The fight for good talent is intense and for some organisations, it is especially challenging to recruit candidates of a younger generation (under age 35) because of their different needs, thought patterns and behaviour.
Millennials are characterised as being tech-savvy, socially aware and increasingly, represent a large part of the workforce. They are digital natives – born or brought up during the age of digital technology – and they use social media as a platform for fulfilling their recruitment needs.
Millennials have typical opinions and attitudes which make them different from the rest. According to LinkedIn, millennials need instant recognition and gratification, they like to work in a team, work-life balance is important to them, and they look for a transparent relationship with the company they choose to work for.
Utilising social media as part of your advertising and search process for recruitment can be highly effective, particularly with this generation. But instead of thinking in terms of popular social media platforms — LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter — start thinking outside the box and look for places where they interact and share content. It’s all about connecting with top talent in the places they like to spend their time. For example, if you are recruiting for IT professionals, consider platforms like Stack Overflow an online community for developers to learn and share their programming knowledge.
It’s not just the platform that’s important but also the content. Things like the culture of an organisation are important to millennials. They also want to see clear career pathways in your organisation. These are important points to note when you are crafting job adverts and position descriptions – you need to be selling the value proposition of being part of your business and emphasising company values and vision using impact-driven language.
Millennials are more likely to be job hoppers, so you also need to think about what you are doing in your business to retain them – like training programmes, more timely performance feedback, flexible working conditions, giving employees room to grow and flat hierarchy structures with great managers. Contrary to popular perception, millennials place little importance on a company encouraging creativity or being a fun, informal place to work.
Don’t be overwhelmed by attracting and retaining the often elusive millennials in your business – embrace social media and market your business effectively towards them.
Need help?
If you are looking for direction and assistance with unearthing top talent for your business, get in touch with us. We’d love to chat.
The Decipher Team
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