3 Ways to Reduce Work-Related Stress in Graduates

Starting a new job can be stressful at the best of times, let alone during a period of tremendous change, facing an unstable economy, and bracing for increasing uncertainty. It’s no surprise that these factors have had an outsized impact on the needs and experiences of those new to the world of work.

A recent Covid Social Mobility and Opportunities (Cosmo) study revealed that 40% of young people feel unprepared to take the next step in their careers as the result of the pandemic. The cost of ill-preparedness for work can compound into workplace stress, the effects of which are substantive: Labour Force Surveys have identified that 17 million working days were lost due to work-related stress or anxiety in the UK alone in 2022, and that stress accounts for 51% of all working days lost due to ill health.

As individuals and teams responsible for the well-being of graduates as they enter the workforce, we need to be asking: How can we equip our graduates and future workforce for the world of work, when their journey has been disproportionately disrupted?

While there are many steps that employers can take to reduce workplace stress in their graduates, one solution lies in the integration of Emotional Wellbeing and Psychological Safety within graduate programme design as they transition from education into the world of work. After all, graduate programmes are not only pipelines for identifying and building your future workforce, they bridge the skills gap, the preparedness gap, the readiness gap, and the confidence gap. All of these have been widened by the pandemic and threaten to widen even further as organisations continue to grapple with how to navigate hybrid working, emerging technologies, and demographic shifts.

How can your graduate programmes apply a human-centred approach, so your graduates can develop the necessary skills and resilience to combat stress and thrive in a fast-changing, Covid-impacted world of work? Here are three ways to get started:

1. Offer a sense of ownership and agency

Your incoming cohorts of graduates will have had less exposure to the working world than those that came before them as a result of online studies and exams, cancelled summer programmes, and lack of in-person work experience opportunities. Even before the pandemic, this generation had less work experience than previous generations at the same age: In 2018, only 18% of Gen Z teens aged 15 to 17 had a job, compared to 27% of millennials in 2002 and 41% of Gen X in 1986.

Parallel to their lack of workplace experience, we’re seeing an increased need for agency and ownership from graduates looking to “catch up” with their lack of learning opportunities: Studies have shown that a third of young people feel their life is out of their control, and 77% feel “on their own” in developing their career.

As they begin their working careers, your graduates will be looking to take ownership of their own learning. Give your cohorts the power to take charge of their own development by adding self-led learning components to your graduate programme. These could take the form of interactive nano videos, learning scrapbooks, or development toolkits and passports. Self-led learning allows for pockets of ownership within a wider structured programme, and sows those critical seeds for developing self-led learners post-programme.

Read more about how to include self-led learning elements in your graduate programme

2. Make it safe to learn by making it safe to fail

Failure activates the neural circuits that play a critical role in recall and remembering – increasing knowledge retention by up to 25%. However, we don’t like failing. Notably for graduates new and inexperienced in work, failing can have negative emotional impact on wellbeing, resilience and sense of self. The solution? Incorporate elements of gamified learning (and failing) in your programme design.

Gamification is one way of creating a safe space for getting it wrong by using play as a learning tool. When done well in learning design, play creates a space with its own agreed-upon rules, its own codes of conduct, its own expectations and practices that every participant voluntarily agrees to. In this space, the stakes are lower for failure, and your graduates can let go and not worry about the consequences of getting it wrong.

Instead, they can invest in learning how to get it right, and build valuable skills at the same time – perfect for graduates who want to make a good impression and avoid any form of embarrassment. As an additional step, give graduates space that empowers them to ask questions, however big or small. This could be in the form of group chat networks, regular question forums with senior leaders, or even 5-10 minutes carved out of their regular check-ins dedicated to “no dumb questions”.

Read more about gamified learning in our new Graduate Programmes Toolkit

3. Invest in their Guides

Line Managers of graduates play a critical role: they guide graduates in their transition to the world of work and can be the face of your organisation for graduates. Line managers can fundamentally make a true difference in helping graduates manage stress. And, in turn, keeping them in the business for the long run, as 75% of people reportedly leave a role due to their line managers.

Yet, we are currently seeing a gap between how line managers perceive young people and what young people want from their line managers. According to line managers of early talent, they have it harder than other line managers. 4 out of 10 managers say they’re putting in extra time and effort because team members under thirty are “doing less.” In turn, younger members of the workforce say they don’t want line managers in the traditional sense, but rather coaches and mentors. It seems the requirements for effective line managers is shifting towards engaging, inspiring line management styles that focus on developing younger line reports who are negotiating their own relationship with the world of work.

As a result, it’s becoming necessary to have structured development plans, support systems and mentorship programmes to support your graduates, while also providing a “safety net” and critical upskilling for Line Managers who may not always have the tools to invest during their 1-on-1 time.

In short, polish both sides of the coin, and invest in the guides as well as the graduates.

Read how to set up your Line Managers for success in our Line Manager Toolkit

Need help re-thinking your graduate programme?

Our Graduate Programmes Toolkit explores dozens of modular solutions to help your new graduates, once recruited, to thrive as they cross the threshold into their new role, new organisation, and new world of work.

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