For all the amorphous content and abstract conversations around the rising ubiquity of “Gen Z” at work, the fact of the matter is that in actual practice, campus and new graduate recruitment is often among the most overlooked and under-resourced strategic functions in talent acquisition. 
 

This is nothing new - employers have long treated the emerging workforce and entry level employees with something approaching hiring hubris, the historical surplus of college graduates (both recent and impending) has long exceeded employer demand for entry level positions. 

Data suggests, however, that the pendulum is perceptibly, and perhaps permanently, shifting, the result of a perfect demographic storm of steadily declining workforce participation, plummeting enrollment and graduation rates at postsecondary institutions around the world and the proliferation and relative popularity of non-traditional, “gig” and freelance work arrangements among younger workers. 

As a result, in the post pandemic world of work, entry level hiring and new graduate recruitment has become more cutthroat, competitive and costly for employers across markets, verticals and sizes. With experienced employees turning over at historical highs, the direct and indirect cost of acquiring skilled and professional level workers is forcing many businesses to reimagine, redevelop and reinvent their approach to entry level hiring and emerging workforce development.

This month’s issue of Talent Acquisition Excellence will take a deep dive into the new world of graduate and entry level hiring in the US and around the world, and what employers in every market and industry need to do know to compete for, and win, their top talent of tomorrow, today. 

Whether you’ve got a dedicated campus recruiting team or your emerging talent strategy is just in time, all the time, or if you just want a little bit of insight into those crazy kids who are now somehow your professional colleagues and coworkers (even if they make fun of the fact that you’re still using Facebook), then this issue is definitely required recruiting reading.

We’re bringing you bylines from some of the industry’s best and brightest as they explore the seismic shifts we’ve seen in the global graduate and entry level recruitment landscape, discuss the emerging best practices and real world strategies reshaping the future of the function, and share some of the newest tips, tools and tricks of the emerging talent trade. 

Of course, the more things change, the more they stay the same - and emerging workforce recruiting is no exception. Everyone in their early career is going to come across as entitled, impatient and contrarian - that’s kind of what happens when you’re just starting out and have no experience with the vagaries of office politics, the ambiguities of the knowledge economy or, you know, being real adults with real jobs. 

One thing that I’d like every reader to remember, however, is that generational theory has been widely discredited since the days when, you know, those Millennials created a whole cottage industry of HR handwringing. 

Also, age is a protected class, which means that every time you talk about “Gen Z” (or any other generational cohort) in sweeping stereotypes and overgeneralizations, you’re really just demonstrating extreme hiring bias and undermining your “commitment” to DEIB, which is seemingly pretty important in TA these days. 

That is, except when it comes to those constantly connected, socially conscious, community minded and increasingly progressive workers who make up your emerging workforce. But here’s the thing - you’d do well to remember that age ain’t nothing but a number, and that Gen Z really isn’t all that different from any other demographic at your workplace. 

They’re more influenced by cash and direct comp than any other incentive when considering employment offers; the majority of them find their roles not through campus career centers or internship programs, but instead, through Indeed, just like the rest of us (although they’re much less likely to use LinkedIn, which means there’s still hope for the future). 

They’re also more likely to prefer a hybrid work arrangement than fully remote; they rate job titles as minimally important but are most motivated by the chance to learn new skills and gain as broad a range of experience as possible, and they’d rather grow with a single employer rather than constantly jump ship for a better job offer (at least, according to myriad surveys and studies). 

In fact, the only thing that’s really all that different about Gen Z is that they don’t personally identify with that term, and the majority find it “offensive or prejudiced.” That’s why the first trick to recruiting the emerging workforce is to stop calling them “Gen Z” and conflating that term with emerging workers, which is both age agnostic and recognizes that professional inexperience is not a work style or world view - it’s the equivalent to a rite of passage in late stage capitalism. 

Trust me. I’m a Millennial. 

Now, where’s the trophy I was supposed to get for showing up?

Matt.
 
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