Survey Highlights Skills Needed in Young Employees

Survey Highlights Skills Needed in Young Employees

Managers believe young employees need to increase their confidence, take greater responsibility and use their initiative more to succeed in the workplace, according to a recent Outward Bound survey.

Outward Bound Chief Executive, Trevor Taylor, said over 70 managers from businesses around the country took part in the survey. The results are being used by the organisation to design a new course to help managers develop young employees.

“The survey findings showed that 85 per cent of respondents said they wanted young employees to step up and take greater ownership of their roles,” Trevor said.

”This means proactively taking on the responsibility to really ‘own their work’ without having to be told. Employers also want young employees to adopt the mindset of exploring and finding new ways to drive positive change within the workplace.”

Another area of concern identified by 72 percent of respondents involved young workers developing confidence in decision-making and communicating positively with others in a team.

Farmlands Trading Society Learning and Development Manager, Tracey Burtenshaw said she agreed with the findings.

“All of the areas outlined in the survey such as taking personal responsibility and increasing confidence are things that young employees could greatly benefit from,” she said.

“We’re looking for young workers to not only develop these skills but to also make a greater contribution to the company.”

Armed with the survey findings, Outward Bound has developed an eight day professional development programme targeted at 20-30 year old employees.

Called Compass it focuses on developing key skills identified in the survey: quality decision-making, using initiative, communicating effectively, and taking greater ownership and responsibility of work.

Trevor Taylor said there had already been huge demand for Compass.

“The inaugural course which gets underway this month is already fully booked and demand for the November course is already strong.”

Survey participant, Adcock and Donaldson HR Manager, Aaron McIntosh, said his company would send young employees that show potential on the course to help them progress their careers.

“We have a number of employees under the age of 30 who are showing great potential. Our aim is to look at ways of developing these younger workers so that they can take the next step forward.”

He said the cost of attending a $2,500 Outward Bound course was minimal, given the results that could be achieved.

“Many organisations think nothing of sending their staff on a two day course where all they do is sit in a room and someone kills them with PowerPoint. The experiential learning gained at Outward Bound offers a much more effective way of increasing a person’s potential because they are better able to draw from experiences while on the course.”

For more information about Compass email professional@outwardbound.co.nz, call 0800 688 927 or visit www.outwardbound.co.nz/professional

ENDS

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