career
Recruiting tips to attract and retain talent: How to get inside the Millennial mindset
Recruiting is no longer a transactional process. Twenty years ago, hiring managers could just place an ad in a newspaper and receive several applications. Today, they need to invest more in attracting skilful candidates, including Millennials to their organization. For instance, HR professionals may need to identify specific skills in demand, search on LinkedIn for the right talent and address the best fit candidate directly.
for hire is by Clem Onojehuo on Unsplash
Everyone born between roughly 1981 and 1997 will be considered part of the Millennial generation. With the growth of young talent, the differences between generations can increase the risk of miscommunication. Hence, recruiters and hiring managers would need to consider Millennials’ work preferences and adjust the hiring and management styles in order to select and retain the best fit youth talent.
Here are some simple recruiting tips to help you consistently attract top young talent:
Avoid formal or too standardized language
Be clear when creating job listings. When crafting the job description and selecting candidates, emphasize the role Millennials will play in a team and inside the company, as well as specific tasks they will be responsible for. Hence, avoid corporate jargon and phrases that could be seen as divisive. Be clear and express your needs in a relatable way that suggest your focus on creating an inclusive corporate culture.
Define and emphasize your vision.
Young talent wants to understand what the company is about and who is working there. Give your Millennials employees something valid to believe in and they will be motivated to make it happen.
Be a mentor and hire for growth
Stress that there will be development opportunities as Millennials’ goal is to advance their career within the company they target and decide to join. Offer them opportunities for growth and cross-train with employees from different departments. This will allow Millennials to gain a better understanding about the corporate culture and hence, they will be more focused on developing their skills for a better position inside the company.
Show recognition
Recognize and reward excellent results and commitment whenever possible. This will motivate employees to develop their skills, increase their performance and level of job satisfaction.
Value flexibility
For many organizations, the traditional 9-to-5 schedule is considered outdated. Young talent prefers flexible working hours, telecommuting opportunities and extra holidays time. Show employees that, as long as they meet the deadlines and achieve the organizational goals, their schedule can be flexible. This will boost their productivity!
Provide additional benefits
Apart from a competitive salary, motivate your employees to perform well and improve their skills by emphasizing the importance of work-life balance. If employees feel consumed and burnout, it is very likely that they will start looking for new opportunities.
Update the communication style and use modern tools
Austin Distel on Unsplash
Understand how young talent prefers to communicate and integrate that channels into the workflow. Studies have shown that millennials prefer face-to-face communication and dislike calls, while in-between these forms of communication, email and text correspondence is acceptable. On the other side, slow response time can be detrimental. Millennials tend to lose interest in the job if the recruiter doesn’t respond right away.
Provide immediate feedback
Millennials prefer feedback in real time than by traditional performance reviews. Hence, they want to know if they are on the right track or if they would need to adjust their work. Thus, it is crucial to have a program that allows them to know if they are doing a good job or if something in their action plan needs to be changed.
Embrace their tech skills
Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
Being raised with the evolving technology, it is very well known that the Millennials are more tech-savvy than older generations. Following the trend, digital natives and Generation Z will be even be even more tech-savvy than Millennials. Ensure that you include technology both in the workplace and in recruitment so that it responds to both the age-old and the new challenges.
It is quite apparent that Millennials is the generation to shape the professional landscape over the next decades. Implementing these techniques early on in your recruitment process can give you a powerful edge into securing high-quality talent.
Adelina Stefan – Career Coach, Intercultural Facilitator & Executive Consultant
Adelina is a licensed Career Coach and Intercultural Facilitator specialized in the areas of International Human Resource Management and Intercultural Communication. She helps expats professionals achieve clarity in their career goals, enabling them to increase their self- and intercultural awareness and formulate their unique career blueprint. Adelina is a dual citizen of Greece and Romania, and lives in Zürich, Switzerland for the last five years. Holding a Master Degree in Sociolinguistics and Intercultural Communication, she also specializes in translations and interpreting, being fluent in English, Greek, Romanian and German.
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