How to Attract Talented Millennials

That's not a valid work email account. Please enter your work email (e.g. you@yourcompany.com)
Please enter your work email
(e.g. you@yourcompany.com)

millennial

In today’s increasingly transparent job market, smart companies are reevaluating their talent acquisition strategies. Top candidates no longer base their decisions simply on salaries and company financials. With websites like Glassdoor giving job seekers a window into what it’s actually like to work with potential employers, companies have to adjust their strategies to fit the situation of this new generation.

What Millennials Want From Employers

To millennials, a job is not simply a source of income – it’s a reflection of their interests and values. A 2015 survey from Accenture  found that 59 percent of recent graduates would rather work in a company with a positive social atmosphere than a place with a higher salary. Another 52 percent said they would forgo some compensation to work at a company with an impressive commitment to the environment or the social impact of its products and services. To attract the right talent for your company, make sure your value and mission statements strongly reflect your company’s culture. For example, Patagonia’s mission statement reads, “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

Just remember: Creating a strong employer brand is not just a matter of hiring for culture fit. It’s also about reinforcing your values  on a daily basis.

What Millennials Want From Their Jobs

Millennials are looking for opportunities that help them learn and develop continuously. More responsibilities, stretch assignments, and the chance to test out new ideas are a few ways to attract ambitious and motivated recruits. In the Accenture survey cited earlier, 77 percent of recent college graduates said they expected their first employer to provide formal training – but only 53 percent received any such training.

Being an employer that offers such training is a surefire way to attract millennial talent. Takes Hays plc, for example, which offers a lot of training to new employees  and earned itself the No. 5 spot on Glassdoor’s list of the Best Places to Work in the U.K. 

At the same time, however, 83 percent of millennials  have a strong aversion to steep hierarchies and micromanagement. Creating an open workplace in which managers and peers are accessible for feedback when millennials need it is a great way to give millennials the training they want without becoming too overbearing.

What Millennials Want From the Workplace

Camaraderie and positive work environments are extremely important to millennials – in fact, they’re important to almost all workers. One study  found that 58 percent of men and 74 percent of women would refuse a higher paying job if it meant not getting along with their colleagues.

Voted the U.K.’s best place to work, Expedia encourages a friendly and open work culture in its office design and regular social events. While this may not seem like an important part of your company’s bottom line, having an open and supportive workforce increases knowledge sharing and engagement. One anonymous employee  summed it up well: “I find the most important aspects of most jobs are (a.) whom I work with, (b.) what I work on, and (c.) whom I work for – in that order. ”

Steffen Maier is the cofounder of Impraise, a web-based and mobile solution for actionable, timely feedback at work.

By Steffen Maier