Younger people have always had a prominent role in the online world. Creating content in online forums such as Reddit, having conversations with businesses on platforms like Twitter and posting fan art for their favourite influencers with apps like Instagram.
Members of Generation Z make up 35% of the UK workforce alone. Therefore you need to be mindful of how your business reaches out to this demographic through online techniques. You also need to think about how your company looks to hire young talent into the business.
We have started exploring what most Gen Z applicants are looking for in a career choice and from their potential employers. Looking at factors to consider in order to help your business start funnelling this audience into your company.
As Gen Z people have grown up in a period of economic turmoil, including the financial crash and the proceeding recession, job security and stability feature highly on their agendas. So talk up the stability of the business during the interview process including the opportunities for progression and promotion that are available for work done well.
Gen Z’ers are natural multi-taskers who can skip from mobile to laptop while having the TV on in the background. Their social media and work lives blend into one. So don’t ignore this when managing a Gen Z’er as they are likely to be doing business via social media. It wasn’t long ago social media was seen as a distraction to business, completely banned in some work places and mobile phones were encouraged to be stored in a drawer or handbag!
Finally Gen Z’ers are budding business owners. Large numbers dream of running their own company, try to harness this entrepreneurial spirit by giving them the opportunity to move into management roles where they can have some autonomy and ownership for their business unit.
Why do you need to hire Members of Gen Z?
These people were born between 1995 and 2010 and are true digital natives. They have been exposed to the internet, social networks, and mobile devices all their life. This has created an intellectual generation who are comfortable with collecting and cross-referencing multiple sources of information and with integrating experiences both offline and virtual.
A very tech savvy recruit is highly beneficial to most businesses as so much business is found online. If your target audience is in the age range of 16 to 24 for example, a young mind of that demographic in the company will be able to help you understand the best way for your business to reach out to them, on what platforms and the times of the day you are most likely to get a response. These are statistics that you wouldn’t normally be able to work out for yourself without extensive research, but this information can come to you much easier just by finding Gen Z applicants.
So how can you find these people?
Research shows that Generation Z prefers YouTube for video content, so many businesses would think to post advertisements before a video or banner ads on the side. This wouldn’t be the most effective way to reach this audience, or at least if you are looking to recruit them! Many of these people turn to Instagram to discover new brands and products instead making this the better place to increase brand awareness for your business. You can post links to any vacancy or service as well as keep your audience updated on changes to your company. However, the most important technique to use is to keep it social. Social media should be social and Gen Z members love to communicate with companies.
Many people will tell you that relevant hashtags are the most important thing you use when posting. However, there are also many other techniques that you can us to your advantage too! If you post content frequently, you will start getting accounts commenting on your page, you should consider replying to them to make your company feel human and keeping involved with online trends and maybe even memes will help you stand out from the rest of the businesses using the same platform. Liking the most recent post of a handful of people’s posts may even get this audience to follow the company page too! It’s amazing how just being social on social media can help your brand connect to so many new people!
Greenfield IT Recruitment have helped employers identify and engage with young talent over the years. Get in touch with our friendly team for advice on how to find and harness young minds.
Originally published at https://www.greenfield-it.co.uk on April 8, 2019.
