‘We want them to have fun’: How one people officer develops motivation in first-time workers

The effective management of young workers can have considerable implications for career motivation and life confidence, but a specific approach is needed to achieve this, one expert has explained.

For Jodi Paton, chief people officer at HOYTS Group, building a supportive environment for first-time workers means balancing a fun, encouraging experience with the generation of crucial life skills.

She said: “The skills and the capabilities that we are looking for … are life skills that we can then build on for them to continue to build those competencies that they will take in future careers.”

Paton added that these jobs are much about life preparation – perhaps more so – than they are about income, especially with the generation of team building, communication, and reliability. In addition, many skills from school or hobbies are highly adaptable to cinema, hospitality, or retail work and indeed provide a starting point that employers can build on.

“It doesn’t matter if they have no work experience … [it’s about] trying to build that confidence from the very start about things they’ve already got that they might not have thought about in a work context because they haven’t worked before, and how they can actually build on those things to continue to grow and develop,” Paton said.

Asked about the number one skill young people or first-time employees pick up, Paton highlighted problem solving.

She said: “Communication is a part of that, but I think needing to solve an issue with a customer or actually think on their feet in terms of having an immediate response, they can’t kind of Google it to find the answer to know what to say, they need to kind of rely on their own confidence and their own knowledge.”

Seeing young employees be able to execute this and develop confidence in their own judgement, Paton continued, “is something that is really pleasing to be able to see in some of our younger team members”.

However, with any new experience comes uncertainty, both from the workers themselves and their loved ones.

In acknowledgement of this, Paton explained that parents of new, young hires receive a letter at the time of onboarding.

“We know that sometimes, teenagers might not be reading the fine print of their contract, so we want to give a summary to parents.”

Further, Paton said that federal legislation concerning younger workers does not provide much scope for exploitation, but acknowledged the lack of a national framework that dictates specific working conditions for young workers, specifically how and when they work.

In recognition of this, HOYTS Group developed a Young Worker Policy “that looks at what’s the best practice in terms of those different boundaries and having a consistent policy”.

“We work with our managers … they can spot when a young person is either out of their depth or making sure they’ve got the right level of training in place.”

Paton also explained how younger, often more vulnerable workers respond to fostering belonging in the workplace.

She said: “We know it’s really important for them to have friends at work, feel like they belong, feel like they’re included, feel like they’re connected to the people that they’re working with every day.”

Organisations seeking to implement similar programs should also focus on belonging, with Paton adding: “If they feel that at work, they’re going to have that engagement … it flows from there.”

Paton encouraged the development of pride in workers, regardless of role or responsibilities, and confidence despite any lack of experience.

“We want them to feel comfortable to ask questions, and know that there’s no silly question and it’s ok to make mistakes.”

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