Here’s to You Mrs. Robinson…
Another graduation season is upon us. It is a time for new beginnings and growth, both personal and professional. A time filled with great commencement addresses and a season of job interviews for new graduates and recruitment for many companies connecting with their future talent pool.
Unlike previous generations, Millennials expect to have a consumer-grade experience as they interact with the firm during the hiring process. Non-intuitive and drab repetitive ATS systems are a turn off and instead of engaging your potential candidates can send your talent off to the competition. Millennials also expect, and seek out, flexibility in when they work preferring to have a work-life blending instead of a work-life balance. Millennials will also use their tech savvy and personal networks to find out everything they can about a company before an interview using sites like Glassdoor. Rob Asghar recently reported for Forbes that, “95% percent of Millennials say that a company’s reputation matters to them. And 91% say that a company’s social impact efforts are important when they are considering which companies to work for.”
“The U.S. Department of Labor currently estimates that the average cost of a bad hiring decision can equal 30% of the individual’s first-year potential earnings. That means a single bad hire with an annual income of $50,000 can equal a potential $15,000 loss for the employer,” states Ryan Holmes, Chief Executive Officer at Hootsuite. CEO of Zappo’s, Tony Hsieh, famously offers his new hires $2,000 to leave the company and claims, “Past bad hires have cost his company “well over $100 million.””
So what can firms do to minimize their risk to potential bad hires?
Firms can utilize HR data and metrics and leverage big data to make well-informed and smarter choices on their candidates. Working to shift the experience from reactive to proactive, firms can use data to build sourcing strategies that align to their business. They can identify which sources provide the best ROI, and using new assessments and technology to determine which candidates will be better culture fit for the firm before the first day of work.
One important thing to remember, these Millennial candidates, even when not selected for a role in the firm, are future customers and consumers and will be both open and vocal with their network about their experience. Companies need to be thinking for the long term, and not just the moment, using transparency and honest communication to engage and provide the best experience possible to keep these silver medal winners in the future talent pipeline. To all of our pending graduates and Millennials, good luck in your job searches and remember it's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right…
Join HCI May 28, 2014 at 1pm ET for the webcast The Medium Is the Message in Talent Acquisition – We’re All Becoming Millennials when we will be joined Meghan Biro, Host of the weekly #TChat on Twitter and CEO of Talent Culture Consulting Group. Biro will be exploring the advantages of examining talent acquisition strategies from the multiple perspectives of candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers.