There is no shortage of millennial applicants hungry for work experience. However, there may be some disconnect between recruiters and the recruitment tools utilized when searching for millennials to hire.
By 2020, it is likely that half of the global workforce will comprise of millennials. Aside from the fresh perspectives that make them coveted hires, they are also known for being the most tech-savvy generation, having lived their lives surrounded by technology, including job search.
This affinity with technology has changed the landscape of recruitment, as millennials don’t usually do walk-ins anymore as part of their job search, and the majority rely on online job postings and messaging software. Company online presence and reputation have also become important factors, even more so as job descriptions.
With around 50 million of them looking for a job today, now is the time for corporations to find, hire, and retain the best millennial talents and prepare for the future. These tips will help you easily recruit these people into your organization.
Get social
Instilling the social media culture that millennials are very familiar with will give your company an edge. Through Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, you acquire a vast captive audience who may be looking for a company like yours.
Post your job openings on social media and be creative with it. Not only will your candidate see it right away, but they may also share your post with their friends, allowing it to be sent to thousands of other potential applicants in an instant.
Millennials are also very particular when it comes to company culture. Presenting your company culture through their preferred medium increases your visibility in a noisy space. Social media is a way of showing what they can expect from the employer and if it’s something they’d want.
Another way to get social is to reach out through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger. Aside from it being the preferred mode of communication by millennials, it can also help streamline your outreach to job applicants.
Messaging apps allow for immediate distribution and response, which is helpful since no applicant likes a slow HR response to a job application.
In addition, recruiters should offer a timeline to the prospective employee for when he or she will hear back from HR to know what to expect throughout the application process and when.
Update technology and digital presence
In line with being more involved with social media is having a positive online presence and the technology to do just that. Like how recruiters snoop around their candidates’ social media accounts to learn more about them, millennials can also search and read about their potential employers online.
Aside from having a better online presence, new technology will also allow your company to utilize quality career sites or job boards and mobile application processes.
In addition, technology through analytics has allowed recruiters to assess applicants using real information and base their decisions of whether or not to hire someone with these facts instead of hunches.
Automation of the entire HR function, not just of hiring, accounts for more streamlined and technologically-advanced practices.
Provide excellent candidate experience
Even before hiring, millennials are already discerning your company’s career culture at work. A large part of their perception is created during the application process. Your company could have a significant advantage if your millennial candidate had a smooth experience dealing with the recruitment team.
As mentioned, when hiring millennials, you shouldn’t solely rely on outdated recruitment practices like generic or unclear job descriptions, walk-ins, in-person initial interviews, posting job listings on newspapers, or requiring hard copies of CVs for documentation purposes.
Integrating automated recruitment techniques not only allows you to get in touch with millennials looking for a job, it also makes the process easier, faster, and more transparent.
Do not limit your online job posting, too. Utilize the usual job board sites, but also leverage your social media accounts, websites, forum threads, and even messaging apps, to tap into these talents.
With advanced technologies in place, you don’t have a reason not to get back quickly to your applicants—and millennials will greatly appreciate that, if you decide to hire them.
Like millennials, recruiters should look into the future to attract and hire the best talents. Something as simple as integrating automated social media recruitment tools like Refer can help you do just that. There may be some strategies that will not work, depending on the nature of your organization and other factors, so it’s best to plan out your recruitment process properly.