Survey: 4 in 10 business leaders say recent college grads not ready for workforce
MIAMI — With Generation Z graduating college and beginning their careers, nearly half of business leaders say that they're not prepared to enter the workforce.
According to a survey by Intelligent.com — an online education magazine — 40% of business leaders believe that that recent college graduates (those of the classes 2020-2023) are ill-prepared to enter the workforce, citing their work ethic and communication skills as top reasons for their unpreparedness.
In July, Intelligent.com surveyed 1,243 business leaders to learn about their experience with recent college graduates entering the workforce and published their findings earlier this month.
Of the business leaders who said that recent grads were unprepared, 88% said it was more true now than three years ago and 94% admitted that they even avoided hiring recent grads, the survey found. On the other hand, 53% of business leaders said recent grads are prepared to enter the workforce, while the remaining 7% were unsure.
When it came to their reasoning, 70% of business leaders said both work ethic and communication skills are ways that recent grads were unprepared to join the workforce. The survey also found that 51% of business leaders pointed to a "sense of entitlement" and "technological skills" were also contributing factors to their unpreparedness.
When it came to who or what is to blame for recent grads' lack of preparedness, a plurality of business leaders (62%) said it was "culture." Additionally, half of the business leaders said the unpreparedness is due to parents, 46% said educators and 48% said the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey found.
In ways to solve this lack of preparedness, a majority of business leaders (88%) said if colleges offered office etiquette classes that it would be "helpful."
According to Intelligent.com, a majority of business leaders (57%) said they've had recent graduates make "unreasonable" salary requests, citing that as another reason to why they felt recent grads were unprepared to enter the workforce, with half saying they had candidates who asked for $100,000. Of candidates who asked for more than $100,000, two-thirds of the positions they applied for had salaries that paid $70,000 or less.
Despite the sentiment, one expert said that "actually nobody" is ready for the 2023 workforce.
"It's changed dramatically because the digital transformation and hybrid workforce trends that began a decade ago accelerated during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and both methods and attitudes towards work are now vastly different," said Diane Gayeski, Ph.D., professor of strategic sommunication at Ithaca College and principal of Gayeski Analytics.
"Recent college grads don't communicate in the way that their 50 year old executives do, but they are effective in collaborating and getting things done using their own tools of social media, texting, and applications like Slack and Google Docs," she added.
Gayeski told Intelligent.com that the people who think Gen Z is "soft" and doesn't have a good work ethic should consider the groups that leaving the workforce in masses — nurses, restaurant workers and teachers — who are mostly mid-career and/or just burned out. Additionally, women who were primed to enter executive ranks bailed by the thousands during the last few years, having had a taste of what work might look if they didn't put up with harassment and incivility at work, and how their lives might be improved by having more family and personal time.
"Elders have always complained about the "new generation" — but somehow each new cohort has managed to find work and eventually to lead," Gayeski said. "The two year gap of Zoom school clearly had a large impact on college students who typically grow dramatically in their 'people' skills and confidence by class discussions, clubs, and dorm life. They missed out on a lot of travel opportunities as well as interacting with people outside their own families."
Gayeski said that the trick for smart organizations when it comes to recent graduates is to understand the styles and values of the incoming workers and for leaders to ask themselves how they can create companies that will do well and do good for their customers and employees.
"They'll find no shortage of smart young professionals who can bring important new perspectives on how to efficiently accomplish goals and create environments that are conducive to the growth of both employees and the bottom line," she said.