Benefits of employers hiring teenage workers
Pop culture may have led to the stereotype of teens being having poor work ethics, but many teenage workers prove those stereotypes wrong every day on the job. If you’re passing on youthful applicants, you could be missing out on some major perks. Some benefits of employers hiring teenage workers include:
- Finding enthusiastic employees: Teens might be eager to work since it’s their first opportunity to earn money. That enthusiasm can result in more care and effort in their work.
- Filling mass vacancies: Filling lots of positions at once can be easier with teens, especially for positions that don’t require a lot of technical skills.
- Handling temporary needs: It’s common for teens to work more in the summer while they’re on break and scale back during the school year. If you have a seasonal business with its peak time during the summer, you might find teens make ideal seasonal employees.
- Lowering payroll costs: Teens often work in entry-level positions with lower pay rates. This means you can often find the staff you need with lower payroll costs.
- Saving on benefits: A related perk is the part-time work status that teens typically have. While you can offer benefits for part-time employees, you likely won’t give them the full suite of benefits that full-time employees receive. Using a few teenage employees to fill your needs instead of a single full-time worker could save you on benefit costs.
- Injecting youthful energy and ideas: Younger workers might bring a youthful energy with them that rubs off on the rest of the staff. They might have new ideas to appeal to a younger audience. Your next teen worker could even become your unofficial tech assistant when your POS system goes down.
- Shaping the workforce: You can have a direct impact on shaping the next generation of employees. Leading teens to be ethical, hardworking employees can benefit you and business owners as a whole.
- Preparing future leaders: Along the same lines, you can also shape your teen employees to become leaders within your business. You might gradually increase their duties and eventually move them into a shift supervisor role, for example. When they move into those roles, they’ll know what you expect, and they’ll be able to take on the role with minimal training.
Challenges of hiring teenage workers
It’s also a good idea to learn about the challenges of working with teens. Being prepared for these issues can help you take preventative action or plan for how to deal with them. Some challenges include:
- Lack of experience: Many teens have little to no previous work experience, which means they might not know the basics that you expect employees to understand. Younger employees often need a lot more training and on-the-job guidance to develop those skills quickly.
- Limited availability: Work availability might be limited when you’re working with teens, especially when school is in session. During the summer, teens might have sports and other activities, or they might be gone for family vacations and other obligations. This can make it difficult to cover all your shifts.
- Transportation issues: Some teenage workers don’t have driver’s licenses yet, which means they have to rely on their families or public transportation to get to work. Even teens who drive might have to share a vehicle with other family members. Transportation issues could cause scheduling conflicts or late arrivals.
- Difficulty handling high-pressure situations: Teens might not have experience in high-pressure situations, such as keeping up when you’re slammed with customers or dealing with a grumpy customer. However, these real-world situations can help them develop the skills to handle them in the future.
Tips for hiring teenage workers
Ready to expand your teen workforce? Here are some tips to get started.
Identify potential positions
Not all positions are suitable for teens. Some might involve more technical or specialized responsibilities, and some jobs might be too dangerous for younger workers. Scheduling could also be a factor because roles that require late-night hours or weekday work might not suit a teen’s schedule. Setting minimum ages for each role at your company helps guide hiring, so you know which positions to promote to teens.
Set clear expectations
Your job descriptions should always clearly define job expectations, so applicants can make sure the roles are a good match for them. List minimum age and skill requirements in your job postings, and communicate job duties and expectations throughout the recruiting and hiring process.
Advertise where teens are
When you’re trying to attract teenage employees, you may need to adjust where and how you advertise the openings. You might increase your presence on TikTok to give teens a glimpse at what it’s like to work for your company. Partnering with local schools or school counselors could also help you find teens looking for jobs.
Encourage employee referrals
Another way to increase the number of teen applicants you get is by encouraging your current employees to recommend their friends or even their kids. Your adult team members might have kids, neighbors or young relatives who need a job. If you already have teens working for you, encourage them to recommend your company to their friends.
Best practices for managing teenage employees
The way you manage your teenage workers can impact their performance and determine how likely they are to stick around or return next season. These tips can help you supervise teens well.
Create a positive environment
Having a positive attitude about your teen hires can help them feel more at home in your company. An inclusive environment for all staff members can create a more harmonious feeling. The teens might be more likely to ask questions, work harder and stay with your company when you focus on creating a pleasant workplace.
Provide extra support
Your teen employees might need extra help getting up to speed on their roles. Starting with a thorough training program gives them a solid framework, but they might need additional training or support. Encourage your employees to ask questions if they aren’t sure how to handle a task. When they come to you, be patient and answer their questions thoroughly, even if it’s something you’ve already told them.
Be flexible and accommodating
High schoolers typically have multiple responsibilities to juggle beyond just their jobs. Be flexible with extracurricular schedules, family activities and other commitments to help teens balance it all. Having a process in place to share their availability makes it easier to schedule employees.
Get them involved
Giving your teen worker ownership over their work can make the experience more meaningful. Assign them valuable tasks that make a difference to the company. Looking for their unique skills and talents can help you find enjoyable and meaningful duties for them. It can also help develop those skills and encourage them to pursue them.
FAQs about hiring teenage workers
How do you ensure the safety of teenage employees?
Teens might not understand potential safety risks to themselves, their coworkers or your customers. Incorporating robust safety training into the onboarding process can provide the foundation for helping them make safe decisions. Set expectations and restrictions based on age. You might have a minimum age for operating fryers in your restaurant or using box cutters in your store. If you see any employee violating a safety precaution, correct them on the spot and retrain the staff to prevent it from happening again.
What benefits do teens get from working?
As an employer, you tend to focus on your benefits, but you’re also helping the teens you employ. They learn life skills, such as work-life balance and sticking to their commitments. Jobs help them earn money that they can put toward college, cars or other investments, and the income helps them learn money-management skills. The responsibility can also give them a sense of accomplishment and improve their confidence.
Are younger workers more productive?
Employee productivity isn’t determined by age. Workers of all ages can be highly productive, efficient and motivated to work hard. Creating a positive work environment with clear expectations can help your entire staff keep their productivity rates high. It can also help to give them the tools and support they need to be successful.