Your recruiting strategy has remained essentially unchanged over the past several years, and for the most part, it works. You tend to attract high levels of talent using your current methods, and when you have an open position, it doesn’t usually stay open for long. But the world is changing and it’s time for your strategy to change with it. Here are five small adjustments you can make to your approach that might help you redirect your target audience from Generation X to the slightly younger millennials that are following them into the workforce.
Offer Millennial-Specific Perks
If your current compensation packages focus almost entirely on salary—with health and retirement benefits tacked on as a kind of necessary afterthought—you’ll need to change this. Generation X and the baby boomers prioritized base salary above almost everything else while considering an offer, but Millenials are looking for a little bit more. They want personal fulfillment. And they want the kind of exposure and experience that will help them climb the ladder in the future. But don’t be misled: too many employers try to offer fulfillment and exposure INSTEAD of competitive base salaries, and this is a mistake. Young workers are idealistic, but they aren’t fools. You’ll still need to pay them what they’re worth.
Millenials Need Connectivity
Do you allow social media use in your workplace during working hours? Do you allow your employees to connect to your network using their own devices? Do you provide access to laptops, tablets, and company phones? Do you allow employees to use their own phones to conduct work-related business in exchange for plan cost-sharing or compensation? Before you hope to target millennial candidates, make sure you have answers to all of these questions, and provide your employees with as much connectivity and social media access as possible.
Millenials Need Childcare Support
This may come as a surprise to those who have been reading articles like this one for the past ten years, but millennials aren’t babies anymore. The generation born between 1976 and 2001 may be occupying the entry level at the youngest end of the spectrum, but the oldest millennials are now 38, and they’re starting families in huge numbers. They need support, and if they don’t get it from you, they’ll be easily lured away by your competitors. Re-examine and update your maternity and paternity leave policies, and while you’re at it, consider offering flex-time and making sure your workplace culture welcomes and accommodates young parents.
For more on how to attract and retain the talented members of Generation Y, contact the staffing experts at Cordia.
