Recent college grads are not ready for work — and HR leaders are fed up

Would you rather hire a robot or a recent college graduate?
For an alarming number of HR leaders, the machine wins.
A recent survey from Hult International Business School in Cambridge, Mass., reveals a troubling reality: Nearly 8 in 10 recent graduates say they learned more in their first six months on the job than in their entire four years of college. What’s more, employers are so wary of unprepared graduates that they’re taking drastic measures to keep from hiring them.
“What we’re seeing is a widening schism between the undergraduate curriculum and the needs of the workplace,” said Martin Boehm, executive vp and global dean of undergraduate programs at Hult. “HR leaders are saying they need schools to take a bigger role in preparing tomorrow’s employees.”
The survey, based on responses from 800 HR leaders and 800 recent graduates in the U.S., found that about 9 in 10 companies actively avoid hiring recent graduates, with many HR leaders opting for freelancers (45%), retired employees (45%), robots (37%) or simply leaving positions unfilled (30%) versus taking a chance on an unproven professional.
“The school-to-work pipeline is broken,” said Kathleen deLaski, founder of the Education Design Lab, a nonprofit that helps educators and workforce groups respond to the needs of learners and employers, and author of “Who Needs College Anymore?”
Institutions of higher ed should move to a “stepladder” approach where students are directly prepared for a first job and can even gain on-the-job experience, deLaski believes. With such a model, students would complete their studies in short bursts of six months to a year — not unlike a series of “bootcamps” between early-career jobs or on the side. Many community colleges have adopted such a model, dubbed “micro-pathways.”
The financial stakes are high. HR leaders estimate they could save about $4,500 per employee in training costs if new hires showed up better prepared. Nearly 8 in 10 companies that took a chance on recent graduates last year ended up firing some of them, according to the survey.
Some suggest a complete rethink of how students are readied for work. Hult’s program, for example, brings students and companies together in the form of business challenges, with students engaging in team-based work to help solve an actual challenge the company is facing. The exercise gives students first-hand, practical experience that will help them once they’re on the job, Boehm offers.
Caitlin Luetger-Schlewitt, lecturer in leadership and career readiness at North Central College in Naperville, Ill., suggests the problem doesn’t lie with educators, however. “The idea that college should fully prepare a worker for their future job is a recent demand from the public, particularly because companies no longer want to provide training for their employees,” she said.
“Supporting the next generation isn’t charity — it’s an investment in the future of business,” said Lisa Goodchild, CEO of U.K. educational charity Digilearning, who advocates for a more hands-on approach on the part of employers, including mentorship and clear career paths.
What are employers looking for from new graduates exactly? According to Hult’s survey, top priorities include communication (cited by 98% of HR professionals), willingness to learn (93%), collaboration (92%), creativity (90%) and critical thinking (87%). “Technologies can perform many tasks, but it’s these human skills that are the key to competition in the future,” Boehm said.
Meanwhile, tech know-how is essential for workforce newbies — and it turns out, they don’t have it.
The survey revealed a worrying gap in AI readiness in particular. While 86% of recent graduates believe AI will disrupt their profession within the next couple of years, just 23% feel completely prepared to integrate AI into their roles. Even though an overwhelming majority (97%) of HR leaders say it is vital that new hires have a strong foundational understanding of AI, data analytics and IT, a mere 20% of recent graduates report having such a level of understanding.
The disconnect between employer needs and employee readiness appears to start early. The survey found that 94% of recent graduates have regrets about their degree choice, with 43% feeling “doomed to fail” because they chose the wrong focus of study. Many respondents believe their college (79%) and high school (72%) guidance counselors share some blame for their degree choice, with half saying they didn’t get enough guidance when selecting a major.
Keith Brown, an executive coach, suggests a few steps HR leaders can take to better train new workers, including partnering with colleges to create experiential learning programs, building robust onboarding and training programs, and developing workplace mentorship initiatives.
But it’s not just an HR problem, as Brown sees it. “Preparing the next generation of the workforce is not solely the responsibility of higher education or employers,” he said. “It’s a shared mission.”