This generation of ambitious, eco-conscious, tech-savvy individuals has become the prime hiring market for eager business owners. Considering the benefits of targeting Millennials in your industry, it pays to know how exactly you can make your own offer more competitive and attractive in the eyes of your candidates. Their personal values, goals, and aspirations deeply drive their professional decisions, as well. The era of hiring for life and for that nine-to-five position is no longer relevant, and with new trends emerging, businesses need to step up to the challenge.
If you’re looking to expand your own workforce and hire Millennials in the months and years to come, you should learn more about their preferences and expectations. Let’s cover a few essential prerequisites companies should embrace when presenting their offer to a Millennial candidate, and hopefully you’ll find perfect employees for your brand in no time.
Greater flexibility
Depending on your niche, whether you’re running a small local coffee shop, or you own a medium-size IT company, you’ll have different amounts of flexibility within each position. Millennials, by nature, enjoy positions with more flexibility that allows them more quality, family time, as well as time for personal growth and fitness.
As an employer, you can certainly find creative ways to introduce flexibility into their position. Be it by offering flexible shifts, working from home, daycare for their kids on the premises, or access to your fitness facilities, Millennials greatly appreciate employers who recognize their needs and preferences for personal growth.
Focus on company culture
The process of building a brand that appeals to Millennials doesn’t end with a customer-oriented strategy. In fact, this one-sided take on brand-building can be detrimental to your business, because it doesn’t take into account how your employees perceive your business and how you brand yourself as an employer. Millennials in particular don’t want to work for anyone with an office. They will look into the brand they want to join, and they always strive to find a culture that matches their own needs.
In an effort to meet these Millennial needs, many businesses are relying on comprehensive employer branding to build an identity that will attract the right Millennial candidates. This branding approach is not just beneficial for the Millennials who want to work for you, but also for your own business, because you’ll boost your employee retention rates, reduce turnover, and make sure that the right people represent your brand to the customer.
Ongoing education and growth
Unlike the stagnant, nine-to-five mindset of previous generations who valued stability over most other factors, Millennials appreciate a challenge. They want to expand their knowledge base and they crave a chance to advance professionally in their line of work. That is why employers that offer regular workshops, cross-departmental training, and mentorship programs are much more appealing to any Millennial.
Career advancement opportunities
Although learning and development aren’t always the precursor for hierarchical advancement, Millennials don’t like stagnation in general. So, naturally, they prefer positions with the potential to outgrow their current job, not merely for a pay increase, but primarily for diverse responsibilities, the implementation of all that they’ve learned over the years, and their ongoing thirst for challenges.
Cross-training is another opportunity for Millennials to dive beyond their comfort zone and to seek out jobs that might not initially fit their skills. They tend to value positions that will give them relevance rather than just more money.
Values to match their own
When marketing to Millennial buyers, brands already recognize that a value-centric approach is the most promising to inspire more than a single purchase, and increase loyalty. The same mindset should apply in your business when you’re looking to hire Millennials. Do you recycle, work on reducing plastic use, and donate to a local charity? What about hiring with diversity in mind to support minorities? Do you do your best to reduce your carbon footprint and preserve the environment?
These and similar values mirror Millennials’ values and thus make any business more appealing for long-term employment. This is a must if you’re looking to retain your workforce and to ensure that your employees feel truly connected to your brand.
Financial stability
Although money is not the primary driving force for Millennials to choose their preferred employer, the current situation is increasingly unstable, and the health crisis is closely followed by the economic crisis. This alone makes stable jobs more relevant in any market, and Millennials, especially those just starting a family and getting out of student debt, are in desperate need of financial stability.
Competitive salaries are a factor Millennials deeply value in their modern-day employers, especially in competitive and challenging industries. And given the current circumstances, Millennials want to contribute to rebuilding the economy one day at a time, but they also want to make sure that their own quality of life doesn’t suffer in the process.
Millennials want to be heard, respected, and valued, and businesses have a chance to build a culture based precisely on such values in order to attract the right candidates. Whenever you’re looking to expand your team, you should focus on the listed examples if you wish to appeal to this particular generation – once they find your brand values are in line with their own, your offer will become much more significant. Let these simple tips guide you towards finding the most appropriate, qualified employees for your organization.
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