Developing the Uneducated and young

The prospective business leaders of tomorrow will be today’s youth. Organizations, and more specifically human resource managers, have a responsibility to prepare young people, especially the uneducated, for opportunities in the future. When hiring personnel, human resource managers should consider factors other than education. They ought to look for talent, innovation, and other innate skills that have the potential to influence organizations. The main tools for developing the young and ignorant in organizations are effective mentorship programs. Businesses that make the most of the leadership and expertise of their senior staff members can grow and keep the talent they already have on staff. In developing the young and uneducated, the increased need for mentorship programs is felt in an organization. The mentorship programs are very essential in the modern business world in particular with the increasing emphasis on the need of being educated to succeed in life. They serve the role of giving hope to the uneducated in the organizations and showing them that although education may be substantial, it is not the only means for them to succeed.

The organization must, therefore, understand that successful mentoring programs for the young and uneducated do not just happen. The human resource individuals must plan for the program by dedicating a lot of time, attention, and resources to make the mentoring work. They must also set goals, which are relevant to the vision of the organization and linked to its business targets. They must also learn how to focus on specific abilities in the lives of the young and uneducated individuals. Such programs may include skills enhancement, personality development, education support, leadership and management development, talent development and knowledge transfer.

Tools in Developing the Young and Uneducated

There are many ways that the human resource department can develop the young and uneducated employees in the organization. They can serve the role of a boss or a coach. In the boss role, they give directions that are meant to be obeyed without seeking to develop personal relationships with them. A coach, on the other hand, will help them achieve a specific goal. Therefore, the most effective method to use is that of a mentor. The employees working in the human resource department will act as mentors who seek to correct and remediate work behavior. They will offer professional advice to these employees and help them to understand the culture of their organization by being an active part of all the activities. Although the relationship will be majorly based on work, they will get personal with the young and uneducated employees to ensure they understand them deeply. The development is not only meant to the organization but also for their lives as able people in society. The mentorship program will provide a way for the employees in the human resource department to give back to society. The mentors should be the biggest supporters of the young and uneducated individuals and ensure that they receive enough visibility and exposure within the organization. The trainers take up the role of sponsors who help socialize the right workers that their mentees accomplish by leveraging established contacts in the organization. The mentor also has the task of sharing experiences with the mentees as they can quickly learn from their mistakes. Every organization has a life and a culture that is unique to itself, and it is only through mentorship that the young and uneducated individuals can learn how to succeed in the organization. Therefore, mentorship is the best tool to use in developing the young and uneducated by human resource personnel in organizations.

Leadership

One of the key ways that the human resource managers can develop the young and uneducated in the organization is by emphasizing on how to develop leaders. Although leaders may be born, they are still made through interactions with knowledge on leadership (Daft, 2011). In any visit to a bookstore, one comes across many books that talk about how to become successful leaders. Therefore, through mentorship, the young and uneducated employees in an organization can grow to become leaders.

Leadership is more of an action than a position (Giuliani & Roberts, 2004). A leader is that person who has a vision and inspires other people to believe and implement it. The human resource managers in organizations are the leaders in organizations who in making the young and uneducated individuals in their organizations believe in their visions ought to mentor them. One way to mentor them is to ensure that they demonstrate the skills essential for their positions. They should be confident, have an ability to stay calm under pressure, demonstrate emotional intelligence, and make good and flexible decisions that fit every situation. When conflicts arise in the workplace, the human resource leaders are supposed to solve them in ways that mentor the young individuals. The young and uneducated people are like children who learn a lot from their environment when growing up. They will learn and acquire a lot from the business climate where they work primarily from their leaders as they often look up to them.

A second way that the human resource department can impact leadership qualities in the young, uneducated individuals is by helping them to understand the difference between management and leadership (Daft, 2011). Many people graduate from school with a lot of information about management and honors in the same. However, the acquisition of this knowledge does not guarantee them as effective managers in the corporate environment. The increasing emphasis on the importance of education to succeed in the corporate industry makes the human resource department more vital in demonstrating to the young and uneducated individuals that they can still make it. In helping them to understand the difference between management and leadership, they need to know that governance is not in the names of specific individuals. It is in the qualities that they demonstrate in their personality. When they understand that leadership is not in the education that people receive in schools rather in their character, the will be confident to develop a noble character that can lead people to the organization. The human resource department will expose them to circumstances that can develop leadership in them such as recruitment activities, resolving conflicts in the workplace and even setting goals and targets for the employees. The focus in this method is transformational leadership where individuals develop over time to become people who can lead.

