Recommendations for supporting the well-being at work of young people

Press release of The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health xx.xx.xxxx

An employee’s first experiences of work life provide the basis for their well-being at work. The Towards a successful career project studied how the well-being at work and resources of early-career employees can be strengthened. The results can be summarized in three recommendations: Strengthen the young person’s sense of capability, support their experience of job control and accompany them on their path.

– Resources can be supported in daily work life, for example, by clarifying the roles, explaining the challenging situations that may arise in advance and offering the employee starting their career tasks that make them feel that they are capable of doing their job, says Senior Specialist Telma Rivinoja from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

Positive feedback supports the beginning of careers

The research project developed a free, resource-oriented group coaching model that offers workplaces and supervisors concrete tools for supporting early-career employees.

Taking part in the coaching strengthened the young employees’ resources, such as their sense of capability and job control. Furthermore, those who took part in group coaching received support from their peers and shared ways of solving challenging situations at work. Anticipating stressful situations at work supports early-career employees’ trust in their capability to overcome these situations and provides protection against work-related stress. 

– Thinking about solutions together supports the employees’ confidence in their ability to succeed. Providing support and positive feedback at the beginning of careers is really important. The feedback can help the young person identify their strengths, says Rivinoja. 

Supportive feedback strengthens the mutual trust between the supervisor and the employee. 
– I encourage supervisors to provide feedback even for seemingly minor good performance. The sense of accomplishment is really helpful with daily work-related challenges, says Rivinoja.

Learn more 

• Towards a successful career project final report (in Finnish)
• Workplaces are free to apply the resource-oriented group coaching and training model for supervisors developed by the study group. The coaching can be applied in job orientation, supervisory work, counselling and guidance. (Material and recommendations in Finnish)
• Towards a successful career research project page (in Finnish) 
• Other publications about the project (in Finnish)