Gen Z: The Next Generation Of Talent Technology

Gen Z needs a different level of recruiting and onboarding support

Two million college students are graduating this spring into a candidate’s market like nothing we have seen before. Gen Z candidates have more options than graduating classes preceding them: 11.3 million job openings today compared to 7.4 million in 2021. However, they are also entering the workforce with a complicated college experience, punctuated by virtual coursework, shelter-in-place mandates and a lack of social opportunities. 

They are well versed in digital communications, however, they have had little pre-pandemic work experience and they are approaching a sense of fatigue and burnout not felt by previous graduating classes. They need and deserve a different level of recruiting and onboarding support to help them transition into their working lives. 

Gen Z has joined Millennials as two generations driving the Great Resignation. Not only that: 80% of Gen Z employees, who planned to leave a job soon, are looking for better alignment with their values, while 3 in 4 graduates want opportunities to practice new skills. 

Along with a career approach led by values and growth, these graduating candidates expect transparency, consistent communication and self-serve personalization in every aspect of their lives. Since they already experience these qualities in their consumer interactions, they will expect recruiting efforts that offer a dynamic experience. 

Even if an organization shares a candidate’s values and offers learning opportunities, recruiters still have to make a quick impression: Companies have an average of 14 seconds to get a job seeker’s attention. So when is the best time to reevaluate recruiting strategies? Now, before those potential employees graduate.

Ensuring Your Talent Tech Stack Stacks Up for Gen Z Workers

While effective recruiting strategies vary depending on the type and volume of employees you need, the right technology will optimize your efforts. A platform that offers automation and personalization eases the burden on recruiters by making quick work of tedious, time-consuming tasks, leaving more time for recruiting teams to build a storyline that connects candidates with their company in a more robust way.

The line between “before” and “after” hiring is gone: Candidates want to know how your company will support their continued growth with meaningful onboarding, mentoring and skills development before they have signed on.

With open jobs far exceeding available workers, providing robust candidate experiences for both hourly employees and knowledge workers can mean the difference in attracting the talent you need before someone else does. 

Try one of these approaches to recruit the right Gen Z candidate.

Hourly Employees

We see many more roles for hourly employees across industries than at the same time in winter 2021. Leisure and hospitality openings have grown by more than 70%. Retail, manufacturing and construction and utilities also show gains. That is a lot of openings to fill quickly.

While these roles are not always the first choice for college grads, in my experience, it is common for recent grads to follow their passions first, even if they do not line up perfectly with their degree. From there, aspects of a retail or service role can pique their interests and lead to full-time opportunities. 

During my experience with high-volume hiring as EVP of HR at fitness company Life Time, I learned the importance of speed. I also realized how innovation can transform talent acquisition processes. I led a team that hired more than 21,000 people annually, and automation streamlined that work considerably, engaging candidates and involving recruiters and hiring managers in the process at just the right time. 

Time matters, especially in this current labor market. With the right technology, recruiting — from interest to offer — can happen in as few as 24 hours. 

Here is an example: KinderCare Education is the largest childcare education provider in the U.S., with nearly 40,000 employees at more than 2,000 locations. As pandemic-related restrictions eased across the country, KinderCare’s individual hiring managers and recruiters couldn’t keep pace with hiring needs. Incorporating automation early in the recruiting process equipped KinderCare with the speed and reach to maintain consistent communication with job seekers and, ultimately, fill critical positions.  

KinderCare’s two-person recruiting team used automation as part of a talent experience platform to optimize hiring events. First, they added a hiring event template to the company’s career website. Job seekers, who interacted with the event, received automated, branded email and text communications. Two different drip campaigns targeted candidates based on whether they had registered for the hiring event. 

Unregistered job seekers saw more frequent messages with a focus on registering. Registered job seekers received less frequent communication, providing a look at KinderCare culture and employee experience. Hiring managers joined the process a day before the event to offer candidates a personal connection. 

