By, Frank Danzo – Senior Partner
Millennials are now the largest generation in the workforce and rethinking your recruitment strategies is now important for attracting candidates.
First you need to understand who they are and what they want. Millennials, who were born anywhere from 1980 to 1999, grew up in the digital age. They’re smart, savvy, and adaptive. Work to them is more than just collecting a paycheck. They want what they do to matter.
So how do you reach this growing group in the workforce?
1. Streamline the Application Process
Want to discourage a Millennial from applying for your jobs? Make them complete a mile-long application. To avoid losing candidates before they even apply, make your application process simple! If you have an online application system, you can really stand out from the crowd by having a mobile-optimized site.
Studies show that 89% of job seekers are likely to use a mobile device to find work in the next year. Currently, one billion job searches are performed on mobile devices each month! With 80% of young adults ages 18-34 owning a smartphone and using it to job seek, is it really any question to have an easy online application process?
2. Get on the Social Media Train
Engage with Millennials where their attention is focused: social networks! Millennials are constant consumers of information. They devour, create, and aggregate information on a daily basis. Millennials reportedly consult at least a dozen resources on average before applying to a job. That means you can’t rely on your company’s website or placing an ad in the local paper to get to this mass of potential candidates.
Do your homework and learn about the most popular sites being used. Start with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Be sure to stay on top of new and emerging ones too. If all else fails, get one of your kids to help you like I do! Recruiting Millennials with social media postings offers your company a unique opportunity to engage with them on their terms and in an environment where they are comfortable.
3. Build and Personalize your Company’s Website
Most companies have websites. You probably do too, but if it is only used for marketing your products, you are missing out on a valuable recruiting asset.
Company websites are key to attracting Millennials. In the Information Age, people, particularly Millennials, go online to find anything and everything. When a Millennial visits your website, give them a glimpse into your organization.
Gone are the days when the “Career” page is merely a list of current openings. Show them what it is really like to work for your company. This can be as easy as sharing team photos or branding your career page. Make your page authentic with real photos of employees and leaders, along with messages about the company from people that actually work there! Don’t use stock photos. Savvy Millennials will spot that “baloney” a mile away! Ultimately they just want to work where employees are engaged, happy, and doing something meaningful.
Also, make sure your website and social media sites are aligned. They each play an important role in the recruiting process. One needs to support the other.
LinkedIn’s 2015 Talent Trends Report shows that 62% of Millennials will visit a company’s social media accounts to find out more about a company. Millennials do their research! When they visit your website or social media sites, make them want to be a part of your team. If your site is boring, uncreative, and doesn’t give them a sense of your culture, then they may choose to work somewhere else.
4. Paint a Vision
Millennials want an idea of how they will advance in a company before they accept a job there. So show them potential paths to increasing their pay and gaining more responsibility in your organization.
Millennials are often seen as job hoppers because they’re constantly looking for organizations that can offer additional responsibilities, higher pay, and more meaning. Let’s make that be your organization!
Training and/or mentorship programs for employees, can also help the organization be successful. If you do have these programs, make sure you’re marketing them! If not, it’s time to implement some great training programs. These programs will not only attract Millennials, they will help retain them and the rest of your staff as well.
5. Showcase Technology
Remember that Millennials have grown up with technology and expect to use it on the job. Either in the job posting or during the interview, let candidates know about the technology they will use at your company. If you have an EMR, scheduling software, or any other automated system, you can use that as a selling point to Millennial job-seekers.
6. Offer Flexibility
Work no longer has to take place within the hours of 9 to 5. Flexibility in your working schedule is becoming the norm. Millennials want this flexibility.
This generation does not want to be married to their jobs like the older generations were. For Millennials, work-life balance is everything. It can be difficult for us to change our old ways of thinking when it comes to staffing, but it’s a job-seeker’s market now. This means you have to convince Millennials to turn down the five other offers they get from companies who will likely offer them flexible schedules.
You must offer Millennials flexibility – job sharing, split schedules, self-scheduling, remote working, etc. Get creative, Millennials will love it!
Summary
While salary is important to Millennials, it’s often not the primary motivator. Once a salary meets their basic needs, Millennials desire progression and growth, along with challenging and interesting work – work that makes a difference. Make sure your company can fulfill all those requirements!
Promote a career with your company as offering innovation, creativity, and inspiration. This is what Millennials seek in their work.
Now if someone could tell me how to get my Millennial sons to clean their rooms, I’d be grateful!