From the Founder: Could Mental Health Benefits Support Retention of Early-Career FGPs?
Last month, I attended my first NASPA conference, a national gathering of student-affairs administrators in higher education. The event’s sessions on first-generation college students, sponsored by NASPA’s Center for First-Generation Student Success, drew me in, and the host city of Seattle, Washington, was a nice attraction as well. An Anchorhead cold brew with chocolate milk alone is worth the trip.
I learned so much about how higher education is supporting first-generation college students through initiatives focused on persistence through graduation, enabling study abroad opportunities, and establishing professional-clothing closets for job interviews. All the while, I was looking and listening for how these first-generation college students’ transition into First-Generation Professionals (FGPs) is considered in the university community. The takeaway is that although it is clear there is support for first-gen college students to land their first jobs after graduation, I didn’t hear a lot about strategies to foster first-gen college students-turned-FGPs’ success in their jobs. There is work to be done on this front, and we at Baem Leadership are happy to take it on.
As we launch the second phase of our study examining the experiences of FGPs in the workplace to help companies identify how they can best support these employees in order to improve their retention rates and fill their leadership pipelines, one particular session at this conference sparked my thinking about early-career employees. The session, “First-Gen Student Mental Health and Well-Being: Successes and Opportunities,” presented data taken from the National Survey of Student Engagement, made up of responses from nearly 34,000 first- and fourth-year students at sixty colleges and universities across the United States in 2023.1
The key finding that stuck out to me most:
When answering the question, “To what extent have the following supported your mental health and well-being?,” the study found that continuing-generation respondents perceived their support primarily coming from friends and family while first-gen students perceived more support from institutional resources, such as academic advisors, instructors, counseling services, and student-services staff. For first-gen students, being the first in their families to navigate college and its systems, to whom else could these students turn? Further, consider the weathering they experience while persisting to graduation, likely under financial pressure and likely balancing their educational pursuits with part-time jobs and/or the responsibilities for dependents.
It is first-gen college students-turned-FGPs’ demonstration of grit and determination through all of the above that, we believe, makes them dependable, loyal employees. We are not alone: A study conducted by BCG states that FGPs, when compared with their continuing-generation counterparts, are 32 percent more likely to be more loyal to their employers and 40 percent more likely to be intrinsically motivated. 2 Let’s combine our understanding of first-gen college students’ challenges and how these could impact their mental health with what we know about Gen Z. This generation makes up about 12 percent of the current U.S. workforce and 37 percent of the global workforce,3 and it is positioned to make up more than a quarter of the global workforce by 2025. 4 The American Psychological Association writes, “More than nine in ten Gen Z adults (91 percent) said they have experienced at least one physical or emotional symptom because of stress, such as feeling depressed or sad (58 percent) or lacking interest, motivation or energy (55 percent).5 Only half of all Gen Zs feel like they do enough to manage their stress.”
The needs of the sheer number of potential Gen Z employees – remember that 56 percent of college students identify as first generation – cannot be ignored by companies looking to hire and retain high-potential talent.6 The time to act on this is now: 72 percent of Gen Zers are contemplating a career change in the next twelve months according to a LinkedIn and CensusWide survey of more than 2,000 U.S. workers about their professional plans for the new year.7 Perhaps testing mental health benefits as an early-career employee retention measure is due? Prioritizing mental health is just one potential method to attract and retain FGPs in the early-career stage. We look forward to learning more about how first-gen college graduates are transitioning into the professional world so that we can help companies develop strategies to hang on to their valued incoming talent.
Resources
1
National Survey of Student Engagement. https://nsse.indiana.edu/nsse/2
"Hiding in Plain Sight: First-Generation Professionals," BCG https://web-assets.bcg.com/49/9c/184a60f14ed9b17f8fabfd7c9d6c/hiding-in-plain-sight-first-generation-professionals-bcg-study.pdf3
"Generation Z: How to Attract, Retain and Engage the Fastest-Growing Workforce Generation," HR Dive https://www.hrdive.com/spons/generation-z-how-to-attract-retain-and-engage-the-fastest-growing-workfo/690455/4
"The Gen Z Equation," McKinsey Quarterly. https://www.mckinsey.com/quarterly/the-five-fifty/five-fifty-the-gen-z-equation5
"APA Stress in America™ Survey: Generation Z Stressed About Issues in the News but Least Likely to Vote," American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/10/generation-z-stressed6
"56% Of All Undergraduates Are First-Generation College Students," Forbes Advisor. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/education/online-colleges/first-generation-college-students-by-state/7
"Gen Z and Millennials Are Leading ‘The Big Quit’ in 2023 — Why Nearly 70% Plan to Leave Their Jobs," CNBC Make It. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/18/70percent-of-gen-z-and-millennials-are-considering-leaving-their-jobs-soon.html