Talent

Some of the greatest business leaders were once young and uneducated individuals. They have worked in organizations over some time to build a name for themselves and even ended up as some of the richest people across the world. Bill Gates is one of them because he dropped out of Harvard University in 1975 to become one of the co-founders of the Microsoft Company. He has been part of the company for some time and developed it to a renowned company globally. He is currently estimated to be worth more than $76billion, and he has developed other successful organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Aronson, 2009). Other examples of such exemplary leaders include Steve Jobs who developed the Apple Company (Goldsworthy, 2012) and Richard Branson who founded the Virgin Group, which controls many companies in the world (Branson, 2014).

The human resource department will use examples of such global leaders in developing the young and uneducated individuals in their organizations. Young people are often enthusiastic and eager to learn and often want to receive an affirmation whether they are doing a good job. Most of them also have great potential and talents that can be developed into a skill by the human resource department in the organization. The human resource is primarily concerned with motivating employees in an organization. The young and uneducated employees will majorly be inspired by acknowledgment and incremental education as opposed to an increased salary.

The human resource personnel will teach the young and uneducated employees for a living (Asch, 2007). They will focus on matters that exceed the needs of the organization by emphasizing on utilizing of their talents, which will help them master their abilities. When the young and uneducated individuals receive such concentration, they will develop their talents and in the end become great leaders like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson. They will have the confidence to start their companies, and through the human resource management experience that they will have acquired when working in their organizations, they will develop to become great business leaders.

When developing the young and uneducated by mentoring them to utilize their talents, the personnel in the human resource department will take several steps. First, they must ensure that they make them fully involved in the activities of the organization from the first day. They young and uneducated individuals should not assume a passive role just because they do not have any knowledge from school. They should make them assume decision-making authority at least on one mission immediately they join the organizations. When the personnel gives them such responsibilities, they should allow them to figure out their way out without any assistance at first. Later they will improve and become better problem solvers as time goes on. If they are assisted in all areas, they will never improve (Henman, 2011).

The human personnel mentors should also develop reward systems that publicly appreciate the young and uneducated individuals who are performing exemplary well. During debates, they can openly ask for their ideas to show them that they believe in them. It is a great way to reward their efforts, and the young, uneducated individuals will begin to develop self-confidence. In the end, they will become more eloquent in sharing their ideas even in front of senior managers in the organization. The mentors can also recognize their exemplary performance in front of other employees including recommendations to managers. In this reward system, the other mentees will also be challenged to develop continually also to become one of the best performing individuals.

The mentors have a duty to develop personal relationships with the young, uneducated employees (Cohen, 2015). Therefore, when they take walks around the organization especially on a supervisory role, they should frequently ask them questions. When they are asked questions that relate to their departments of work, the young, uneducated employees will feel a sense of responsibility. They will understand that they are a part of that department and they should be active in looking at the issues and coming up with solutions to decisions being made. The interaction with the mentor and other leaders in the organization will also promote self-confident in the mentees. The young and uneducated employees are often more shy as compared to other employees and therefore their great ideas and talents may not be utilized explicitly. Therefore, the use of questions will help them interact with other people and in the end, develop the confidence to utilize their talents in the organization.

Talent is personal, and unless the mentors interact deeply with the young, uneducated employees, they might never discover their innate ability. The human resource personnel will, therefore, have to show them personal attention. They can use simple gestures to show them that they value them personally such as sending congratulatory messages on their birthdays and other important days in their lieges such as anniversaries. However, the mentors will have to be careful to ensure that they do not give false compliments and praises. They should never fake it. Where there is a need for improvement, they should politely pass the message to the employees.

The young, uneducated employees are often looking for an example. They want to have an individual who they can emulate especially in the business sector. Therefore, the mentors should set an example for these individuals. They should also set long-term goals to accompany their effort of setting an example to the employees. Individuals, who aspire to run their business one day, are more challenged by long-term goals as opposed to the short-term ones. They will feel a part of the long-term goals of the organizations and develop confidence in making major decisions in the organizations. In setting the long-term objectives, the human resource mentors can fire the mentees who are not performing. After offering several warnings to the underperforming individuals and setting all necessary motivational techniques, they should be fired. The laying off some of the individuals who are a part of the program will also serve as a motivational tool for the remaining ones. They will also relate it to their future businesses and understand that when they fail to perform well, the market will eventually kick them out of the industry.

When mentoring the young, uneducated employees, the human resource personnel will have to wear authority lightly. They will have to understand that young people may have different methods of communication. The mentors will have to be lenient and avoid concluding that any style of communication including grooming is disrespectful. The mentors will have to understand them and improve their skills progressively over time. The mentees will learn how to observe the rules of the game and develop their skills over time. The mentorship program will help to develop talent in the young and uneducated employees with the goal that one day they will open up their businesses.

