Why UK Businesses Need Entry-Level Roles Now More Than Ever

Entry-level hiring is at a five-year low. Here’s why that’s bad news for UK businesses – and how to fix it.

By Kate Gaskell

Running a business can feel overwhelming. You're expected to grow and keep up with constant change. Of course, a strong team is important for coping with these changes. But when money is tight, it's tempting to cut hiring costs. That might help short-term, but it can hurt your business in the long run.

This resistance to hire often hits entry-level roles the hardest.

Interns are often the first to go while senior employees and roles stay on. And yes, senior employees have valuable experience that you don’t want to lose, but what’s often forgotten is what younger people and new entrants to an industry have to offer. If you want your business to successfully grow, you need to support your people at all stages of their career.

The context - entry-level roles are being cut

The current job market isn’t in favour of younger employees or anyone who needs entry level work. The way many organisations over-hired during covid has meant a lot of companies are still adjusting and recovering today. Industries are going back to basics. That usually means keeping the senior staff, instead of looking for new, fresh talent. Job roles in hospitality, marketing and social work have all fallen, and entry-level jobs are at a shocking five-year low. And then, to make matters worse, AI hit the spotlight.

The threat of AI

Whether an employer or employee, chances are your role has been (or will be) affected by AI. AI can be used to automate tasks that once took workers hours to complete, and so it seems only natural to trim back the workforce that was previously responsible for those tasks. But is that really in the best interest of the company in the long run?

There are plenty of tasks in any business that only humans can excel at. For legal teams, this includes building relationships and carrying out work that requires emotional intelligence and ethical and moral considerations. And it’s not just law – a lot of jobs are built on deeply human traits like trust, persuasion, and empathy. We need workers with the ability to be curious and develop these skills.

Entry-level workers as the keys to AI

Interns and entry-level workers are perhaps the best positioned to deal with the rapidly adapting world of technology today. Younger employees will be ‘digital natives.’ They’ve grown up with changing technology, and they understand how to handle new tools and systems. Whilst they may lack experience in other areas, interns are a great way to bring the exact kind of technological knowledge and savvy into a company that’s needed to ensure AI is performing at its best and most efficient.

We need to look past AI as a way to replace people and instead use it to help employees thrive in their job roles. AI should be automating in order to give people more time and headspace to learn and grow.

With the right training and development from businesses, younger and entry level workers could well be the answer to ensuring AI is working as it should.

A lack of interns now will create a knowledge gap later

And it’s not just tech that these new workers excel at. Businesses do best when there’s new ideas coming in, and fresh perspectives are offered. That’s harder to do without fresh faces! Entry-level hiring is a good way to explore emerging ideas, as well as testing new roles and initiatives.

A strong team will grow with your business, not against it. Yes, this means rewarding your long-term employees, and those who have helped build your company from the ground up. But it’s also worth looking at your future team. Interns bring a freshness, enthusiasm and creativity that is unique to you and your business. By supporting people early in their career, you’re investing in potential that could become invaluable later down the line.

Earn efficiency and esteem

Entry-level roles also ultimately make businesses more efficient. Introducing trainees can free up those in senior roles to work on bigger projects, so they can use their years of experience for actions that move the needle in a more direct way. By giving senior staff more room to prioritise certain tasks and responsibilities, you can in turn make the whole team more productive as everyone focuses their working hours on what really matters.

Not to mention the level of esteem entry-level staff members can help businesses build – and that’s internally as well as externally. When you give people a platform to kickstart their career, you’re also making steps towards earning their trust and loyalty. You’re also showing the wider world your leadership and mentoring skills – helping the success of the wider economy by equipping the next generation of workers with the right skills to succeed.

Supporting entry-level talent

Now you know you need entry-level talent, the question is what can be done to support them? Offering training through schemes and initiatives is a wonderful way to give new entrants to the workforce a boost. But it’s worth noting, that when creating these schemes, it's not just about filling a seat - it’s about offering a solution to a market that’s in need something fresh.

We designed our own trainee programme for this very reason. By offering entry-level talent placements with in-house legal teams through Flex Trainee, we were able to create more accessible routes to legal qualifications. It became a solution for creating more equal opportunities within the legal profession – a solution to market that needed something fresh.

Short-term savings will cost you later down the line

Any short-term savings made by letting go of or refusing to hire entry-level talent will be completely lost by the knowledge gaps, inefficiencies and lack of employee loyalty you’ll face in future.

Forward thinking companies understand that in the current climate; with AI creating uncertainty and businesses requiring constant adaptation - young entry-level talent is an absolute necessity to stay ahead of the game.

About the author

Kate Gaskell is the CEO of Flex Legal, with experience in legal practice and in B2B SaaS. Flex Legal is an alternative legal service provider, with an interim lawyer network that supports experienced lawyers (from newly-qualified solicitors to former Partners and GCs) in accessing a diverse range of opportunities.