Is your Millennial job candidate a citizen of the world?
In just five short years, millennial’s will represent a whopping seventy-five per cent of the Australian workforce.
A shifting value system and advances in technology have exposed us to a world of culture, intrigue and adventure. More than ever we are working to live. Yet it is the millennial generation that is leading the way in prioritising experiences above all else, travel in particular, as they adopt the mindset that they are indeed, citizens of the world.
In just five short years, our millennial’s will represent a whopping seventy-five per cent of the Australian workforce. Yet with travel so prevalent on their agenda, can we expect this generation to be long term, loyal employees?
Can we expect this generation to be long term, loyal employees?
Throwing the long held retirement model of gaining an education, working for 45 years and spending the twilight years jet setting across the globe has all but disappeared. Today, national borders are disintegrating as our Gen Y’s find more appeal in seeing all that the world has to offer than forging a career.
How does the growing population of Millennial’s alter your recruitment strategy?
Knowing you will soon have a dominant gypsy like workforce, how will this affect your recruitment strategy moving forward? Will you maintain the status quo or will you overhaul your talent acquisition strategy and employee benefits to suit our Gen Y’s? If you choose the latter, the first step to developing a successful ‘millennium’ recruitment campaign is to understand the expectations of the millennial candidate.
Firstly, millennial seek a place of employment where they can be challenged to grow. They want a clear road map forward. They need to know where they are heading within the company and how they can expect you to proactively aid them in their achievement of professional advancement. Doing well in their current role is not enough. They want to continuously prepare for their next position. You want that to be with you.
If you consider that for many millennial’s who aspire to travel the globe are seeking to be fulfilled, you will understand that this need also applies to their employment role. If the millennial finds their journey with you is boring, you may invite them to adopt the attitude of ‘the grass is greener’ elsewhere. So ensure the work is engaging. A happy employee is a devoted employee.
A happy employee is a devoted employee.
Essentially, millennial’s want to work within a supportive environment and not be subjected to the stereotypical ‘lazy’, ‘uncommitted’ drifter labels that often precede their arrival. Treat them as you would every employee and provide them with opportunities to revolutionise the business. Remember, they are products of a digital age and very savvy when it comes to technology and innovative notions. So don’t allow their youth to betray your thoughts that an old dog cannot be taught a new trick by the much younger pup. They are after all, our future.
The well travelled Millennial has many benefits to potential employers
Certainly when short listing candidates for interviewing you can easily find yourself tossing the resumes depicting frequent travels abroad on the rejection pile, I mean, they’re unreliable recruits, right? What if I told you that the travelling millennial applicant has many benefits to offer your organisation, would you reconsider them as a possible candidate for the next stage of recruitment?
Most young travellers are self-funded. And that equates to disciplined and driven. They made sacrifices over an extended period of time, all the while remaining focused on the end goal. Of course they scrimped and saved, thus their thrifty ways taught them to budget effectively. On the road this may have meant trading skills for cash or rent in order to prolong their trip. Haggling, or perhaps avoiding being haggled, has honed intuition and negotiating skills as thinking outside the box has become second nature.
Of course the seasoned millennial traveller often finds themselves roughing it, thus encounter more than their fair share of frustrating moments. Nevertheless, as excellent problem solvers their abilities to envisage a creative solution is sharper than most. And that of course trains them to manage stressful situations very well. Meeting people from a host of cultures additionally tutors them on how to communicate with a broad spectrum of people. Thus the cultured millennial is not only racially and ethnically more diverse, but has learned more in a year of travel than most of your desk chained corporate’s.
In summary Millennials are seeking:
- A place of employment that challenges them to grow
- A clear roadmap forward. They need to know where they are heading within the company and how they can expect you to proactively aid them in their achievement of professional advancement. Doing well in their current role is not enough.
- They want to continuously prepare for their next position – you want that to be with you.
- Millennial’s want to work within a supportive environment
- opportunities to revolutionise the business
When recruiting millennials consider these admirable characteristics and traits
- Disciplined and drive from self-funded travel
- Excellent problem solvers their abilities to envisage a creative solution
- Effective budgeters (you don’t get to travel the world on uni students salary without some crafty budgeting)
- Sharp intuition and negotiating skills
- Good communicate with a broad spectrum of people
There is no question that our millennial’s are our next generation of business leaders. You can choose to embrace their nomadic ways in a means that benefits your business, or you can remain inflexible in bending to the will of the ‘me, me, me’ generation.
Regardless of the millennial recruitment approach you choose, you will need to strategise a recruitment campaign that attracts and retains this growing and domineering force within the workplace. How you achieve this is something that I look forward to seeing, along with the retention rates!
