Is your scale-up sexy enough for Gen Z?

We all know that attracting employees around this period of time is more than just difficult. You’ll need an entire recruitment team (who are also scarce around this period) to find the purple unicorns out there. Lots of companies are not settling down anymore for a purple unicorn, they see that the quests to find the beast is nearly impossible. They’ll settle with an orange zebra or something similar.

Now that Generation Z is getting ready to enter the job market, we at Your Talent Agency decided to give you some insight on how to attract this generation and grab them by the horns!

First up, sustainability.

Sustainability is something that is in the news all over the world, every company is looking for a Corporate Social Responsibility Advisor to bring their organization to the next level and make the organization more sustainable. Greta Thunberg will be proud of the Netherlands; ‘’How dare you!’’

Generation Z is willing to decline a job offer if the company has a bad environment impact, some of the Generation Zs are even willing to accept a lower pay if the company is acting in accordance with its own standards and values. Commitment as a company to the environment isn’t just an option anymore, it’s mandatory if you want to keep your future employees.\r\n\r\nGeneration Z knows what they are worth

Back in the days, with the Millennials you were able to attract this generation with personal development. With Generation Z it works a little bit different, they know what they are worth, it’s all over the news how scares the market is. If you’re not willing to meet their standards, they will just look for another company who meets it.

Keep in mind that Generation Z has a student debt, the ‘’basisbeurs’ as we call it in Dutch changed in 2015 which means that most of the students had to use the ‘’leenstelsel’’ from DUO to get around. Generation Z weighs this very heavily against their salary. Their top priority to have financial stability and a successful career makes them highly self-reliant.

Thinking that Generation Z is lazy? Not today, Satan 
If you think that Generation Z is just a Tik-Tok using, havercappu drinking and healthy human being, think again. This generation sees themselves as the most hard-working generation ever. Next to this, they say that they are the first generation who has difficulty with entering the labor market. Nevertheless, they are more then 100% prepared due to their studies to start their career.  
 
You get a referral and you get a referral, everyone gets a referral 
For the students of Generation Z, their preferred method of getting hired is through referral from a current or former employee. The fun fact is, that the first meeting preference goes to face-to-face instead of a digital Zoom or Teams meeting. If you compare the hiring events to the millennials, Generation Z has almost double the amount of interest in them. Oh, and the most amazing fact, they love recruiters!  
 
Let’s get DIGITAL, DIGITAL!  
We all know that Generation Z is the leading generation if we’re talking about digitalization. They are hands on with everything that is new on the market. As a company, you should be aware of your digital brand, do you have a mobile friendly platform which is fast and immediately shows you where you can find the ‘’working at’’ page? Quick and brief application forms are the future (if it is even necessary), communication through WhatsApp instead of email. If you’re not up to standard, if your Employer Brand is not on point, you’re already 0-1 behind.  
 
Diversity and Inclusion, baby! 
Your Talent Agency screams it almost every day from the top of their lungs, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IS IMPORTANT if you want to attract Generation Z and future employees. Is your company involved? Do you hire non– biased? Do you tick the boxes to say that you’ve created a diverse and inclusive work environment? Because if not, and you lied to your future employee, they will just leave.  
\r\n\r\n “,
“_text_1”: “field_6041e94c56b80”,
“text_2”: “I’ll get back to you in a jiffy\r\nIf you snooze you lose. The old recruitment days are over, if you post a vacancy with a deadline and with the sentence; we will review the applications and get back to you within 14 days. You’ve lost the attention of Generation Z. If you offer a quick recruitment process you win the game; post the vacancy, call the applicant, first interview no longer then 15 minutes, feedback within 24 hours, by the end of the week you should have the offer ready! This can take up to two weeks but that really is the max of the patience of Generation Z. \r\n\r\nGimme, Gimme, Gimme attention!\r\nGeneration Z is here to learn, they want attention from their manager, feedback, support so they can grow and become a better version of themselves. Transparency is key, different kinds of communication is important; text, WhatsApp, chat next to weekly face-to-face meetings. \r\n\r\nRemote isn’t for everyone\r\nDue to COVID-19 your current employees are used to working remote, half of them are fine with it to work remote for the rest of their lives. Generation Z isn’t interested (except for hybrid), if you look back at the previous point it actually makes sense. If they start a new position working from home, the learning curve is extremely low. They started working at your company to develop, to learn, to grow and without the colleagues around them, they’re not 100% able to develop new skills or better yet, develop at all. \r\n\r\nDoing it for the FAME\r\nGeneration Z values authenticity. If you have a celebrity in your Employer Branding campaign, they are likely to say no thank you. Photoshopped the pictures of your organization, no thank you. Is your Employer Brand out of line with the organization, no thank you. \r\n\r\nGeneration Z is eager, they are participating in all kinds of surveys to find out if your company is fitting their personality, their values, their opinion etc. They us polls, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok just to find out if your Employer Brand fits their personal brand. \r\n\r\nPi-Pa-Podcast\r\nOkay so we all know that Generation Z is also known as Generation Tik Tok (it’s true it’s very addicting, I joined myself recently). There are a lot of different kind of Podcasts all over the world, people listen to it every day because it’s just easy. You walk around, you drive in your car, you go to the gym and listen to a Podcast of the information of your choosing instead of music. So why not start a Podcast with your company and talk about daily topics that are occurring or a recap of the process you had with a big new client. Share your information, be transparent, be interesting and attract Generation Z!  \r\n\r\n So now, what’s next?\r\n\r\nGen Z is coming, and you better brace yourselves. Stack up on oatmeal, Tesla’s and hire anybody that is not white and\/or privileged. *This is a joke.\r\nBut for real; it is not that hard. Communication is key, no matter what generation you are hiring. Listen to your target audience and stay close to your values and beliefs. Involve everybody to build an inclusive environment and keep sharing the truth.  \r\n\r\nWant to engage more? We are excited to help you. All you have to do is ask! “