New report finds few Australian firms have stopped hiring for early career positions due to AI
Employers in Australia have been cautioned against cutting early-level talent as part of their AI adoption process, as experts warn that it could create "significant workforce challenges" in the future.
Kaelyn Lowmaster, director analyst in the Gartner HR practice, advised employers to start redefining early-career roles instead.
"Organisations that respond by cutting their early career talent pipelines altogether risk creating significant workforce challenges down the road," Lowmaster said.
"Instead of eliminating these early career roles, organisations should redefine them to enable earlier contributions to higher-value work and build the talent they will need in the future."
The director analyst aired the advice as a new Gartner poll among 110 heads of HR revealed that 22% of them know at least one business leader in their organisation who has stopped hiring for entry-level roles due to AI adoption.
This is reflective of recent government data that showed a slowdown in employment in some occupations that are highly exposed to AI, such as clerical and administrative roles.
This slowdown comes due to a mismatch between the traditional skill profiles of early career talent and the remaining lowest-complexity work after AI automates some tasks.
But according to Gartner, eliminating entry-level roles will only force organisations to pay premiums for experienced talent that must be hired externally instead of being developed internally.
"Additionally, fewer low-risk on-the-job opportunities to build skills, personal networks, and institutional knowledge over time means that organisations must reorient early career development toward performing more complex tasks and navigating higher levels of ambiguity," it said.
What should HR leaders do?
Gartner outlined three approaches that heads of HR can prioritise to address the growing gap between the capabilities of early career talent and the complexity of work required in AI-enabled environments.
The first approach is conducting a detailed analysis of workforce capabilities to identify high-change, high-value job families where shift work across roles is likely to have the biggest impact.
"Knowing where AI is freeing up time enables leaders to create new supervisory responsibilities and identify tasks that can safely shift to early career talent," said Annika Jessen, Director Analyst in the Gartner HR practice.
Organisations should also introduce support structures that can help early-career employees to be more efficient in more complex, judgment-intensive roles reshaped by AI.
"Traditional development approaches are no longer sufficient in an AI-enabled environment," said Meaghan Kelly, Director Analyst in the Gartner HR practice.
"Organisations can't rely on gradual skill-building through routine work."
And as routine work falls short of helping employees build judgment and experiences, Gartner urged employers to provide safety nets that can help employees navigate ambiguity while minimising mistakes and their impact. These safety nets may include tools, guidance, and peer connections.
