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Recruiting Gen Z Talent: 10 Smart Moves To Make


When research emerged as we muscled through the pandemic that Gen Z employees were leading the Great Resignation, I wasn’t surprised. While Baby Boomers retiring is indeed a factor, it’s nothing to relax about. Their grandkids — the future of the workforce — are fed up. 59% of Gen Z employees were resolutely dissatisfied with their job and 35% were planning on jumping ship in the coming year. The trend hasn’t abated.

Why is that important when it comes to how to best recruit and retain Gen Z? The conditions that led to their wanting to leave are markedly different from conditions that affected earlier generations. Let’s say evolved instead of different: given the choice, even some Boomers would opt for a 4-day workweek or having more control over their schedule.

Pre pandemic, the overall employee experience was important but not always critical. With Gen Z, it’s critical. Some began their professional careers (if they have started them already) as remote employees; others found themselves victims of layoffs as companies shed their last hires in an effort to stay afloat during the economic downtown.

The best practices for recruiting Gen Z are going to acknowledge this new reality. Here are 10 simple moves organizations and their recruiting teams can do to improve their recruiting success with Gen Z:

1. Take Them Seriously. By 2030 there will be an estimated 51 million employees in the workforce born between the mid 1990s and 2010. They’ll comprise nearly a third of the overall workforce in the U.S. If you don’t create a strong recruiting program now it’s highly likely your employee roster will remain underpopulated and underdeveloped: your capacity to promote and develop your own management and leadership ranks will be diminished. Internal mobility — which is going to become increasingly important — depends on a strong employee talent base.

2. Apply AI Tools To Your Screening Process. Gen Z are young (and your organization may be their first employer), they may be under experienced as well. Some aren’t out of college and have little pre-career work experience due to the pandemic. Many wound up narrowing their education to remote courses that didn’t require hands-on components. Or lost out on many internship and work experience opportunities due to the pandemic. Don’t expect the resumes of this cohort to show who they are and can be. Leverage AI tools to screen for soft as well as hard skills, and add in criteria for additional abilities, such as programming (an obvious plus) or volunteering on political campaigns (where they may have learned communication, teamwork, projects, responsibility and scope, just as a for instance).

3. Address DEI In Your Organization Now. We already know DEI is critical to a healthy workplace and correlated to business and team success. Gen Z in the U.S. is also the most ethnically diverse generation in history: 48% identify as a race other than white. If your workplace is still reflecting a culture without a clear emphasis on diversity, inclusion and equity, you’re not going to be able to attract top Gen Z talent.

4. Revise your Materials To Show Your Commitment To DEI. This is often seen as a practical matter: I’ve seen organizations punt on updating their recruiting materials for a whole slew of reasons: there’s no downtime in their hiring / recruiting cycle, or they assume they can fill in the gaps in person or with other aspects of their brand content. But from an outside perspective that means you don’t really have a culture that honors DEI, you’re just paying it lip service. 69% of Gen Z job seekers would be more likely to apply to a company where DEI is clearly emphasized in its recruiting materials.

5. Grow Your Growth Opportunities. If you’re a competitive organization when it comes to talent management, it’s likely you’ve put an emphasis on growth and learning for your workforce. Push harder. For Gen Z, not being able to acquire new skills and grow their careers is a deal-breaker when it comes to joining an employer. So is not being able to use the skills they already have. As LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report found, employees who feel their skills aren’t being put to good use are ten times more likely to look for a new job. That certainly includes Gen Z.

6. Don’t Just Digitize Each Step Of The Recruiting Process. This may seem counterintuitive for the first entirely digitally native generation. But human connection is important: one recent study found that over half (51%) of Gen Z respondents prefer to communicate face to face and only one fourth (25%) prefer to communicate digitally. Yes: you need great multiplatform, multichannel, multiaccess digital communication and recruiting applications. Yes, text messages are a valuable way to communicate. But you also need to be there in person, whether in the room or virtually. Make sure there’s human contact in the candidate experience or you’ll lose them.

7. Speed Up Your Site And Apps. Not only are Gen Z seamless in switching from physical to digital, they also expect digital to have the same fluid and fast response. If your organizational website is a clunker, if your career page links to a form that takes seconds to load, if your mobile app stalls, tend to these before a recruiting push. 60% of Gen Z won’t use a website or an app that is too slow to load.

8. Get Your Story Straight. Searching for talent isn’t always an active endeavor, that we know. IN Gen Z’s case, they’re likely searching for you. Your content had better be engaging: it should tell your story well, convey your mission and purpose, speak to your culture, provide relatable portraits (and the voices of) current employees as well as leaders, and not only stress DEI, but showcase how you’re supporting it in your workplace. 74% of Gen Z spend their free time online. Inventory your organization’s presence across social media, websites, career sites, and anywhere it appears. Are you providing the kind of information that’s going to encourage Gen Z to learn more and possibly apply?

9. Start Recruiting Now. It’s a rare Gen Z graduate that won’t be looking for a job as they finish up their semester in college or head to high school graduation. But don’t wait until May or June to find promising graduates. Work on finding them earlier in the year — and cultivating connections with those who seem promising for your organization. Use storytelling, content, informal outreaches to build a talent pool. Whatever you don’t do, rest assured someone else is.

10. Work the Referrals. Context is everything in the world of work when you’re brand new to it, and more than one recruiting study found that Gen Z candidates value a referral from a company’s current employee. Leverage your new hires — your recent grads in particular — for a referral campaign. It might be an employee referral program or bringing them to campus recruiting events. Have them tell their stories of joining your company. Reward them for their roles here: incentives and bonuses are completely appropriate.

Experienced recruiters have told me that Gen Z is a whole different ball game, and I believe them. But that’s a good thing. We’re in an era of profound changes when it comes to how we work, including the entire journey from attracting talent to recruitment to hiring to engagement and retention. This is a great opportunity to set yourself up with better practices now. As we bring more and more of this amazing new generation into our workforces, you’ll be far better positioned for what’s to come.



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