It doesn’t take an extensive study to uncover how the habits of job candidates have changed the way companies need to approach them. Just take a casual stroll down the street. Most everyone you pass is likely to be chatting on a cell phone or employing one of dozens of apps available on their SmartPhone or other handheld device. Or, step into your neighborhood Starbucks, where nearly every customer will be found tapping away on a laptop keyboard or on a Tablet surfing the Net.
It’s a whole new world, one in which people are tethered to technology from dawn to dusk and dust to dawn. For hiring managers, the implications are clear: If you want to reach this new “connected” group of job seekers, you, too, must be tech-savvy.
If there’s one universal truth about technology-using job candidates, it’s that the younger the candidate, the heavier the tech usage. Just one look at the most common means of identifying new career opportunities and you can easily see that technology has taken over. Millennials typically come across potential new jobs via three primary channels: online searching (74 percent); traditional networking (68 percent); and job boards (67 percent). At the same time, younger job seekers demonstrate less loyalty to their employers and are also quicker to jump ship on a moment’s notice. While Baby Boomers stay in one position an average of 11 years, Millennials’ average tenure stands at a mere three years, according to a September 2012 survey of 3,976 full-time U.S. workers by CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive. That means you have a wealth of opportunities to lure them away from their current employer and into your workforce, but you must look to the right avenues if you have any hope of garnering their attention.
In order to reach this fresh crop of tech-savvy candidates, you must look to segmented recruitment techniques via all the possible mobile channels. Consider employing Monster’s job-seeking app for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. Thanks to the explosion of 3G devices, Millennials are notoriously heavy mobile Internet users, making mobile recruitment strategies a must-have if you want to effectively reach them.
You should also consider using syndicated display advertising technologies, or online media, to get your job postings in front of more potential candidates. Applications such as the Monster Career Ad Network use cookie-based targeting to track behaviors that demonstrate an interest in a specific career. By targeting your postings to those who seem to be interested in such a position, you are able to reach a more relevant group of potential candidates. The technology also allows you to target job seekers by region, resulting in a more effective hiring initiative.
Need help with your recruiting initiatives? Contact High Profile Staffing today.