COVID-impacted young workers are faring well when it comes to training but need better support and to feel valued, report reveals

An international study exploring the attitudes and habits of deskless workers - from paid carers and supermarket cashiers to warehouse operatives and restaurant staff – has revealed a varied picture for the nation’s 18-24 year olds.

Highlights from Quinyx’s State of the Deskless Workforce report, pertaining to 18-to 24-year-olds, found:

● 56% have considered quitting because of an unhappy work environment.

● Half (50%) think their employer views them as a disposable or temporary resource.

● 44% felt pressured by coworkers into taking a shift they didn’t want.

When it comes to taking time off, almost half (48%) have attended work because they couldn’t afford not to go in. 55% noted missing out on personal time because of work, with 53% missing social events or holiday celebrations due to work commitments.

Understaffing is having a significant impact on employee welfare among 18 to 24s too, with 45% noticing that teams are understaffed, which is leading to a more stressful work environment. In fact, 28% have been covering less shifts since before the pandemic, and 68% have been contacted during ‘off hours’.

Encouragingly, the study found that when it comes to training, young people in the UK are faring relatively well in comparison to their international counterparts.

● 41% said their employer provides additional training or educational resources, which peaked to 45% for females. Just 34% of Denmark’s young workers report this. Germany and Australia were the only countries to record better training opportunities than the UK (49% and 45% respectively).

● 25% had a mentor in the form of a co-worker or manager allocated to them – higher with 30% of males, but this was true for just 14% of workers in Finland, and 16% in Germany.

● In relation to career progression, 30% in the UK said employers shared specific steps or goals to help them earn a promotion. This is significantly higher than workforces in Denmark (17%) but is slightly trumped by clear paths to progression across the US (35%), Germany (32%), and Sweden (31%).

Toma Pagojute, Chief HR Officer at Quinyx – a leading Workforce Management Solutions provider, believes that despite a challenging landscape for the nation’s younger deskless workers, there are opportunities to improve their experience through better communication and workforce planning.

She said: “Young workers in the UK seem to fare ok when it comes to training and development but there’s a lot more to be done to help make them feel happy and secure in their roles too. We hope our analysis of young workers provides useful insights for businesses operating in the sectors we studied – Health and Social Care, Fashion, Transportation & Warehousing, Shipping & Distribution, Retail and Hospitality - so they can take steps to provide better working environments for this group of workers.

“This report tells us that those aged between 18 and 24 feel undervalued and need a better work life balance. We also see there is a great feeling of frustration because of an understaffing crisis, and this is having a negative impact on teams.

“To successfully navigate a post-pandemic world, employers need to focus on staff communication and engagement, and scrutinise their systems to ensure they’re providing flexibility. It’s important to recognise what steps managers can take to reduce stress and create positive working environments day-to-day.”

The State of the Deskless Report surveyed over 10,000 people across the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.

Quinyx is a leading AI-powered workforce management software that makes the complex tasks of scheduling, time reporting, communicating, budgeting, and forecasting deskless workers simple. Quinyx helps more than 850 companies around the world reduce labour costs, remain compliant, and improve workforce efficiency - all the while boosting their bottom line, employee satisfaction, and retention.

Quinyx provides solutions that save time and money to some of the world’s biggest companies like McDonald’s, London City Airport, Hilton, Virgin Atlantic, and Starbucks. https://www.quinyx.com/