Dame Carol Black recently told Make A Difference Media that one of the “most worrying” areas of Health & Wellbeing is the number of young people who are not working. Talking about the key challenges she’d like to see the industry address in 2025, she cited understanding the younger generations’ needs better.
“I hope employers concentrate on the young in 2025. CEOs and Heads of HR have got to get their heads around the fact that different generations of workers are not the same. They must listen to young people’s concerns and try very hard to put the right support in the workplace,” she says.
While the statistics around youth worklessness are undeniably depressing, there is much to be learned from them, if employers are brave enough to dig deep beneath kneejerk assumptions.
First, what are these stats on youth unemployment?
A record high number of people aged 16-24 (789,000) are not working, looking for a job or studying, according to the ONS. Record numbers are also reporting mental health disorders, rising from 10.1% of 17-19 year olds in 2017 to 25.7% in 2022, according to NHS Digital.
What’s more, the numbers of the younger generation who are not working due to ill health have soared, nearly doubling in the last decade, with one in four not working because of it in 2022, compared to one in ten in 2012. This is according to the Health Foundation’s ‘Left behind; exploring the prevalence of youth worklessness due to ill health in different parts of the UK’.
Cynics might argue that the sharp increase is because stricter rules on benefits eligibility mean that more young people are claiming they can’t work on health grounds. Some of these cynics would likely describe younger generations as lazy, working the system or, even, so-called “snowflakes”.
Line managers perceive Gen Z as ‘difficult’
Indeed, there is much evidence that there are many business leaders and line managers who perceive younger workers as “difficult”. Nearly three quarters of them surveyed by ResumeBuilder.com said they believe Gen Z is more difficult to work with than other generations, for example.
But hasn’t that always been the way? For the older generation to tut and complain how things were different, better, “in my day”?
You can imagine when the likes of super successful entrepreneurs Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey dropped out of further education there would have been (older) people around them writing them off, saying they were wasting their potential and would amount to nothing.
What if we questioned our systems instead?
Isn’t it time for a new trope? Instead of writing our young people off because they don’t feel they fit into our existing systems, what about if we questioned how our systems could adapt to better engage them so they can flourish?
But if the many videos on TikTok are anything to go by (example here, read the comment section too for more insight), it’s clear many young people feel the workplace is failing them. Common gripes are things having to pretend you’re busy instead of being able to go home, employers saying they care but then guilt-tripping when time is taken off for personal reasons and managers taking it personally when Gen Z stand up for themselves.
Of course we are not saying that none of the concerns about Gen Z, and other younger generations, are valid. As Francesca Morichini, Chief HR Officer at hearing services company Amplifon, says in the ‘Future Forward Workforce’ report on research commissioned by CEMS, a global alliance of top business schools, multinational companies and NGOs:
“It’s important to balance needs and wants with an understanding of the requirements of the business. There are some actions, contents, or ways of working that are required to make the business work and perform.”
This is the brutal truth…
However, the brutal truth is that employers need the next generation of workers or they will not have a sustainable workforce to survive the many challenges ahead. The UK, which is severely lagging in the productivity rankings, needs them for us to thrive as a nation.
We spoke to a director of a small business who is grappling with this exact situation currently. His company relies on younger workers, as they have the skills required. For a small business like his, with 40 members of staff, the rising rates of youth ill health are “a real problem”:
“It’s not ideal if we have five members of staff off for things like maternity and paternity leave or longterm illness, and then added to that you have these rising mental health rates… suddenly we could be without ten members of staff and we’ve got clients to service, and bills to pay. It is a big worry.”
Gen Z’s resistance to return to the office
One of the biggest challenges he’s faced is when the senior management and the younger generation disagree about what is in their best interests regarding their mental health and career fulfillment.
This came to light around the return to the office post pandemic.
“We made a concerted effort to get people back into the office to the degree that we now have ‘core days’ when people have to be in. Gen Z was the generation that most didn’t want to come back in,” he says.
“But we feel it’s better for them. It’s been a big challenge to get them to understand why it’s better for them to be in the office. A lot of Gen Z, for example, were coming to interviews and asking us what our office policy was before they’d even done the interview.”
Incentivising Gen Z to return to the office
The way his company has tackled this is by explaining the huge value of being around people, not only for social connection but for learning through natural interactions, like observing others and hearing colleagues on client calls, etc. Then the employer has incentivised younger generations to come into the office because, if they do, they will get perks like personal development plans, mentoring schemes and training around skills like presenting.
“We offer this to all staff, but only in person,” he says. “The issue here is that I think many Gen Z have got used to home comforts after Covid, and they’ve got used to socialising online. So it’s about showing them that they won’t get penalised for working from home, but their career can progress a lot quicker in the office.”
Gen Z demands health support
Another increasing challenge, particularly for smaller businesses, has been the growing demand from younger employers for support with all aspects of their health, including physical, mental and financial.
“It does feel overwhelming and like the benefits required are endless and, obviously, financially we can’t afford that,” he says. “We can’t offer everything. You have to draw the line and accept that you might lose some people, but equally you’ll gain others with what you offer. I think you do have to go back to your business roots and be a bit brutal and say: what can we impact? What culturally aligns with us?”
The route this employer has taken is to make use of more affordable online resources like Spill (mental health) and Bippit (financial wellbeing), which take a pay-as-you-go approach, which suits younger workers who tend to want immediate on-demand solutions.
Young workers care about environmental and social commitments
One thing that has gone down particularly well with younger workers in terms of benefits is the company’s commitment to social and environmental efforts, which younger candidates typically ask a lot about in interviews. The company has recently secured B-Corp certification and commits to giving 1% of its time to charitable giving, with employees allowed a day every quarter to volunteer.
“These kinds of benefits are really key to these staff members,” he says. “Whereas my generation (I’m in my 30s) are more typically interested in bonuses, career progression, leadership roles and their pension. Younger employees aren’t asking for that; they care more about the next month or quarter than ten years down the line.”
Understanding these different generational mindsets can be challenging for leaders, and change can feel slow, painful and frustrating. Yes, it’s more comfortable to keep doing things the way you’ve always done them. That’s why the phrase “in my day” has become synonymous with sanctimonious contempt for the younger generations; it’s human nature. Even as far back as the philosopher Socrates in ancient Greece, leaders were complaining about the “bad manners” and lack of respect of the youth!
Change leads to progress
But as the Left Behind report concludes in “embracing changes lies the promise of progress”.
Besides, what is the alternative, really?
As Stuart Mace, MSc Workplace Health and Wellbeing Graduate currently contracting as the Occupational Health and Wellbeing Lead at construction company Skanska UK, says:
“We have more people ill and therefore not working as a result more than ever in the UK. At some point we are not going to have a workforce turning up for work. That’s worrying. Employers are going to have to start taking more responsibility for employees being fit for work and being able to do their jobs physically or psychologically.”
Taking more responsibility for employee wellbeing
He argues that this may mean that employers need to start taking responsibility for wellbeing outside work, so they have a present workforce, adding:
“But would that be such a bad thing? Organisations can have a huge impact on creating a healthier society – we can start by understanding work is a determinant of our wellbeing and how best to make that positive for all of us, not just our younger generations.”
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