Millennials and GenZers often get a bad wrap from older generations, but good hiring managers know that young applicants can offer a lot to a company that is looking for talented, new employees. According to Pew Research, Millennials, particularly women, are more educated than ever before. Pew further states that female graduates are inclined to work more than they did twenty years ago. Wouldn’t it be great to have a skilled, intelligent, and industrious group of young employees? Here are some tips on how to recruit Millenials and attract the most talented college graduates now entering the workforce.
1. Follow up on references
One of the best ways to determine whether or not a potential employee is worth hiring is to check out his references. Put in a friendly call or email to whoever has written a character reference for your interviewee, and find out what they have to say. You might be pleasantly surprised to discover that the person you are about to hire is a hardworking and industrious. Indeed, they might greatly contribute to your team. With the introduction of blockchain to the world of recruiting, it will become even easier to get reliable information from previous employers.
2. Offer an attractive benefits package
Like anyone, Millennials or GenZers want to receive a comprehensive list of benefits, such as healthcare, life insurance, a decent salary, and a flexible working schedule. They want to be able to earn enough to buy a home, pay off their student loans, and raise a family, too. Don’t be stingy about these aspects of their contract, because other companies will offer their employees amazing benefits. In a day an age where talent is scarce, you don’t want it joining the competition rather than your company. In short, let the potential employee know that if they choose to work for you, they will get a competitive benefits package and salary.
3. Make them feel valued
Millennials and GenZers value their time, probably more so than the previous generations, and they do not want it wasted doing superfluous activities that they find meaningless and/or boring. This makes employees feel underappreciated by the company. Take a page out of Google or Atlassian‘s book, and give your employees more freedom to complete their projects. These particular companies let their employees work on their own projects during 20% of their working hours in some cases!
Make sure that your incoming college grads feel valued, and that the work they do is appreciated. There are online companies like blogspot that also offer a lot of freedom, which is why they attract Millennials. They know that the newer generations have more to offer in the field of tech, but they want to do it on their terms.
4. Offer career development opportunities
Many of these generations are incredibly devoted to self-development, constantly trying to learn new information and new skills. People everywhere are realizing how important it is to develop their skills with online courses (just look at Lynda for Linkedin Learning). Many are especially interested in learning skills related to information technology. As part of your benefits package, you could consider offering skill development courses. You can offer training seminars on the latest developments in IT, or you could enroll the most promising employees in courses at the closest, local community college. You will get your money’s worth, because the young adults you train could potentially be working for you for years to come!
5. Let them work from home
Since a lot of work these days can be done via a laptop with an internet connection, why not consider letting your new employees work from home a few times a week? Millennials and Gen Zers are used to doing more work from home on computers than the older generations. Some of them can work just as effectively from their kitchen table as they can their office desk. Plus, you save on office space, so it’s a win-win situation.
Other tips to find great students
There are many other things you can do to make your workplace attractive to recent college grads. By making your workplace more comfortable for instance, and by organizing outings for your employees, and other such fun activities, you could attract more young adults.
Don’t let appearances fool you. Even if the younger generations spend a lot of time on their iPhone and we keep hearing they have shorter attention spans (research that some dispute), most of them will still make for great employees. So, go ahead and start interviewing young candidates! One last tip: consider investing in a recruitment strategy, through companies like Aktor, to find the best Gen Z and Millennial jobseekers.
We’d like to thank Emma Rundle for this article. Her experience in human resources and management have contributed greatly to her views on recruiting.
Author: Ali Neill
As the job board tester and blog editor for the Jobboard Finder, Ali works on job boards from all around the world and keeps a close eye on the recruitment trends thanks to a number of sources, including the website’s social media pages.
« The Software: Rewriting Job Offers and Understanding Candidates
Interview with Sandrine Crouzat from Mister Bilingue »