Recent graduates aren’t feeling supported in their new roles

Young employees graduate prepared to jump headfirst into their career prospects, but the employers manning those jobs aren’t as prepared to catch them.

Nearly two million Americans graduated with a bachelor's degree and entered the labor force in 2021, according to e-learning platform WhatToBecome. But only 46% of companies have specific training in place for new grads who are just entering the workforce, according to the e-learning site, Epignosis.

And with 60 million young job seekers anticipated to enter the market in the next decade, it’s more critical than ever for employers to recognize the importance of on-the-job support, according to Christina Gialleli, director of people operations at Epignosis.

Read More: 10 companies where employees feel good about their future

“It used to be the norm to spend at least two or three years with a company, giving employees a whole year to get in the groove of things and then another two years to be productive and grow,” Gialleli says. “Now, [employee turnover] is down to 18 months so speed is important — the faster you are able to get them up and running is important.”

For the most part, employers want to work quickly. Sixty-seven percent of HR managers agree that learning and development budgets will increase in 2022, according to Epignosis. Eighty-five percent of HR leaders find training beneficial for organizational growth, and 57% have boosted their budgets since the pandemic.

So why are companies still struggling to close the skills gap for the upcoming generation?

“They don't know where to start,” Gialleli says. “They don't know how to structure or they don't know how to put it together. The information is there. You're just missing the tools to create it.”

Read More: Ditching 4-year degree requirements may solve the tech industry’s labor shortage

To get the ball rolling, employers can enlist the help of companies that can teach employers how to implement thorough, comprehensive training programs for young employees. Epignosis, for example, provides companies with the software to build better training programs. Employers should also have a robust orientation handbook for new employees that includes self-paced training directives for soft skills, packages that cover code of conduct, ethics, leadership skills and even job-specific information.

Investing in employee training initiatives is not just an investment in the present, according to Gialleli. Rather than seeing it as a waste of time if employees are just planning to leave, the right programs can both ease younger talent into their roles, and encourage them to stay.

“[New grads] are jumping into the world not knowing what to expect when they get their first job,” she says. “But the more that they bond with that company and that role, the more they want to stay.”