Wondering what you as a hiring manager or business leader can do differently when hiring this new generation to stay ahead of the curve? This blog is for you!
Aaah, not another blog about millennials!
Haven’t we heard enough about this ‘empowered, fearless, lazy, entitled, narcissistic, tech-savvy ’ generation?
The answer is “No”! Honestly, we haven’t yet understood enough about this generation for us to sufficiently conclude that we have had enough. And considering millennials make up the majority of the workforce i.e. 18 – 35-year-olds, are the most educated generation thus far, ignoring them wouldn’t be ideal for your business.
As much as we would love to bury our heads in the sand and keep doing the same old type of recruitment, with the new age it would be reckless to try and do the same thing in hopes of beating the competition in getting top talent!
Who are these millennials?
Understanding what motivates this group, what shapes their attitudes, behaviors and so on can be the key to knowing how to attract the top talent to your organization.
Here are a few basics to consider, as you are thinking about hiring:
- The millennial age group defines everyone who was born between the early 80’s – mid ’90s and would likely be between 20 and 35 years of age.
- Millennials are tech-savvy, and they love sharing content online and being active on various platforms online.
- They care about creating impact and being leaders.
- They cherish their freedom.
For some, these characteristics might be synonymous with being rude, entitled, selfish, especially when compared with the previous generation whose main goal when applying for a job was financial security and job security.
But bear in mind that this generation is changing the business culture and many companies are recognizing this and are already changing their human capital strategies (not just their recruiting strategy!).
Let’s take a look at how to approach your recruitment to get the best people from this generation
- Social Recruiting.
This means using social media for recruitment and while LinkedIn does fall in that category it means going a step further than LinkedIn. For a generation that is very active online, sticking to old strategies when recruiting would not get you the candidates you are looking for. Some companies have even gone as far as using snapchat and tinder!
If you are not quite ready for the deep end you can start with Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Creating short promos and images that would attract your target group and posting it on these platforms would ideally lead to the likelihood of your candidate hearing about this job opening.
- Rewriting the Job Description
You need to tailor your job description to not only describe the tasks and responsibilities but also connect it to a higher purpose. Try and connect to what this role will mean for your organization and your clients. Also include what kind of organization and team the person is applying to join. According to The The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2019 millennials would much rather work for a cause than just a regular job. They would want to work in a fulfilling job that contributes to creating impact.
They see themselves as leaders and want to create impact as well as earn a living, so if you don’t clearly communicate that in your job description you might not be able to hire the best.
- Work-Life balance and integration
As opposed to previous generations that would work overtime just to ensure they can feed their families and buy that house, millennials are much more interested in having flexible hours. And studies have that shown workplaces with flexible hours tend to have a more productive workforce. So apart from attracting top talent you might be getting them at a higher rate of productivity, as well by thinking through making your work environment more flexible!
And did we say “Fun at work”? For our weekly review day at edge (Friday), we recently started dress themes. And it’s awesome for everyone, we promise!
- Opportunities for growth
Having opportunities for growth is important when you are looking to attract millennials to your workplace. They love variety, spaces to learn and want to experience ongoing learning and improvement, otherwise you will end up with a bored workforce that might start looking for exit strategies as soon as you hire them.
Why don’t you try these out, and let us know how it goes?
We’d love to hear about your experiences with hiring and managing millennials!
We can’t wait to hear from you!