Using automation to maximize efforts through a single event, KinderCare received 160 applicants, conducted 70 interviews and hired more than 40 people for critical positions. It took a week and a half, and they spent less than $50 on advertising.

A powerful platform that measures job fit and connects candidates with opportunities accurately and quickly fuels better high-volume hiring that will make your company stand out from the crowd and support your recruitment goals. Automation and AI equip businesses with a balance of speed and personalization, so recruiters like the team at KinderCare can focus on providing a meaningful onboarding experience to give new employees a strong start.   

Knowledge Workers 

The U.S. is reporting a half-million more business and professional services openings than at this time last year. Information services openings have nearly doubled, and other knowledge worker opportunities show a similar trend.

The past year’s “Great Resignation” or “Great Reprioritization” might feel like a challenge for organizations, but it also represents an unprecedented opportunity to meet the expectations of job seekers.

The organizations most poised to evolve with the labor market are those willing to ask hard questions about the candidate and employee experiences they offer. They are placing more emphasis on showcasing company values, learning and growth opportunities and internal mobility paths that go far beyond an entry-level role. These organizations are inviting candidates to partner with them to chart a career path, not simply a job. 

Personalization is crucial to that endeavor. An AI-powered platform uses a candidate’s interest and background to create a unique story to lead candidates through their job search. It is the same kind of hyper-personalization offered by their favorite consumer experiences — suggestions that take into account their behavior and preferences and make it easy to find what they like. 

A complimentary referral program taps into the trust Gen Z has in its peers in everything from where they shop to what they eat. This curated approach offers the support graduates need with a comprehensive, interactive experience. 

Southwest Airlines has used this hyper-personalized talent acquisition strategy with great success, employing an intelligent chatbot and a strong referral program. Both tactics offer candidates the curated, Netflix-like experience they have grown accustomed to: a unique journey informed by past behavior and preferences, offered quickly and accurately to keep them engaged. 

By asking a handful of simple questions, a chatbot uses candidate answers to surface personalized job recommendations and relevant company content, such as blog posts and video testimonials. Southwest’s chatbot use has saved time while preserving candidates’ engagement with career opportunities and highlighting the company’s people and purpose. In one year, Southwest recorded 1 million chatbot interactions that:

●  Provided 24/7 personalization.
●  Captured leads.
●  Answered FAQs, saving recruiters 92,000 hours. 

In tandem with an intelligent chatbot, Southwest uses an incentivized referral program to build its talent community and foster engagement. Employees who serve as trusted sources to friends and former colleagues refer candidates for positions they think could be a good fit. Southwest also automates its referrals, folding them into a talent experience management platform that invites referred candidates to complete talent profiles. 

From there, candidates receive automated emails and texts about relevant job opportunities and online “referral information sessions.” This strategy saves recruiters time and empowers them to reach more candidates at once while still providing a personal touch. The sessions, held several times weekly, offer insight into Southwest’s culture and interviewing processes to move candidates closer to conversion. 

These strategies have fueled a 700% increase in employee referrals, averaging 1,000 per week, with half of those candidates completing talent profiles, closing the gap between referral and applicant. 

Better Recruiting for Today’s Graduates

The current job market presents a challenge for organizations competing against each other to recruit from the same pool of graduating talent. Conversely, graduating students have a potentially overwhelming task before them as they narrow their search to job opportunities that actually interest them. Automation and AI rise to meet these dual challenges, empowering recruiters with the bandwidth to be more human and creating a smooth, personalized job journey for candidates. Those efforts converge to support an organization’s hiring goals and match the right job seekers with the right opportunities.

As CHRO, Jess Elmquist is leading Phenom’s global HR team as the company continues to rapidly hire, train and inspire new employees around the world. Previously, Elmquist has held multiple senior roles, including Chief Learning Officer & EVP of HR, Talent Acquisition at LifeTime, Inc.  Visit www.phenom.com  Connect Jess Emquist