Millennials are currently big news for the recruitment industry and rightly so – they have become the largest generation in the workforce. Millennials also prioritise job security above all else and are moving jobs less frequently than the generation before them. Contributor Don Byrne, Recruitment Sector Consultant – Cheeky Munkey.
With unemployment at an all-time low, now is the time for recruiters to change tactics or risk losing this dominant sector of the workforce. A new survey was undertaken to understand what engages and deters millennials when dealing with recruitment companies.
The results glean some practical things recruiters can change and implement today.
Recruiters are currently putting millennials off at the first hurdle and losing clients to the competition. Recruitment companies must invest in their websites or it will hinder their success. Millenials are extremely internet savvy and their attention needs to be captured – a huge 62 percent of millenials won’t use a recruiter if their website is poorly designed, slow to respond or unsecure.
A website is a direct reflection of how clients view the agency’s potential to get them a job. A good website will ensure credibility and trust, while a poor website means candidates are likely to go elsewhere.
Key to recruiter success is to getting to know candidates and and building relationships with them so that they use the same recruiter throughout their career. Over half (57 percent) of millennials surveyed said that receiving inaccurate job offerings would cause them not to use the same recruiter in the future.
Other important takeaways from this new survey include: Only 19 percent of millennials like to be cold contacted by a recruiter, yet this is an increasingly common practice in the recruitment industry; 1 in 4 millennials surveyed stated receiving emails from a recruiter when they aren’t job hunting would put them off using that company in the future. The findings of the survey highlight the need for recruiters to put millennial needs at the heart of their business and adapt to the group’s needs accordingly in order to survive in this highly competitive marketplace.
Don Byrne, recruitment sector consultant at Cheeky Munkey, states: ‘Candidate attraction and retention are intrinsic to the success of a recruitment agency and the survey highlights areas of key importance to millennials when they are choosing an agency. Revealing that a poor website deters nearly 63 percent of those surveyed, it’s crucial to ensure your site is responsive and appealing to prospective candidates.
The overarching message we discovered from the survey was recruitment should never be a ‘one size fits all’ process. While candidates will differ in what they place a value on, each and every one should be treated as an individual.’
