Of course you want to create a job advertisement that accurately reflects what you need. But does the ad always meet the needs of your target audience?
When creating job descriptions to attract Millennials, most HR pros have little demographic and “psychographic” experience, and so they especially struggle with Millennials.
That’s because these active young people are simultaneously looking forward to the financial aspect of a job, as well as self-satisfaction, and don’t’ forget the all-important entertainment value. Millennials want to have fun, too.
Millennials are people who were born between 1981 and 1996. This generation Y, or simply or Gen Y, is characterized by extensive use of social media and digital technologies.
Some research suggest Millennials, as a group, are dealing with the highest unemployment rate since 2000. Some experts believe that it’s because of the lack of experience and mistakes they have made during a hiring process.
But there is another side to this coin. Young people who have wide access to information of various kinds are just much more demanding while searching for jobs.
So, if you are looking to hire Millennials, it’s important to consider both their psychological and practical needs, and to tailor your approach to their priorities.
Here are some ways to create job descriptions that attract Millennials.
Since Millennials are looking for comfortable conditions at their workplace, and they also want a meaningful job to get fully engaged, consider including the following in your job advertisement:
- Highlight the impact they will be able to make while working for your company, for example, eco-friendliness or other ways to save the world.
- Impress them quickly by a great design of your ad, a bright and catchy image, an interesting headline and a short vivid description.
- Explain which perks and career growth opportunities your employees will get by staying with the company because Millennials do not believe that they will have any perspectives while staying in one place.
- Specify the responsibilities, and accordingly, perks because too many requirements without any specifics do not seem to look appealing for Millennials.
- Focus on the friendly working environment with teamwork and ways of spending free time together because a corporate culture meeting their values is quite attractive for young people.
- Be accurate with your social media profile and try to support your company’s positive image with video clips, pictures of actual work-related projects and photos published there.
- Mention the perks and try to be more specific about them by highlighting a strong and professional human resource team for millennials’ understanding that they are protected.
- Focus on the tone and style of your job advertisements, and make them original, informal and fun without too many clichés or attempts to over-impress candidates.
- Post your ads on social media picking out the platform which is the most popular one with your target audience — for example, Instagram.
- To avoid unnecessary repetitions and misunderstanding problems, you can also apply to some reputable writing services, such as Proessaywriter, to compose the job ad for you or to proofread your text.
While their own personal interests and psychological well-being are quite important for Millennials, they are also interested in the professionalism of your company or organization.
Millennials are concerned about long-term goals and strategies of any organization they plan to be a part of. If you want to attract young talents who may become the most productive and ambitious employees, it pays to:
- Be clear about the job title since Millennials who tend to be quite active in using search engines and social media, need this accuracy, optimization, and clarity to catch the eye and get them interested.
- Structure your job description providing potential applicants with the company’s overall mission, and then with the opportunities for professional development this mission suggests in terms of both hard and soft skills.
- Not be too focused on experience, but highlight competencies needed because most millennials are quite talented in many spheres, for example, they are technologically-savvy and able to learn fast;
- Avoid buzz words like ‘experienced’, ‘effective’, ‘qualified’ as well as some mocking things like ‘unicorn’ or ‘black belt’ which actually do not describe the real position, but may sound even offensive to Millennial job seekers.
Lastly, when dealing with Millennials as job candidates – the process of job application and further interviews should be as quick and meaningful as possible unless you want an applicant to find the very hiring process too frustrating.
Take home
It’s important to emphasize once again that, if you want your job advertisement to be successful with Millennials, keep their values and goals at the forefront of what you’re trying to accomplish.
Remember that this generation is looking for a comfortable working environment, a great corporate culture, the chance to do something meaningful and to grow.
A compelling job description that attracts Millennials should focus on the professional and personal needs of this group to get bright and dedicated candidates for your company.
