People are hired because of their experiences, smart technical skills and growth potential but managing young professionals requires certain strategies as compared to other employees. Here are 20 ways to manage your entry-level employees and help them to settle down into that new role.
The Transition Phase: The transition phase from student to employee is full of stress, confusion and excitement. There is a need to help employees for recognizing his abilities and to overcome this transition phase. A support system of an organization helps them in this regard. Employers need to think that how they can help their new employees in this change of time.
Manager with Good Communication Skills: All employees need the right kind of manager who has strong communication skills, and fond of teaching, mentoring and helping employees in interacting with other employees.
Guide them Well: It is necessary that manager spends more time with the employees. In the beginning, employees should be briefed about their job responsibilities in detail. Lengthy boardroom meetings, training sessions and upfront experiences can help them in understanding the business and services in a comfortable manner as they follow operating procedures.
Give them Experience: Many employers directly assign new managers with challenging projects and the real experiences begin from the start. Job experiences can be different, with the help of proper guidelines, it can help individual to become an invaluable team member for the organization. Risk taking is good at the initial stage, however, the right amount of supervision and task structure can minimize the influence of risk taking.
Invest at your Earliest: It is better to make sacrifices sooner, and recognize the skills of young employees. Many organizations prefer to invest on the young employees, as they understand the skill gaps and develop structural plan for their professional development in their early years. Once they are better equipped, they can contribute well at the higher level.
Listen to them: Young employees have lot of expectations from their managers and they don’t like the idea of being dictated around, especially when they are not equipped to handle their tasks. Once they are equipped, they like to be given directions and want someone who values their inputs.
Feedback is Important: Annual performance evaluation is not enough but a regular feedback on the given tasks can be helpful to know where he or she stands. Constant feedback helps in gaining productivity.
Provide Flexibility: Young professionals have different approach towards life. They see professional and personal life differently and they try to blend both. Employers should follow a flexible approach so things can be dealt in a progressive manner.
Play with Variations: Young employees should be given variety of work as they tend to thrive on variations. More productivity comes on short projects and help employers to hone their true skills.
Find their Strengths: When employers train their employees, they are actually finding their strengths and areas where they can improve and function better. They will make mistakes but their fresh knowledge, energy and willingness to view things with diverse perspective can help the organization. All they need is a proper direction and opportunities to explore.
Entrepreneurship Opportunities: Research has shown that young professionals want to become entrepreneurs and have lot of brilliant ideas to work on. By offering them numerous opportunities, they can be productive to create innovative products or services, and create success stories.
Be a Mentor: A great mentor is experienced, and can be a leader, or supervisor and facilitates professionals in all matters. He guides employees on important matters and provides a sound objective for career growth.
Direct them towards the Right Career: Employers should be clear and focused in guiding their team. Young employees are keen to move ahead and work actively. Discuss alternative careers and developmental options, and tell them through case studies that how young people have achieved success in the past.
Provide Additional Responsibilities Carefully: Young professionals are smart and eager to take ‘all in,’ so follow their workload carefully and help them managing their time and prioritizing work.
Professionalism should be the Priority: Young employees might not know the norms of workplace but a lighthearted conversation during lunch times or during happy hours can be useful to tell them about setting ground limitations, and dealing with inappropriate behaviors.
Defining the Friend and Co-worker Perimeters: Young professionals tend to view coworkers as friends and can make things too complicated. Similarly, when friends get promoted, managing relationships can be tough. So a balanced policy has to be maintained in this regard.
Important Policies have to be discussed: Employers have to clarify about the dress code, harassment, social media and internet related policies of the workplace and their consequences.
Explain HR Benefits: Young employees must know about the key benefits related to health, travelling and insurance that can help them lead a comfortable life.
Be a Role Model: Young employees will consider you a role model at the workplace and will develop a uniformed pattern like you. In the early days of their working life, use their soft nature to mold them in positive ways.
Train your Young Team: When employer hire young people, train them to become a strong leader.
Author Bio
Sadia Maqsood is the author of training and personal development blog. She usually writes about leadership and HR training courses .You can also follow her on Twitter @ikluae to get in touch with upcoming training.