Your recruiters can’t escape Millennials. They are the largest segment of the labor force in the US and are inevitably reshaping the workplace. And your recruitment approach.
Here’s how your recruiters can attract them.
The first step? Help your team like Millennials
If your recruiters aren’t Millennials themselves, they’ve definitely heard a lot of buzz about this generation. TIME magazine had just one of the many headlines disparaging them, “The ME ME ME Generation: Millennials are lazy entitled narcissists who still live with their parents.”
Welzoo’s video “The Millennial Rebuttal” contradicts TIME’s headline and others of similar ilk. The video shares stories that tell another angle of the Millennial character. That contrary to the more widely accepted criticism, Millennials are an altruistic, inventive, and empathic generation.
Your recruiters should be genuinely interested in and open to working with Millennials. Encourage them to embrace a generation driven by breakthroughs, confidence, and success.
Teach your team that clear communication is essential for building relationships with Millennial candidates
Communication is what matters most to your Millennial candidates. Show them you and your recruiters are aware of the person behind the skills and aptitude.
- Ask what communication platform works best — it might be texting, but they may prefer email or a phone call
- Respond promptly to questions and concerns
- Inform them about the process
- Manage their expectations about timelines
Helping your recruiters connect with Millennials is a critical component of your success. Attracting Millennials is good business now and an investment in your firm’s future.
Encourage your team to focus on the little guys in social recruiting
There are the major social media platforms like Facebook and Snapchat, and there are the smaller ones. The added advantage of having a recruiting presence on smaller platforms? More focused attention.
Invite your recruiters to explore the little guys when sourcing Millennials — it’s where they hang out and where it’s much easier to snag their attention.
Industry specific platforms
Quora is an open community platform where people can post questions and others can respond. Recently, some big name folks like Sheryl Sandberg have held Quora Sessions. Your recruiters can host online events with a high-value information about the job hunt while plugging your businesses services.
GitHub is a code-sharing community of 15 million people — mostly software developers. Others may be recruiters like you who have found a way to use GitHub to connect with talent. Use GitHub as a database to search for potential candidates and to view their work.
BeHance is a site that creates opportunities for creatives: to host portfolios and as a professional network. Like GitHub, you can search for specialized skills to find just the right candidate for a client.
Niche verticals
Buzzfeed does niche verticals, and so does recruitment brand The Eximius Group. And with great success.
Niche verticals create topic-targeted content. You can develop pages across social media channels like Facebook and focus communications on industry niches like QA managers, data scientists, and security engineers.
Push your team to think outside the box with creative application requests
Companies are playing up to Millennials’ fun side with creative applications. Share these inspiring and innovative recruiting strategies with your team:
- Candidates are a Snapchat away from a position at HubSpot, which welcomes job applicants to send 10-second videos of themselves learning a new task.
- Lucky software engineers who enter the right coding-specific search terms in Google are posed with increasingly difficult coding challenges that, if solved, gets them a coveted spot working for the search engine.
- Clever candidates compete for social strategist positions at Wieden + Kennedy with a 10-step social media challenge. It includes gaining Facebook friends for their parents, mastering an in-line skating Pinterest board, and getting LinkedIn recs from other candidates competing for the position.
Fun requests like these will help your recruiters stand out. They need not be as elaborate as the examples above, but a bit of playfulness will get Millennials’ attention, show your recruiters are dedicated to innovation, and instantly gain not just candidates, but fans.
Are your recruiters ready to start talking to Millennials? Get insights about Generation Y here.
