News – Talent Trends & Insights

Today’s emerging workforce are facing challenges that previous generations didn’t. Entry-level opportunities – and other early career pathways – are getting fewer, and those that exist might seem harder to access. Traditional routes such as trainee roles, apprenticeships and trial periods appear to be getting harder to access. For many of the younger Gen Z group starting a career, or even finding interesting or challenging work, is becoming harder.

I discussed this with Danielle Farage during one of our recent From X to Z podcast chats. Despite what some more senior level professionals might think, this isn’t a problem bought about by a lack of ambition or drive amongst the emerging workforce, but instead a result of the way businesses now tend to be structured, resulting in four main challenges that early career workers now face:

➡️ Fewer career levels: There just aren’t as many steps to climb. An increase in flatter organisational structures means reduced opportunities for progression or promotion

➡️ Rising pressure to move fast: Digital channels and social media platforms fuel comparison and motivation to move ahead quickly, but then so do real economic pressures – like stagnant salaries in a time of rising inflation, and increased housing costs.

➡️ Wages that don’t reflect reality: Salaries for early-career roles haven’t kept up with inflation, meaning companies are offering less than they paid for the same entry level roles a few years ago.

➡️ Fewer entry-level roles: Some companies are cutting back on junior roles, or beginning to replacing them with AI. On top of that, many young professionals complain of poor management and limited mentorship opportunities, which can further stall development.

The result? A generation hungry to grow, but often stuck without support.

You can listen to our conversation or watch it below, and let me know what you think and how you’re seeing businesses support the emerging workforce:

It must have been fate.

Three years ago today, at about 3 in the afternoon, I climbed the stairs to see the guys in Marketing. They were busy, having fun writing what sounded like limericks. I asked what they were doing and was told they were trying to summarise their lives in 140 characters.

Why? I asked.

We’re going to start using Twitter. They said. Going to try it out, see how we can use it internally and also externally to connect with clients and candidates. It’s going to be big so we want to get in there and try it early. Why don’t you join in?

Oh, I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. And that was it; I gave it no more thought.

But it nagged away at me, and later that night, 2^nd February 2009, I set up a Twitter page. Far too timid to call myself @mervyndinnen I called myself @mervino , a nickname which Callum Saunders gave me.

And I tweeted. It was a nonsense tweet about the football transfer window which was closing that night and it was about a player Arsenal were about to sign. But I hit send and waited. And waited. But nobody spoke back to me.

Undeterred I tweeted again the next day and followed my marketing colleagues. And Stephen Fry. My marketing colleagues talked back to me but Stephen Fry didn’t.

Timid days and I didn’t know where it would lead. But I stuck with it. And since then I’ve tweeted a lot more, changed my name to @mervyndinnen and had fun. And it’s been good to me. It’s helped me do lots of things: Continue reading “Me & Twitter – It’s a Love Thang!” →