Hiring student workers – advantages and disadvantages. 4 important reasons to consider employing younger staff

Hiring student workers – is it beneficial to your company? Personnel policies of the company determines if graduates are being hired or not. There are companies where the main staff potential is based on students: McDonald’s for example. Other companies don’t hire students at all. Such practices are influenced by the preferential terms of this type of employment introduced by the law of a certain country. Hiring students can be extremely beneficial, but it has many disadvantages one should be aware of before making the decision. Read the article and find out more about pros and cons of hiring student workers.

Advantages and disadvantages of hiring student workers – table of content:

1. Is hiring student workers beneficial?
2. What are the disadvantages of hiring student workers?
3. Summary

Is hiring student workers beneficial?

Hiring student workers can be a great opportunity for companies to get their feet wet in the world of internships. However, there are some disadvantages that companies need to be aware of. Student workers might not have the skills and experience needed for the position they are applying for. This can lead to wasted time and money on training them, which is not always possible or feasible.

The main reason to hire student workers is low labor cost. Students form a very characteristic professional group. Due to their young age and the need to continue their studies they are more open, creative and adventurous. They are versed in new technologies, they don’t have problems with computer software and popular applications. They solve problems intuitively, with courage, and they are not afraid of nonconventional resolutions.

They’re used to quick changes and can easily adapt to many different situations. They wish to evolve with the company and embrace changes. Students are easier to manage – they can be molded into great employees, especially that they are great learners, who absorb information quickly.

They are the opposite of more mature, experienced workers, who fall into routine and use schematic thinking. Younger generations are more self-confident and communicative.

Most of the student workers are happy to travel abroad. They love such opportunities since they love to see the world in reality. Young age means lack of huge commitments at home – no kids, mortgages or grandchildren. Young employees are willing to change offices, towns or visit them temporarily.

Student workers who travel have a chance to experience different cultures, work in different countries, and learn new skillsets. They get an opportunity to develop their personal skills and professional competencies. The other side of the coin is that it’s not always easy for student workers to be away from their home country because they might miss out on social life, family time and friends.

Entrepreneur, who decides to hire student workers has the possibility to influence and shape his workers accordingly to his own needs and expectations. Young people, in their first job, don’t have any job experience and at the same time haven’t acquired any bad habits and manners. If the employer provides them with the appropriate chance for job development there is a chance that those students will become loyal and dedicated employees, who will follow all organizational patterns of the company.

What are the disadvantages of hiring student workers?

Lack of relevant experience was already mentioned above, since we see it as an advantages of not having bad habits. Still lack of experience can be seen as a thread. Student worker don’t have the competence or qualifications expected at the given work position. For some positions such lack of experience isn’t problematic – all depends on the level of difficulty of the duties.

For easy tasks, that don’t require any special qualifications, experience is not necessary – waiters, cashers, cleaners don’t need any prior knowledge to perform their tasks. Salespeople need to show certain level of expertise, especially in sales techniques, market awareness, and client relationships.

The very next disadvantage of hiring students workers is their approach to life. Younger generations treat many issues lightly, they don’t give much thought to important matters, that may be crucial for their employer. Some of them don’t understand the negative consequence of late coming to work or frequent cigarette breaks. What is still allowed at the university cannot be accepted at the workplace and has serious disciplinary consequences.

For each student his studies is the most important matter. Each time, when the student has his examination session there is a probability that he may not keep the deadlines or perform his work with lower commitment. Students are less flexible in situation of crisis, they attend lectures and exercises and cannot come to work on a holiday or go away on a business trip. Combining job and studies is very difficult and may be a reason of neglect at work.

Summary

Employers who decide to hire student workers have to be aware that besides the obvious benefits (especially financial ones) such solution has disadvantages. Problems may arise in connection to the quality of work provided by working students. To influence correct work attitudes of such work group careful attention should be paid to the choice of motivational techniques and methods.

It is unreasonable to expect that all of the young employees will stay with the company for ever. Young individuals, who are at the beginning of their career path have a right to search for their own professional goals. Hiring students is particularly beneficial in case of seasonal work and other jobs that don’t require any special qualifications. Young, creative persons should enrich “ossified” personnel and bring new outlook and new solutions to their teams.

Check out How to create successful startup by hiring freelancers

If you like our content, join our busy bees community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube.