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Newer recruits, particularly those under 25, are entering the industry lacking essential technical skills. Ninety-four percent of managers say young workers are unprepared for the roles they’ re stepping into. As a result, managers are asking experienced staff to pick up the slack for those who haven’ t been given the tools or training they need to succeed. This includes spending time on correcting mistakes, doing unstructured training, and covering for others.
What does this look like on a timesheet? Each person is losing more than 16 hours a week just fixing preventable problems or helping someone else do their job. That’ s eight full days a month, per employee, just to make up for poor onboarding and missing skills.
But the impact isn’ t just on output. Over 75 percent of managers warn that poor onboarding and training processes are leading to health and safety risks. A red flag in any high-risk environment.
Not a pipeline problem but a planning problem
There’ s a tendency to paint this issue as a‘ skills pipeline’ problem, one that places the burden squarely on schools, apprenticeships, or government intervention. Good examples of recently launched initiatives include
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