Teen Jobs from an HR Executive

I stumbled across a very good article written by Marlene Prost for The Human Resource Executive Online.

She writes, "Organizations may end up hurting themselves in the long run if the slumping teen job market -- with the exception of hospitality and tourism -- continues to lag. The tendency to hire immigrants, college-age students and older adults leaves little room for teenagers, who need those summer jobs to learn how to become good employees."

It's interesting to see that HR executives understand the importance of teenage employment, we just wish others were as forward thinking as Marlene. And we hope that Marlene knows how much myfirstpaycheck.com can help her.

She asks, So Why Hire Teens?" and answers, "The teen work crisis isn't just depriving kids of pocket money; it's hurting society, because teenagers are not learning how to work, some experts say.

"A lot of my clients express frustration that they're more babysitters than employers" for workers in their 20s, Stamer says. "[These workers] lack a work ethic. They don't know how to be a good employee. They haven't had jobs and [learned to be] accountable."

Teens need jobs to learn the value of work, she says. They need mentors and feedback on performance.

"The vast majority [of teenagers and younger adults] don't wake up one day and understand what it is to be an employee, to learn to be counted on, to be accountable, to do well or not. ... The workers we're not hiring will come into the work force, whether you're hiring them at 16 or 30."

HR also can benefit from teen employment in several ways.

* Identify and keep the best. "I try to convince my clients to give a performance evaluation at the end, to show where [the teens] could develop, where they performed well. If they were good ... provide a financial incentive [next year], a premium," Mathews says.

* Adapt to the millennial mind. The millennials, born after 1977, are more interested in flexible hours and a work/life balance than salary and benefits, Grasz says.

To attract the best young workers, schedule around school hours and consider offering transportation, Mathews suggests. "The employer needs to get creative. It's not a never-ending supply, especially of good workers."

* Create summer internships. On a broad level, some cities such as Boston, run large programs that help businesses create paid summer internships.

On a smaller scale, Stamer says she personally hires a few students every summer in her law firm. 

"I do it for two-fold reasons: If I do my job right, I get valuable service at less rate. These people are going on and build the world I live in. I'm building a safety net for services I need in the future."

Comments

[Camp Job Long Island]

Great advice. I think at this point, all you have to do is put a "help wanted" sign up and teens will come looking. Granted, they might not all be the best workers, but thats what an interview and screening process is for.