Author Shelley Ward – Regional Manager

Remote working. It was only supposed to be a short term solution to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the benefits of no commute time, greater flexibility, increased motivation and high productivity has left a large percent of the working world demanding more, even after the pandemic dissipates.

However, remote working does not come without its drawbacks, with more and more people finding they are working longer and longer hours as well as suffering from social isolation. Both these negatives are bad enough on their own, but combined can have a serious impact on our mental health. Furthermore, I believe these drawbacks have impacted the younger generation the hardest, as they also suffer from a lack of experience with dealing with these issues.

A study done by Universum found that younger people have concerns over a lack of leadership, training and networking opportunities that will hold them back later down the line. In addition, younger workers also found themselves more isolated from meetings as well as not feeling they have access to suitable onboarding programs. A great concern of this isolation can be any mental health issue that may arise, especially if younger employees do not feel comfortable talking about these issues with their employer.

I believe the most pressing issue is the decline of self-confidence amongst younger workers, who are struggling with the belief in their ability to perform their duties. Only 57% of young professionals felt they had the appropriate skills to do their job effectively. Put simply, without instant access to feedback by asking questions in the office, younger people a missing out on vital learning experiences, the rest of us took for granted.

So how can we fix this? What can we do to help the youth of today progress through the workplace? The solution could be found by implementing a hybrid working environment, that can provide that needed support to those just starting their career, while also giving those great benefits to the rest of the team, that I mentioned earlier.

Providing a working environment that helps young people succeed, will in turn, help the business succeed. Therefore, I thought it important to highlight this issue, so we can collectively review how this will impact people just starting their employment journey.

Read more from Cordant People, here.