good academic qualifications and previous experience.
Christine Hodgson, chairman at Capgemini UK and the Careers & Enterprise Company, says, “At Capgemini we have broadened our junior intake beyond just graduates, and we are delighted with the results. Companies need to see hiring young people as part of a long term investment. With a growing skills gap; all businesses need a strategy for securing strong future talent.”