Less than 50% of UK workers are engaged at work, scoring lower than France, Australia, and the USA. Employee engagement has a significant impact on your business. An engaged workforce translates into better performance and lower staff turnover. With the cost of replacing workers so high (up to 60% of their salary), it’s more important than ever to engage graduate employees.
The bottom line is that a happy workforce equals happy customers. Focusing on strategies to engage graduate employees is a great way to future-proof your business. Despite these sizeable benefits, many organisations still aren’t doing enough to motivate and retain graduate workers.
This article covers 7 engagement strategies for young workers.
How To Engage Graduate Employees
Attracting top graduate talent to your business is just the first step. Once you hire graduate workers, you will need to keep them engaged, so they stay in your business.
Here are 7 engagement strategies that work.
1. Get to know what drives graduate employees
If you want to know how to motivate graduate employees, it all starts with understanding what drives them. As we know, each generation is different. Therefore, what motivates a generation X worker may not have the same effect on a generation Z employee.
Employee engagement is more than just salary and job perks (although they certainly play a big role). Culture, learning and development, management, and meaning all play a huge part. The only real way to learn what graduate employees in your business want is to ask them. Employee surveys, interviews, and informal focus groups can give you the answers you need.
Once you have identified the key motivators for each segment of your workforce, it’s time to get to work. Ensure that your benefits programme appeals to a diverse group of employees and take actionable steps to build a culture and attitude that matches employees’ needs.
Remember, employees from every age group and background should feel inspired and engaged by the benefits your business offers. Thus, you should perform regular pulse checks and adapt accordingly.
2. Promote meaningful work
More than any other generation, graduate workers crave meaningful work. They want to feel like their job is making a difference and that their skills are being put to good use. Therefore, a great way to engage graduate employees is by providing opportunities for meaningful work. It will also spark loyalty.
So how can employers provide meaningful work opportunities? An effective way is through collaborating with local charities. This allows employees to dedicate some working hours to giving back to their local communities through volunteer work. Employees get a strong sense of satisfaction and the chance to do some good. It’s also an effective way to boost employer branding.
Another way to promote meaningful work is to help employees find opportunities to network, speak at events, and share their expertise outside of the business. Supporting employees with their personal development will do wonders for their confidence and satisfaction. This is a particularly effective way to engage graduate employees eager to earn their stripes.
3. Invest in professional development
Variety is the spice of life. Just like with anything, doing the same job day after day can leave employees feeling stuck and disengaged. Graduate employees, in particular, may struggle with this since they are relatively new to the workforce. The best way to prevent stagnancy at work is to provide personal and professional development.
Providing learning and development opportunities shows employees that you value them and are willing to invest in their future. Plus, giving them the chance to upskill and reskill boosts their confidence and overall satisfaction.
Not all learning takes place in a classroom. There are plenty of ways to infuse continuous learning into your business. Using a learning management system (LMS) is a great way to facilitate knowledge sharing in your business. You could also consider shadowing programs to give graduate employees a glimpse into other areas of the business.
The ROI on training is more than worth the effort. As well as upping engagement and lowering turnover, your business will enjoy higher performance, efficiency, and innovation.
4. Build a company culture to engage graduate employees
Graduate employees have different expectations, priorities, and objectives than other generations, such as boomers. Company culture matter more to graduates, as do ethics, work-life balance, and professional development.
If your organisation wants to attract (and retain) the next generation of graduate talent, it needs to create a culture. Employer branding is critical nowadays; almost all jobseekers research company culture before accepting a job. So, put your money where your mouth is and implement tangible initiatives to foster an inclusive culture that engages young workers.
Start with your company’s core values. Are diversity and inclusion important to your business? If so, how do you promote it? Do you have a D&I program in place? What actionable steps are you taking to make your workforce more diverse?
The same goes for employee well-being. What actions do you take to support mental health in your business? For instance, providing remote working or flexible working. What do you do to engage and motivate workers? How many learning and development opportunities do you offer staff?
Fostering a culture of belonging, growth, and diversity will engage graduate employees and drive performance.
5. Create a 360 feedback loop
There are two things that kill employee engagement: unclear expectations and incompetent managers. When staff, especially unseasoned workers such as graduate employees, aren’t sure what’s expected of them, they tend to disengage. By contrast, employees that know what’s expected of them and have the resources to meet performance expectations tend to be more satisfied.
As the saying goes, “employees don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.” While the reality is probably a bit more nuanced than this, there’s definitely some truth to this saying. Managers that don’t care about their teams or who fail to communicate effectively are the kiss of death to engagement. They cause employees to lose motivation and burn out. This is not only bad for employee well-being and morale but also severely damages performance.
While this is an issue that affects workers of all ages, it tends to be a bit more prevalent for graduate employees. This is mainly because they tend to start in entry-level positions. As a result, they may not have the confidence or experience to speak out. An easy way to solve this issue is by implementing a 360 feedback loop.
Creating opportunities for graduate employees to receive and give regular feedback will help them feel included and heard. What’s more, they will have a clear idea of what is expected of them and what they can expect.
6. Create more collaboration opportunities
Collaboration isn’t just essential for your business; it’s a great way to boost engagement too. To meet the needs of today’s fast-paced world, businesses need cross-functional teams that can adapt at a moment’s notice.
This is also a great way to engage graduate employees. The more teams in your organisation collaborate and improve their agility, the more motivated they will feel. This is because they develop a deeper sense of belonging and have more opportunities to upskill.
For graduate employees entering the business, getting the chance to collaborate will empower them to contribute no matter their seniority level. Essentially, it breaks down silos and gives young workers a voice. For your business, you gain a highly engaged, cross-trained team that is agile enough to adapt to future challenges.
7. Rethink your hiring strategy
Building engaged teams starts at the recruitment process. When it comes to hiring graduate workers, don’t just look at their work experience and academic achievements. Instead, include questions to assess their values, behaviours, and whether they are a good cultural fit.
Employing staff who aren’t a good cultural fit for your business is a lose-lose. They will quickly feel disengaged and are likely to leave your organisation quickly. Considering the high cost of turnover, it pays dividends to get it the right first time around.
To do this successfully, you may need to tweak your current recruitment strategy. For instance, you may want to rewrite job descriptions to encourage candidates with specific attitudes, values, and behaviours to apply.
In addition, including behaviour-based interview questions will give you a better idea of how a candidate would behave in different scenarios. All of these factors show whether they fit culturally with your organisation. In turn, employees who are aligned with the culture tend to be happier and more engaged.
How We Can Help You Engage Graduate Employees
Our experts at Developing a Student can help you attract and retain top graduate talent. Here are just some of the services we offer:
- Advice and support – Our website is packed with guides for employers, including advice on attracting graduates and building an inclusive work environment. Find the latest industry insights on our weekly blog.
- Attract graduate talent – Get in touch to advertise your roles on our dedicated graduate jobs board.
- Find diverse graduate talent – Our job advert inclusivity screening tests your ad against our “Inclusive Language Check-List” to remove potentially discriminatory language
- Advertise your business – Our talented team of writers work with you to create a company profile that documents your efforts as a top graduate employer
Call 03458724501 or email info@developingastudent.com to learn more about our bespoke packages.
