Like many of the attendees at the recent ISE Development Conference commented, it felt brilliant to be ‘back’ at a mass participation event. What’s more the buzz was palpable – the conference rooms were packed with like-minded people who were similarly passionate about all things early careers.

The post-event ‘feel-good’ has lasted a long while, perhaps disproportionately so because of the novelty factor. We relished the fact we had played a part in the event – both exhibiting and speaking. But the fact of the matter remains – the conference shone a bright light on some big challenges – ones as employers, and L&D professionals that we can’t afford to ignore. The real work starts here.

The main themes, trends and messages were clear – early talent is vital, vibrant, valuable, and versatile….. but at times vulnerable and most definitely ‘virtually’ marginalised.

In recent years the pathway to success has been influenced by Covid times and most early talent has had no choice but to adapt to a virtual (or hybrid) working world. Not a ‘technical’ problem for these digital natives, but it has definitely created a knock on social, relationship and knowledge acquisition problem.

We are seemingly in the eye of this storm, by which I mean the Covid development lag is just coming to the fore. Employers are now identifying skills gaps, behavioural issues and relationship management problems that are impacting on current performance. The cause of this is the ‘lost years’ when important social, knowledge and developmental growth was adversely impacted.

Arguably all is not however ‘lost’. This growth although delayed, can still be achieved. But playing catch up is now more complicated as hybrid working looks set to stay.

Our talk with the University of Leeds provided research and experience led insights around how the hybrid world is impacting on early talent’s ability to network. Although clearly not all bad, we identified a few key areas that were detrimental to development and wellbeing. These included lower connectivity, reduced exposure (to others and learning opportunities), lack of cultural know-how, and implications for EDI and social mobility.

So what can be done? There’s lots that can be done but not all of it is easy or quick. As employers and L&D professionals we have a duty of care. A duty to help support our early talent in their time of need. This means a few things:

• Providing clarity on expectations (for working arrangements)

• Being aware of and proactive about potential blockers

• Catering for different boundaries (freedom within a framework)

• Increasing levels of work experience, internships, student placements etc (providing opportunities to learn)

• Encouraging and enabling networks (providing structure, purpose, and rationales)

And last but not least:

• Investing in training

You might be thinking ‘well we would say that’! But everything we heard at the conference reinforced this. Now is the time to make up for the ‘lost years’ and step up the level of development and training across key behavioural areas that will help early talent make up the ground they lost so they can thrive in our hybrid world.

On the back of our session with the University of Leeds, we published our own insights report around mastering hybrid networking for early careers, which we can share with learning and development/HR colleagues. Get in touch with us or join our Talent Forum which is becoming a vital free resource for all things early talent! The group meets weekly on Zoom and the supportive WhatsApp group is usually a hive of friendly activity!