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For the first time, employees from four different generations work side by side in offices around the world, a trend that highlights the direction in which workforces are heading. With baby boomers starting to retire, organizations now face the challenge of attracting and recruiting Generation Z.
However, many organizations are struggling to update their strategies to source and retain young talent. Failing to capture Gen Z’s interest can negatively impact an organization’s innovation, creativity, results and operational efficiency in the short term. Moreover, this failure may leave organizations with significant skills gaps in the long term, inhibiting their chances of survival and thriving. That is why understanding and tuning strategies to Gen Z’s behaviors and expectations is an indispensable task in this highly competitive job market.
Gen Z: Engaged, Skeptical and Searching for Purpose
Generation Z wants more than a job; they seek a meaningful career. As skeptics, they look to verify the authenticity of the messages they hear from organizations and are drawn to those who demonstrate a genuine commitment to diversity, sustainability and social impact. Thus, organizations need to reassess their messages and value propositions to align with these interests.
Top recruiting teams have long been adopting marketing strategies, such as creating candidate personas to understand audience segments better and tailor the language, formats and processes they use to attract talent. Candidate journey mapping helps recruiters understand what candidates expect from the process and design high-touch experiences that impress and convert.
Taking the time to understand what Gen Z talent is looking for and considering how to reach them with a message that resonates is an excellent starting point as you develop a robust strategy for attracting these candidates. Here are some ideas that you can put into practice:
- Offer personalized applications: As consumers, Generation Z is accustomed to hyper-customized experiences that enhance their buyer journeys, and they expect the same from recruitment processes. It is essential to create tailored experiences, from their first contact with your organization to onboarding and beyond. New technologies, such as artificial intelligence and conversational chatbots, can help with this task by offering content tailored to their interests and personalized job recommendations.
- Digitize the experience: Gen Z are early adopters of new technology, and recruitment teams that successfully integrate them into the hiring process will have a significant advantage when it comes to converting this new generation. Creativity is key. Some organizations have used virtual reality to offer office tours in the metaverse, allowing candidates to experience working there. Since content creation is second nature to younger generations, replacing the classic cover letter with a short video can be an appealing alternative.
- Remove barriers and manual efforts: Generation Z values efficiency and autonomy in the interview process. Anything that removes obstacles, such as applying with a single click from social media or automatically scheduling interviews, will effectively capture their limited attention span and short patience. Conversely, failing to do so will lead to higher drop-off rates.
- Ensure a bias-free process: These candidates seek purpose in everything they do. They have strong values, and topics such as DEI are extremely important to them. They prioritize organizations that demonstrate a genuine commitment to diverse and sustainable work environments, so you should convey this during the recruitment process and in internal and external branding campaigns.
- Guarantee transparency in the selection process: There is no room for ghosting with the new generation. Gen Z expects instantaneous responses, so organizations that neglect communication risk damaging their brand and, consequently, their profitability. To avoid this, try to keep candidates informed of their recruitment status as they progress through automated communications. It’s a win-win situation: they highly value this transparency, which dramatically benefits your organization’s image in the long run.
Tools, Training and Customized Solutions: The Keys To Building Diverse and Successful Teams
Adapting recruitment processes to meet the expectations of new generations involves offering candidates fresh experiences and leveraging new technologies. Equally important is equipping recruitment teams with the most innovative technological tools and providing the necessary training to use them effectively.
“As a pioneer in CRM, Avature has developed a suite of advanced recruitment marketing tools with segmentation features that have enabled our clients to engage the talent they need and achieve exceptional performance. Our configurability allows us to create tailored experiences for different audience segments, thereby increasing conversion,” said Dimitri Boylan, CEO of Avature.
He added, “Continuously nurturing and training recruitment teams is equally important to ensure these processes are efficient, transparent and professional. We are committed to partnering with organizations by offering the most advanced technology to help them meet this challenge and build diverse and successful teams.”
Final Thoughts
To truly connect with Gen Z, thinking beyond traditional recruitment methods and getting creative in meeting their expectations is crucial. This generation isn’t just looking for a job—they’re looking for a place to make a difference. By reimagining your recruitment strategies with a focus on what matters most to them, organizations can build a strong employer brand that attracts top talent and cultivates a culture of innovation and inclusivity, ultimately enhancing their chance to stand out and convert.
This article was originally published in Spanish by RRHH Digital
