ShareThisWith the current view that the generational gap in the workforce is as wide as ever, it’s spurred a recent push by companies to better understand the Gen-Y recruitment landscape. Many companies that had previously been satisfied with their talent management strategies, now realise that methods of old aren’t as applicable anymore. Graduate recruitment like other functions of a business needs to evolve with time.
Human Resource professionals globally are in a constant state of incertitude as they try to figure out the answer to “How do we attract Gen-Y talent?”. The reason for the uncertainty really lies in a lack of understanding of today’s millennials. When you can get inside their head though and understand exactly what motivates them, tailoring your recruitment processes around it leads to a winning attraction strategy.
The issue is complicated further with a War for Talent reemerging as the global economy recovers. Not only are employers desperate to attract the right talent, they do so in an increasingly competitive job market – start-ups, SMEs and MNCs are all fighting over the best talent and the companies with the most persuasive stories win. So, how exactly do companies ensure they stand out when attracting Gen-Y talent?
Use Social Media: When many companies hear the term “social media”, they run. Their view is clouded by all the negative images of students being tagged in drunken photos, badmouthing ex-employers in status updates and swearing in blog comments. While these incidents do occur, and always will, social media platforms can be utilised professionally to attract young job-seekers. Social networking has completely revolutionised the way humans communicate, and young people have been the impetus to its growth. When it comes to recruitment, Gen-Y believe that companies using social media are demonstrating a willingness to understand them. Did you know that…
- 79% of students say social networking sites are key to employers engaging them.
- 42% of students say social media is ideal for conveying employer brand.
- 56% of students agree that social networking sites allow candidates to get a feel for the company’s culture.
Research conducted by TMP Worldwide and TARGETjobs
Social media therefore enables companies to build a community of talent around their employer brand. It cannot be ignored.
Gen-Y recruiting Gen-Y: When you walk around the site of a campus careers fair, you’ll see hundreds of companies vying for the attention of students as they aimlessly walk around. Many of the companies have the right idea and bring in their recent graduates to chat to job-seekers. This is an effective strategy as students can relate to the experiences of people their age easier, and ask more candid questions without the fear of being in contempt of an older person. Unfortunately though for some companies, this is where Gen-Y being involved in the recruitment process stops. Once candidates progress to further rounds of interviews, they are only exposed to senior people within the organisation.
This is a negligent move on the part of companies as Gen-Y candidates need to build a trust and rapport with other like-minded people throughout the whole recruitment process. It also portrays a misleading facade as students are promised what seems to be a young working culture at job fairs, only to be duped later in the interviews. I can personally attest to the virtue of this policy in my previous role at Meltwater also. We would always involve some of our freshest team members in the interview process to create a relaxed and identifiable environment for job-seekers. Ultimately it was very obvious that people wanted to work with us, because of us.
Focus on what Gen-Y want: I wrote a blog post about this issue a few months ago here, so I won’t ramble on again about it. What I can say is that employers need to market their opportunities by explaining how they satisfy the criteria of their audience. What exactly are Gen-Y looking for in an employer? That was discovered in an NUS study last year, the findings are here. When all is said and done, if candidates can tick many of the boxes, then employers are targeting their efforts in the right manner. A recruitment strategy that focuses solely on what the company is looking for is doomed to fail.
Be authentic about your Company Culture: Some organisations still don’t understand what is meant by the term “company culture”. It typically refers to the environment that surrounds you at work and is made up of the communal beliefs, values and underlying assumptions held by a group of people. Culture is communicated from the top and trickles its way down to the minions. It’s progressively growing in importance as a requirement for Gen-Y job-seekers, as they forsake prestige over an enjoyable work environment. I see many companies making the mistake however, of conveying an image that they believe will attract young people to the organisation, but doesn’t accurately reflect the culture of the company at all. This insincere approach can usually be detected by young job-seekers a mile off and will have the reverse effect of portraying your company as phony. Even if it initially attracts them to the company, an inability to sustain this image will result in higher turnover and disgruntled former employees. Be authentic about your culture at each phase of the talent attraction process.
The above are really just a handful of considerations organisations should make when attracting Gen-Y talent. The industry has rapidly evolved over the last ten years and companies need to keep pace in the war for talent. Recruitment is an aspect of business that will continually change well into the future also, so strategies should be agile enough to accommodate market shifts and changing attitudes. Apart from the first requirement of social media though, the other three principles really hold true regardless of the era we’re operating in. When all is said and done, Gen-Y recruitment is a completely different animal. Attraction requires understanding of today’s younger job-seekers and aligning company goals with theirs.
Does anyone else have any view on considerations when attracting Gen-Y talent? Share your thoughts.
