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Fast Company
5 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Entry-level jobs are disappearing. Here's why companies should care
As millions of new graduates enter the job market this spring and summer, many may encounter a potentially frustrating paradox: They need experience to get hired, but they need a job or internship to gain that experience. This paradox is deepening in today's labor market. At Deloitte, we recently released a Global Human Capital Trends report that found that 66% of hiring managers say most recent hires are not fully prepared for their roles, most often due to a lack of experience. Meanwhile, research has shown that a majority of employers have increased experience requirements over the past three years, and many 'entry-level' roles today often require two to five years of prior experience. This can present a virtually impossible situation for young talent. Foot-hold jobs, especially those traditional entry-level roles where workers could grow into an organization, are becoming increasingly hard to find. If organizations want to build sustainable talent pipelines and develop tomorrow's leaders, they should rethink what it means to be 'ready' for work and how they help people get there. The Disappearing Entry-Level Job For years, work has been trending towards greater complexity and specialization. It demands judgment, creativity, and adaptability—enduring human capabilities that are hard to acquire without hands-on experience. AI and automation amplify the issue, consuming many of the routine, repeatable tasks that once formed the core of entry-level roles. Simultaneously, some organizations are flattening their structures to increase agility. But this can have unintended consequences, as they may potentially risk eliminating stepping-stone roles and informal mentorship channels that can help early-career workers grow. This erosion of early-career development doesn't just affect individuals. It could threaten future leadership pipelines and innovation capacity. That's why organizations need to take action now to close the growing experience gap among tomorrow's business leaders. Experience ≠ Readiness We need to challenge the assumption that experience or degrees automatically equate to job readiness. They often don't. Human capabilities like empathy, curiosity, and problem-solving are more predictive of success than a bullet point on a résumé. In the AI age, human capabilities are tested just as much as hard skills. Nurturing these capabilities is incredibly important for creating leaders with the resilience and problem-solving skills for any challenge. In 2025, modern workforce development models—like what we have at Deloitte—emphasize three factors: technical skills (such as coding or accounting), human capabilities (such as critical thinking and emotional intelligence), and potential (including adjacent skills or latent abilities that can be nurtured). Yet, hiring systems often filter out high-potential candidates who don't meet what can sometimes be arbitrary experience thresholds. That means career changers, first-generation graduates, or self-taught professionals often struggle to get noticed. Strategies to Close the Experience Gap Fixing the experience gap requires systemic change, from hiring criteria to day-to-day development. 1. Adopt Skills-First Hiring and Whole-Person Models: Move beyond degree and tenure filters. Focus on demonstrated skills, motivation, and learning agility. This approach opens doors to candidates who may not follow traditional paths but are ready to grow. 2. Invest in Internships and Modern Apprenticeships: Paid internships and apprenticeships offer the context-rich experience grads need to develop. Research from Burning Glass Institute and Strada Education Foundation shows these programs not only reduce underemployment but also improve long-term retention. There's an unmet demand for these programs, too, as Deloitte's Workplace Skills Survey revealed that 57% of employees want more on-the-job observation and shadowing opportunities. Moreover, 61% of workers value mentorship programs as an effective way to build workplace relationships, emphasizing the importance of fostering connections alongside structured development initiatives. 3. Use AI to Accelerate, Not Replace, Early Career Development: AI can simulate on-the-job experience in safe, low-risk environments. 'Digital playgrounds' allow early-career employees to test their decision-making and receive feedback. AI tools can: Prompt reflection with critical questions Synthesize knowledge from experienced colleagues Help users practice judgment via realistic scenarios, including answering client questions during mock presentations When used intentionally, AI becomes an accelerator—not a displacer—of new talent development. 4. Create Micro-Opportunities for Experiential Learning: Organizations should make it easier for employees to gain experience through short-term projects. Talent marketplaces, internal gig platforms, and simulations allow early-career employees to try new challenges and build confidence incrementally. 5. Empower Managers to Develop Talent: Managers still control hiring filters, but they're often overwhelmed. Deloitte's 2025 Human Capital Trends Report shows managers spend just 13% of their time on tasks like hiring and onboarding. And 36% say they aren't well prepared to manage people. That has to change. Managers need training and bandwidth to mentor early-career employees. With around 40% of their time dedicated to administrative work or problem-solving, most managers simply lack the time to be the mentors most junior staff need. Formal mentorship, real-time feedback, and inclusive leadership practices help new hires grow and turn potential into performance. From Experience Gaps to Opportunity Gateways The potential risks of inaction are clear: persistent underemployment, shrinking leadership pipelines, and a projected global shortfall of 85 million skilled workers by 2030. These aren't future concerns; they're already weakening competitiveness today. Gen Z, however, is ready. Deloitte's 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey shows nearly a third plan to leave their employers within two years, not from disloyalty, but in pursuit of growth, stability, and purpose. They're reskilling on their own and eager to contribute. It's time to redefine readiness—not as tenure or credentials—but as the potential and agility that comes from well-honed human capabilities. It's time to treat AI and access to apprenticeships as launchpads for early career professionals, not barriers to their ability to gain the experience they need. And it's time to equip managers to be talent builders, not just task owners. The class of 2025 doesn't lack talent, but they do often lack access. It's time for organizations to stop asking 'Where's the experience?' and start creating it.