Business Skills

The mentorship program will also focus on developing business skills in the young and uneducated employees in the organization. The aim of this program is that these individuals will not depend on employment forever, but they will grow to keep their business. Although entrepreneurial skills can be taught, the attitude must be developed by continuous mentorship and will. The role of the human resource personnel in this program will be to develop this approach in the mentees by continuously affecting them with the required skills for entrepreneurial activities.

One of the primary skills that they will need is how to find and manage people (Lipkin & Perrymore, 2009). Although they may employ human resource officers in their organizations, they will still serve the role of dictating the culture of the workplace. Managing people include developing and maintaining proper communication skills, learning the art of networking and creating the right relationships with employees. These skills may be learned in schools but to be effective, they must be practiced over time. The mentorship program will offer these young and uneducated employees a chance to practice the skills over time and continually sharpen them.

The human resource personnel will also expose the mentees to training programs. The training events will be relevant for specific projects assigned to them especially those related to the development of new products. Other relevant projects will include managing people by involving them in the development of reward systems, solving of conflicts in the workplace, and developing motivational techniques for employees. The young, uneducated individuals will gain information that is relevant to the corporate industry. They will also get feedback on some of their skills from the mentors, which make the training more effective as it is very practical and less theoretical.

In developing, the business skills in these young and uneducated employees the mentors will help them to develop self-reliance and self-reflection skills. Self-reflection will help the mentees to understand that past mistakes are supposed to be used when planning. They will also understand the need to set achievable and realistic goals in their businesses by considering the strengths and weaknesses of their workforce and management. The self-reliance will teach the young and uneducated employees that even if they hire other individuals, they still need to depend on themselves for the success of their businesses.

Creativity

The mentorship program will focus on developing the creativity in the minds of the young and uneducated employees. These individuals have a lot of untapped potentials, which can benefit the organization (Dobre, 2013). The human resource personnel only need to train them on the proper application of their creativity when making decisions in the workplace. The young and uneducated employees will help the organization to develop new ideas for competitive advantage in the specific industry. Every organization needs to keep developing new ideas to maintain their edge in their specific business. Therefore, the creativity in the young and uneducated employees will help to develop new niches in the industry for the organization. These employees are unfamiliar with the traditional models of business and therefore have a higher likelihood to exploit the opportunities in the industry. Young people are also more adventurous and less afraid to take risks. Therefore, with the right training, they will learn how to use their creativity to benefit the organization.

The mentorship program is also focusing on the ability of the mentees to run their organizations in future. As leaders, founders and senior managers in the organization, they will need to spearhead the business activities by setting goals for their organizations. They will also have to come up with creative ways to solve problems in their businesses such as motivation of the employees, marketing of the new products and means of ensuring great sales in the face of heightened competition. Therefore, the role of this program is to link the creative mind of these young and uneducated employees with the business mind. A creative mind answers all questions and even outdoes knowledge acquired through books. The mentees, in the end, will have learned how to improve existing business practices, and in addition to becoming great managers, they will be excellent entrepreneurs and human resource personnel.

Most of the young and uneducated young people come from disadvantaged backgrounds where they do not have anybody to look up to. They are forced to live in abject poverty where they lack even the basic needs like education because they have not been taught how to use their creativity skills to earn a living. Although in the organizations they may not be required to use their creativity to earn money, they will use the mentorship to learn how they can use their creative skills to go through any situations in life. They will understand the importance of creativity in marketing, management of people, product development, decision-making, and solving conflicts. Therefore, creativity will become a greater predictor of success in their lives as opposed to intelligence. Education emphasizes on information as it can be measured and is easy to identify and manage. However, in adverse circumstances, the educated people may fail to interpret their theory-based knowledge into practice. It only remains to be potential, which is not tapped into. The mentorship program will develop individuals who will apply their creative skills in all aspects of life. They will also be challenged to give back to their society in future by instilling creative skills to earn a livelihood, especially by the uneducated individuals.

Conclusion

The world today has changed greatly especially due to globalization and excessive industrialization. The impact of corporations in the society has also changed giving them an increasing need to mentor and empower the young people. There is also an increased emphasis on education as the primary tool for success. However, organizations have appreciated that although education is important for success, it is not the only means to lead a prosperous life. Therefore, the human resource personnel has a role to play in developing the young and uneducated in their organizations. They are individuals with talent, leadership skills, and creativity. Using proper training and mentorship programs, the human resource personnel can affect business skills in them. As a result, the individuals will develop self-confidence, proper communication, and networking skills, leadership characters, and entrepreneurial ability. They will end up becoming great managers in their organizations and future entrepreneurs. The young and uneducated employees have a lot of potentials that can be tapped best by the use of mentors. The use of the mentorship program is also appropriate as it ensures that all these principles and skills are instilled with a sense of discipline. The mentors will be part of the lives of the young and uneducated employees, and therefore they will develop a sense of responsibility and discipline that will assist them when implementing the skills learned.

References

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