The younger generation composed of millennials is an exacting workforce--they have a lot of expectations from companies and it’s not just about the salary anymore. In fact, Gen Z and millennials say that they are concerned about the impact their organizations have on local communities, the diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and in the flexibility of work schedules. According to The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2019, over 50% of the generation is likely to leave a company when they believe that such things are not being met.
With this in mind, it is imperative that your organization puts into place effective recruitment strategies and practices that can answer the demands of the younger generation of the workforce while making certain that your objectives are also met.
Below, we discuss seven strategies that can help you transform your recruiting process and make your organization more appealing to job seekers, especially to millennials and Gen Z.
1. Understand what kind of employee you need
The best recruitment process involves careful planning and deliberation as to what companies expect a worker to do for them. In this case, an organization should determine whether they need a full-time employee or a freelancer for certain positions. This is a common dilemma for companies--they hire full-time employees when a freelancer would suffice. That is why it is necessary to take a step back from the open role and assess whether you require a regular employee or not. This would save money for your company in the long run because you can reduce your expenses when it comes to benefits and insurance for new full-time employees.
And when you have decided that a freelancer would be enough, you can expect that many applicants will be sending their resumes your way. The freelancer market is booming and is much bigger than it was in 2014. In fact, The Balance Careers reports that the number of contingent workers in the US would grow up to 60 million by 2020. This means that you will not have a shortage of competent individuals to choose from who can work flexibly.
2. Develop your brand and reflect it in your job posts
One way to help your HR department attract talented applicants is to develop your company’s brand. This process would include defining your organization’s vision and mission, the working culture, and values. Once you have those things delineated properly, it would be time to check your website, your social media accounts, and advertisements to ensure that you communicate them properly. By doing so, you can show applicants what kind of company they would be working for even before they step into your offices for their first interviews.
If you want to strengthen your brand, you do not need to run expensive TV spots and to feature prominently on large billboards. Even something as simple as content marketing can already boost your employer brand. This puts you “out there” where potential employees could see you. This could even aid you in building a global reputation so you could attract highly accomplished individuals who could propel your company towards greater success.
3. Disseminate your job openings on social media
Statista discovered in a study that people use social media up to 136 minutes per day in 2018, one minute longer than they did in the previous year. And currently, there are about 2 billion users of different social networking platforms like WeChat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with Facebook being the most popular having 1.86 billion monthly active users at the close of 2016.
Additionally, an article on hiring statistics shared by EveryoneSocial cited that 79% of job seekers use social media to find the right position for themselves. They also rank social platforms higher than job boards and recruiting companies when it comes to usefulness. On top of that, 73% of people in the 18 to 34 age group revealed that they discovered their current jobs on social networking sites.
You can leverage this knowledge and include posting jobs on social media in your hiring process steps. This can motivate you to become more active on your social media accounts when it comes to engaging not just customers, but future employees as well.
4. Find niche job sites and share job notices there, too
While general job sites are popular and also assist you in finding talents somehow, it is easy for your specific roles to get lost. This can happen when you are in a niche industry. However, you can remedy that by using niche job sites. You can find plenty of this kind of job boards on the web that is focused on particular job positions or industries. Often, they have a sizeable community of recruiters and job seekers that allow you to meet your recruiting needs efficiently.
5. Conduct on-the-ground recruiting missions
Outside of job boards and job ads, an effective way of finding talented individuals for internships or full-time positions are to go where there are many applicants: colleges and universities. Students who are expecting to graduate would already be looking around for their place in the job market and going to where they enable you to take your pick among capable future employees.
You do not even need to organize a college job fair to do this. You can send your recruiters to forums and events where university students may be at or feature your open positions in college job boards.
6. Build a coaching culture to attract younger applicants
A young workforce is set to dominate the job market that has vastly different expectations from the generations that came before them. The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2019 uncovered that millennials would leave a job if the work environment is not motivating and stimulating and if the company does not offer the means for development. Fifty-four percent are most likely to leave in two years and 74% would give their companies five years when it comes to the environmental situation. Meanwhile, 55% would be ready to say goodbye to their jobs in two years and 71% are likely to hold on for only five years if their organizations do not offer training and coaching.
These numbers can be worrisome because this means you may have a high employee turnover rate. But you can remedy these situations by considering the needs of millennial workers to ensure that they stay with your company for a long time. In this situation, team management tools may be of assistance because they allow you to oversee the tasks assigned to employees and make sure that they are working towards creating a work environment that is suitable for everyone.
7. Set up your applicant tracking system for your needs
Wonderful candidates can easily get lost under the radar when you are not tracking your applicants earnestly. To avoid that, you can invest in an applicant tracking system, a type of HR software, that helps you process applications and schedule interviews. You can even utilize an ATS to look at previous candidates to see whether someone among them is a good fit for newly opened positions.
An ATS also empowers your HR department to look at the competencies of each applicant as well as assess their cultural fit so that they can find the right person for the position as well as for the organization.
What’s more, a powerful ATS lets you automate your workflow to reduce the stress on your recruitment team.
Moving forward with ATS and big data
Big data would remain a buzzword to anybody unless they recognize the importance they hold in an organization. They even drive more SaaS startups to offer tools and features that can exploit this for the good of companies. This is most evident in marketing, but it also has its use cases in hiring and recruitment. In this regard, you can find data-based insights that enable you to make intelligent decisions fast and be more objective in every step of the hiring workflow.
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