A recent LinkedIn survey of over 13,000 Millennials explored how they approach job seeking and how companies must adapt to attract Millennial talent. Follow these two simple steps to scale your recruiting efforts and turn your company into a Millennial magnet.
What are Millennials looking for when considering a job?
- The No. 1 thing Millennials want to know about a company is its "culture and values," followed by "perks and benefits," and "employee perspectives of the company."
- Sixty-four percent of Millennials care about company perks and benefits (compared to 54 percent of Generation X and 51 percent of Baby Boomers).
- The top obstacle to Millennials accepting a job is "not knowing what the company is like."
How do Millennials learn more about a company and job opportunities?
- Twenty-four percent of Millennials report they didn't know about a company when hearing about a job opportunity (compared to 18 percent of Generation X and 16 percent of Baby Boomers).
- Twenty-two percent of Millennials are likely to follow a company on social media to find out more about the company.
- One out of 3 Millennials said they have used social media to find a job.
Considering the above data, how to attract Millennial workers becomes clear.
Step 1: Authentically showcase what your company is like.
Help Millennials experience what it's like to work at your company by having employees share their authentic perspectives of the company.
Matthew Jeffery, VP head of global sourcing and employment branding at SAP, recently hired a videographer and created 40 compelling videos of real employees sharing their perspectives of the company's culture, values, perks, benefits, and some of the unique hobbies they enjoy outside of work, like surfing, ice hockey, and building bamboo bicycles.
"The true, authentic voice is the employee," says Jeffery. "They don't speak to a marketing script, and that's what makes them the best advertisement your company could ever have."
This approach satisfies the top three things Millennials want to know about a company--culture and values, perks and benefits, and employee perspectives of the company--and eliminates the top obstacle they have for accepting a job, which is "not knowing what the company is like."
Step 2: Strategically position your company on social media.
Use social media to consistently and broadly communicate your company's values, perks, etc. Since Millennials are most likely to turn to social media to find a job and learn more about a company, it's imperative that your company have a strong social-media presence.
"[SAP is] predominantly a business to business company, but we're competing for talent with companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google. So we have to work harder to get our information out," says Jeffery.
"#SAPCulture," "Life at SAP," "What can you do at SAP?," "Work...anywhere," and "All work and no play? Not here!" are all SAP YouTube playlist titles that satisfy Millennials' job seeking questions while being accessible and searchable on the second largest search engine, YouTube. SAP even has a video specifically for Millennials.
@LifeatSAP is the social-media handle that SAP uses to showcase company culture, values, perks, and benefits via employee perspectives on Twitter, Facebook, andInstagram.
SAP also has a lively and informative LinkedIn page where they are one of the top followed companies, with over 834,800 followers. This is an important community to be in because 65 percent of Millennials say that LinkedIn has had a positive impact on their career.
Consider Ryan Jenkins to be your next Millennial/Generation Y or Generation Z keynote speaker by clicking here...
This article was originally posted on Ryan's Inc.com column, Next Generation Insights.
