How to hire Gen Yers – chapter two of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy

Chapter two of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y is titled “Get them on board fast with the right messages,” and focuses on recruiting and hiring Gen Yers.

What I’m really enjoying about this book is the practical advice author Bruce Tulgan gives that you can put in to action right away. I’ll feature a few tips in this post

Recruiting

There are several ways to advertise employment opportunities to Gen Yers. Tulgan suggests asking great Gen Y employees to suggest friends. Gen Yers like to feel powerful in their job and asking them for a reference makes them feel this way. They also want to bring personal connections into work and clearly working with a friend would do this. Finally, the adage that winners hang around winners is true, so if you have a winning Gen Y employee, they’ll likely recommend one.

On the downside, if the workplace begins to sour then you can be faced with a double-departure of employees. Also, if the employee doesn’t offer up a reference then that should be a warning sign the workplace is not great.

Once a Gen Yer has made the reference, be sure to keep them in the loop, let them know about the interview and job offers.

Another power and often highly successful recruiting technique for Gen yers is to ask parents, teachers and counsellors. This is what Tulgan calls the “Killer App,” (although I think the killer app is this). Explain to these people how this is a win-win situation. You’ll find potential great employees and they’ll get credibility and increased reputation amongst students and/or their children.

Advertising your recruitment efforts

Tulgan says many Gen Yers want to work for flashy companies like those in the sports and entertainment industries but are disheartened when they do because they find out it’s a lot of work. In the end Gen Yers leave these jobs three to 18 months later because the job wasn’t what they expected (more on this later too). It’s important to build your brand in the marketplace right alongside building your brand as an employer. Think of Starbucks that includes little things like a free bag of coffee each week through stock options or Google that famously let’s employees work on their own projects for up to 20% of their time and offers their employees free meals.

Traditional reward structures and long-term benefits that vest after a long period of time are threshold items now. Gen Yers want to know what’s in it for them today, tomorrow and next month.

This might sound greedy, but if a Gen Yer knows what’s expected of them from day one they’ll work hard for your company – but not every Gen Yer is built the same. Tulgan lists several types of Gen Y workers but says the best type of Gen Yer is the one who is looking to make an impact while growing themselves as they take advantage company resources.

8 factors to attracting the top Gen Y candidates

1. Performance-based compensation – Gen Yers want to know the only thing limiting their pay is their value they add to the company
2. Flexible schedules – As long as they are meeting deadlines and goals they want to have control over their schedule
3. Flexible locations – The physical location isn’t as important as their ability to personalize their work space, arrange furniture and the position of their desk
4. Marketable skills – Gen Yers want the chance to participate in formal and informal training
5. Access to decision makers – They don’t want to wait years to start building relationships
6. Personal credit for results acheived
7. Clear area of responsibility – They want an area of 100% responsibility so they can use that area as a proving ground
8. Chance for creative expression – They want to know what the parameters will be to work in so they can know what freedoms they have to things their own way

The hiring process

The first rule, make it quick. Try to have as few delays between stages and especially between the hire and the start date. Along with selling the job you also want to tell them the bad parts. For example, if it’s an accounting job and they’ll have to do repetitive paper work, let them know. The key is, you don’t want to sell Gen Yers a bill of goods and then not deliver on it or only tell half truths about the job. Two other tips Tulgan gives is to test them on a skill that is at the heart of the job. If the job is in a warehouse and requires moving lots of boxes and stacking them up, have the applicant do that.

He also suggests having behavioral interviews. That is, ask them to tell you a story and then listen to their story. Ask them if they’ve ever had a conflict at a previous job and what they did about it, for example. But at the end of the day, a realistic preview of the job is key to making them stick around and working hard.

If a long period of time is inevitable between the time the hire is made and the first day of work consider sending the Gen Yer background information on the company along with logo’d mugs, polos or hats. Have key people send them letters introducing themselves and invite them, but don’t require them to attend company meetings.

Next chapter

The book is well-written and lends itself to be easily digestable. Truth be told I’ve committed to reading one chapter each business day and I find that I look forward to it. So if everything goes as planned I’ll be reading the next chapter, “Get them up to speed quickly and turn them into knowledge workers,” tomorrow and will follow-up with a blog post shortly thereafter.