Is Your Ideal Hire a Member of Gen Z?

BY Kathy Crosett
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If you’re running a small or medium-​size business, you might be asking how you can compete with large companies when it comes to hiring the best talent. You want to make the ideal hire and find a team member who’s willing to grow with your company. These days, you should be considering members of Gen Z but to interest them in your opportunity, you’ll need to offer them specific perks and benefits.

Your Ideal Hire is Checking You Out

Members of Gen Z have come of age in the digital world. They know how to use social media to help your company. And they also know how to check out your company on social media before they’ll consider applying for an open position. Don’t write a job or company description that stretches the truth. Why? Because members of Gen Z can sniff out a lie quickly and they’ll move on to the next employer. They know the difference between paying lip service to a popular social cause and actually taking steps to support it. If you say you support activism to slow climate change, explain what you are doing exactly. Maybe you’ve banned single-​use plastic water bottles from the office. Or you might give employees a day off every year to participate in the cleanup of the local lake or river. The more specific you are about what you’ve done, the more points you’ll score with Gen Zers who are looking for a job. Place content, especially video-​based, on social media to capture the attention of these tech-​savvy people.

Flexibility

Gen Z workers know perfectly well that many jobs can be done from any location at any time. This concept scares employers. Because competition for talent is so fierce, some employers have been falsely promoting open positions as being remote. Once they have an interested candidate, they suddenly announce that employees must come to the office twice a week. This behavior is not a good way to begin a professional relationship.

Remember that younger employees don’t necessarily expect to do their jobs from a remote cabin on Bora Bora. Some of these team members have had quite enough of working at home and being socially isolated. More than a few Gen Z team members want to come into the office at least some of the time.  Employers who promise that flexibility in their recruiting promotions will be more like to score their ideal hire.

The concept of flexibility also applies to when work is done. We’ve heard plenty about how many people have dropped out of the work force because they have been unable to find care for young children. If you’re able to offer flexibility about when employees are expected to work, applications for your open positions may increase, especially from older Gen Z workers who have young children at home and are trying to balance work and child care responsibilities.

Training and Development

Up to 20% of Gen Z consumers don’t see the point of a four-​year college degree, especially if they have to incur significant debt to walk away with a diploma. But they are open to learning. Your recruitment material should include plenty of content about what employees will learn on the job.  Of course, applicants expect they’ll be trained on how to do the work the open position requires. They’re also planning ahead. If they can view a video showing how current employees have been trained for and moved into positions offering more responsibility and compensation, you’ll have their attention.

You can even go a step further and promise them a career path optimized to their work styles and motivations and personal strengths. By personalizing their professional development using the results of a behavioral assessment system, you’re offering them an option they won’t find in other workplaces and you may end up with your ideal hire.

Photo by Yan Krukov on Pexels.


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