Engineering Engagement for the STEM Generation

Why Young Interns are Hard to Keep

The shop floor can be a harsh place, fraught with fire-fights and repetitive issues. For someone working there, it can be pretty stressful, but hey, a job is a job - they say you're lucky to have one. Young interns come in with no idea what they will be facing, having a vague notion that engineers pop up to fix things like in the adverts - often the aspiring talent leaves the industry for good. They know that jobs are there to be found.

Is the sector's skill crisis based on historic assumptions? After all, good people will always be hard to find. Engineering engagement for the STEM generation should be every leader's absolute priority.

Everyone without exception wants to be proud of their brand, whatever their age. They want to look up at the logo and feel part of something special, something worth fighting for. Bringing home a pay cheque is part of the process that can also carry unfortunate consequences - a tendency to harbour hierarchal perks and unwittingly promote workplace subjugation.

People don't leave on the basis of a pay rise nearly as often as they do when they're not treated well. Priorities identified by employees in workshops list Communication, Morale and Recognition, often in that order. From the exercise comes knowledge that power to transform is in everyone's hands; methodology matters, in the long run, to them all.

Aspirations that Impact on Your Business

Exploration of the self being essential to engagement, we have to see our own perspective as being singular - to do that, we must accept that we cannot see ourselves! Seeing that we only hold one vision among multiple versions assessing the same situation gives us an opportunity to make life easier by working together, instead of wasting time blaming each other for things that go wrong.

Friendship, some say, has no place in the workplace but people are people and will act accordingly. We're a social species, and we want to collaborate. The more trust has a chance to flow, the more everyone gets from the working day... living under the shadow of a harsh, dictatorial agenda drives people to look for greener pastures (which everyone in truth would rather avoid). And if they stay, they'll gravitate towards vicious scuttlebutt in the canteen.

We need new thinking to permeate the industrial sector if we're to see Engagement gaining a foothold and strengthening the economy. In the process, we need to evaluate the needs of the generation coming onto the shop floor. More value is placed now on cultural health than on wage criteria, a trend set to accelerate as Quality of Life continues to overtake fiscal considerations in social prioritisation. In 2019, Glassdoor commissioned a survey revealing that 56% of employees valued culture over pay.

That was six years ago - and society is increasingly adamant that how we treat each other, our planet and environment matters more than ever before. Think on the impact to your business - how can you position your company in line with these aspirations?

The emphasis on cultural welfare hinges largely on an increasing desire to see others treated fairly in addition to feeling psychologically safe in the workplace - criteria not even on the table in the Industrial Revolution. Traditional management styles nevertheless hark back to that era when people did as they were told and were considered lucky to be employed at all. For many, the steadfast hold of managerial trends is proving disastrous as corridors echo with "nothing's going to change around here" and good people are lost to the darknesses of blame and silo mentality.

Make a Start on Engineering Engagement

Are you keen to find solutions to these epigenetic problems? Long to break free of old paradigms that consistently fail to deliver good results? Get in touch today so that I can objectively evaluate your situation (there's no charge for chats). Success is about you, your people, the synergy you experience and cohesion of your mission. Let's leave ancient history behind and light the way to a new way of working that really works!

What's your take on the Generation Situation? Leave a comment - your thoughts count!