Business Journals
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
As AI transforms work, revisit your employee value proposition
AI has arrived, and the output can be thrilling: fully realized reports, marketing materials, images, videos, websites, applications, business plans, humanoids and even new drug candidates. The technology has become so good at generating, recognizing and 'reasoning' that organizations are rethinking the future of work. One wonders how to draw the line, if any, between the tasks humans should do and the tasks machines should do. According to Deloitte, leading organizations are embracing AI as a partner in productivity, positioning it as a co-creator of business value. How to effectively and ethically do so is a question that many companies here in the Twin Cities are weighing, and the facet of AI we will examine in this article. We are 'exposed' to AI Minnesota has more than 1.6 million jobs in occupations highly exposed to AI, and more than 75% of the occupations typically requiring a bachelor's degree or higher are in the high-exposure group. Highly exposed jobs tend to have higher educational requirements and higher wages. AI exposure in the seven-county Twin Cities area ranges from genetic counselors, financial examiners and actuaries on the high-exposure end to group fitness instructors and iron workers on the low-exposure end. Public-sector jobs are also part of the conversation as 48% of cities globally will make wide use of traditional AI by 2027, and 87% are currently planning, piloting or using GenAI, according to Deloitte's AI-Powered Cities of the Future report. Exposure to AI can simply mean the job is particularly ripe for transformation, improvement or reimagination — and AI can enhance, rather than replace, human capabilities. When thoughtfully implemented, AI can remove or reduce the time spent on rote tasks and free up capacity for more interesting, engaging, value-add work. Consider how spreadsheets helped bookkeepers enhance their skills in the 1980s, freeing them to do different tasks. AI offers the same opportunity today. These points underscore Deloitte's observation that AI is affecting the employee value proposition, or EVP. The EVP, sometimes called a workforce or human value proposition, according to our 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report, crystallizes the reasons people come to an organization and stay with it. In fact, the convergence of AI and people make the technology's promise inextricable from human potential. In this new paradigm, employees' skills, knowledge and abilities constitute a portion of their value. The other piece is the magic they can make with AI. That includes humans learning from AI and AI learning from humans. The best relationships will collaborate both ways to achieve optimal results. AI's silent impacts The quintessential human-machine collaboration might be something like a 'Digital Doug,' as noted in our Human Capital Trends report. 'Digital Doug' represents a long-time auto industry employee with vast and valuable institutional knowledge who shares his insights with AI before retiring. Once 'Human Doug' retires, 'Digital Doug' continues at the company, safeguarding much of the human employee's knowledge of the job. This convergence suggests that technology could move beyond acting as an enabler, facilitator and teammate and become woven into the very fabric of the workforce, according to our report. Replicating Doug is perhaps an extreme example of what we call the silent impacts of AI on human employees, but you can see why we recommend that business leaders reconsider their organization's EVP. However, for some organizations that have been viewing technology through rose-colored glasses, the silent impacts of AI have not been a priority. As a result, these organizations have tended to overlook or minimize how AI can undermine people's work experiences. Failure to acknowledge and address employees' AI concerns could compromise the human-technology relationship and, in turn, the worker-employer relationship to the detriment of both organizations and their people. Potential silent impacts include: Increased workload. On top of other duties, workers sometimes feel like they need to teach their machines. Harder work. Since AI automates the routine work, the more complex work is what remains, putting a bigger cognitive burden on the employee. Isolation. More time interacting with AI means less interaction with human colleagues. Performance assessment problems. Who or what gets credit for improved results? Stagnation. Early-career workers may have fewer on-the-job learning opportunities due to AI performing high-value tasks. Deloitte found that navigating these dynamics, and incorporating AI with a 'human-first' mindset, will be important to capitalize on AI's potential for both workers and businesses. Redefining EVP work and rewards Designing and redefining roles to incorporate this 'human-first mindset' means thoughtfully reconsidering an organization's EVP. Sixty-nine percent of respondents in the Human Capital Trends survey recognize the importance of reinventing their EVP to reflect increased human-machine collaboration. Yet only 23% have efforts underway, and 6% are making great progress. A priority in developing the EVP will be determining how the rewards of AI are shared with workers. In fact, organizations are almost six times as likely to receive significant financial benefits from AI when their workers personally derive value from it. Sharing rewards could mean a raise for the worker, but it could also mean four-day work weeks, treating every employee like a high-potential asset or offering more challenging assignments and opportunities for development. Importantly, workers will be measured on new scales in the AI era. The proliferation of AI increases the need for organizations to develop human capabilities like collaboration and emotional intelligence. For workers, well-honed human capabilities are more important than ever in terms of employability, making their development an increasingly valuable piece of the EVP. Organizations that prioritize developing human capabilities are nearly twice as likely to have workers who feel their work is meaningful and twice as likely to see better financial and business results, according to our survey. Going forward Revising the value proposition you offer your people will likely be critical for retention, too. Our report notes that more than 70% of managers and workers are more likely to join and stay with an organization if its EVP helps them thrive in an AI-driven world. As you redesign jobs, reimagine organizational design and reconfigure business processes in this time of AI, seek to elevate both human and business outcomes. Your AI investment is counting on it — so are your people, your business and our region. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ('DTTL'), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as 'Deloitte Global') does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the 'Deloitte' name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see to learn more about our global network of member firms.
