Exactly like their
“ancestors”, the Baby Boomers and Generation X, Millennials are impacting the
recruiting, hiring and managerial strategies. But, before even creating a plan to hire
this generation, there is a need to understand
their mind-set, their global approach to a career and their motivations.
The generation “who doesn’t know
the life before internet” is resourceful and flexible, with a high level of
digital literacy. Therefore, in
order to search, attract and retain the millennials, forward-thinking recruiting companies need to invest in new sourcing tools
and techniques.
Who are
millennials and Gen Z?
Millennials or Generation Y are considered to be born
from 1980’s to the early 2000’s. This demographic cohort following Generation X
cannot be precisely placed on a time scale. Generation Z follows them, with
individuals born around the mid or late 1990’s or from the mid-2000’s to the present
day. One thing is for sure: in 2025, these two generations are going to make up 75% of the workforce,
according to the Business
and Professional Women's Foundation.
How are
Millennials different than normal candidates?
Hated or loved, Gen Z and Millennials are a valuable
workforce resource. With ages starting from 18 to 30, they are often considered
narcissistic, entitled or hipsters. Some believe that millennials are not
really loyal to organizations, but according to a research
made by the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL), they are just as loyal as any
other generation has been in their 20s.
For staffing companies, recruiting Millennials equals having a
highly skilled pool of available candidates, more likely to take assignments
that experienced candidates would decline, with pay checks more realistic in
the current economy. There are no hints that Millennials are easily
exploitable, but a win-win situation, as Baby Boomers are walking into
retirement at the rate of 10,000/day and Generation Z demographics spreads.
Tools and methods to recruit Millennials and Gen Z:
1.
Get social: New
generations are digitally literate from infancy, so recruiters need to be
present on their playground: social media. Reports demonstrate that some of the largest companies worldwide
already use social networking tools for candidate mining and advertising. Millennials are recruited with a various
mix of media: LinkedIn, YouTube videos, microblogs, Facebook, Google +, Twitter,
etc.
According
to a research done by the Pew Internet Foundation (PIF) in 2013, 75%
of Millennials maintain an active presence on social media sites, compared to
only 41% of the total online population.
2. Establish a
credible relationship: The same study made
by PIF shows that Millennials are five times more likely to leave their jobs if
they have a poor relationship with their manager. The same rule applies to the
recruiting process. While interviewing Millennials, there is a necessity of
creating a trustful relationship. According to Sara Luther, Managing Partner at
Human Resources Division, Millennials
want feedback. “Unlike many in the
workforce, they want it informally; they want it frequently; they want
specifics; they want praise and constructive criticism; and they want it now”
writes Sara in ”Targeting
Gen-Y in Your Recruiting and Hiring”.
3. Know your audience: Extending the
social media approach to a deeper level, recruiters have the benefits of
following their potential candidates activities on Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Behance or Pinterest. Very often, Millennials are showcasing
their online portfolios on those platforms. For a niched search, there are networks
focused only on professional interests, like LinkedIn,
Plaxo, Ryze and Networking for Professionals. However, this doesn’t imply only
posting jobs on these platforms, but producing useful and relevant
content for potential candidates.
4. Talk
“digitally”: According to John Palfrey
and Gasser Urs , the
Digital Natives are born after 1980, when
social digital technologies, such as Usenet and bulletin board systems, came
online. They all have the skills to use digital technologies, so recruiters have to talk “digitally” in
order to be understood. Millennials will do their research before applying
to jobs, so it’s important that recruiters and their clients have a transparent
reputation. The exponents of this generation will ask around, research on
Glassdoor, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or even do “sweatworking”.
5. Build a
Community: Millennials are interested in
opportunities to contribute, connect and grow. The next step after pitching
millennials on social media is to create
a community where they can openly discuss, where they can be advised by
hiring managers or career consultants. In a Dice article, Lauren Smith, Director of Marketing for
Ascendify, shares a valuable resource for hiring millennials: “Recruiters can share applicable news, post
openings, offer advice, make introductions, describe company culture, set
expectations for the hiring process, and build credible relationships. “
6.
Use
flexible hours tool: Millennials are
not so eager to squeeze their life in an inflexible working program, so
employers and recruiters should think about giving them options like: telecommuting, non-traditional working hours,
or a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE). In addition, interviewing via Skype is a good
alternative method, undoubtedly saving both time and money. This shouldn’t be seen as a sign
of awkwardness, but Millennials are the first generation to embrace the culture of flexible working. Therefore, they
are less likely to be attracted to inflexible work patterns.
7.
Use Cloud
Technologies: Generation Y individuals are quite dependant on technology. Funny
enough, according to a study
ordered by a car-sharing company, almost 40% of the Generation Y respondents
said that losing their phone would be harder for them than losing their car. With
this in mind, it's probably time to rethink recruiting with paper handouts and
printed documents. In addition, the appetite of millennials towards mobile
platforms increases the need of cloud based tools in recruiting.
Let’s not get too hung up on
calling them millennials, Generation Z or other names though. The tools and the
ways or recruiting might have changed a little, but all in all, like Aram suggested in
his “Recruiting
and Managing Millennials”, the key is to find great people for the job,
regardless of their age or generation.
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