During the Coronavirus pandemic, employers were naturally faced with many new challenges that required fast thinking and adaptation so that companies could stay afloat.
Depending on the nature of your company, you might have been in a situation where staff were furloughed. Others of you were in a situation where the office had to close but your team of staff were working from home. Video calls became the norm.
And for others of you, still, you might be an employer at a company whose staff found themselves on the frontline. Key workers working in a variety of roles that served to keep the economy afloat and the people of the UK with the essential goods and services they need.
Whatever your situation, it was obviously an unprecedented situation where we are only now starting to see an end in sight. Of course, the virus isn’t going away but we are learning to live with the situation, live our lives and, from a business perspective, get the economy back on track.
Throughout all of this, employers out there can be forgiven for taking their eye off their recruitment strategy and, in particular, what young job seekers might be looking for in an employer in 2022.
In this article, we will take a look at some trends for 2022 and look at how you can make any necessary tweaks to your recruitment process to make sure you don’t miss out on the best young talent going forward into the year.
Do An Honest Analysis Of Your Job Ads
We have written in the past about the differences between Gen Z and previous generations. Gen Z are more likely to be looking for the type of roles that give them job security so they can stay around for the longer term.
Many young people now are not looking to job hop. This is great news for your staff retention once you have recruited new people to your team. If you are hooking the best talent, this is also great news for your company because that talent will be ensuring the future success of your firm.
First of all, however, you need to attract that young talent to your job vacancies at a time when lots of other companies are looking to do the same. How do you make yourself an attractive prospect and stand out from the rest of the competition?
You can start by looking at your job ad. Because of the pandemic, you might not have had a chance to take a close look at it over the past couple of years.
If your job ad is generic and perhaps a bit stale – maybe even littered with jargon – it isn’t going to attract the applicants you are looking for.
Bring it right up to date so that it reflects the current circumstances. Make sure there are no parts of your job ad that are irrelevant as we come out of the pandemic.
What type of people are you looking to attract, going forward? Tailor your job ad to those people. Young people want to know what you can offer them.
The further points discussed below should all be included in your job advert. And it is 2022 – make sure that job advert is mobile friendly if you are going to give yourself the best chance of attracting young talent.
Where Possible, Offer Flexibility
During the pandemic, some employers had no choice but to create flexibility within the workplace. Many people had to work from home and now, as we come out of the pandemic, more people are looking to continue with this way of working.
This might be in the form of a remote work situation or a hybrid situation. Many employers have also found that this has worked well for their company so are happy to continue with staff not necessarily being in the office full time.
Young people are looking for opportunities like this where they are not tied to their office desk 9-5. If you are in a position to offer this type of flexibility, this could help you to attract young talent.
According to the 2022 Global Culture Report, UK jobseekers looking for office roles are most interested in hybrid roles where home office equipment is provided along with opportunities for staff development.
Clearly, not all types of job roles lend themselves to being able to give staff the opportunity to work from home. If you are an employer at a firm whose services require staff to be in the workplace, think of ways you can be creative with flexibility so that you can give yourself the best chance of attracting young staff.
This could include flexible options such as shift swaps or assisting staff with childcare by offering term time contracts.
If you can offer hybrid roles, make your expectations clear so that young people can make informed decisions and be clear on their work life balance. Your outline of expectations about hybrid working can be included in youır job ad so that potential applicants know what you are able to offer before they take the time to apply.
An Employer That Cares
Young people are looking for more than just a job that pays them a weekly wage or monthly salary.
As we said above, Gen Z are increasingly looking for jobs where they have a safety net that gives them long term employment where they can train and grow in their role.
Whether you are employing students in entry level roles on a part time basis at evenings or weekends, Apprentices beginning a career or graduates to your latest graduate programme, all of these young people are looking for more than their salary.
The pandemic meant many young people were unable to get experience of being in the workplace. They were either unable to find work or they had been offered a job and had been forced to begin that job by working from home.
The pandemic has affected us all in different ways and young people are increasingly looking for employers that value wellness in the workplace.
Are you a company that promotes the physical and mental health of your employees? What strategies do you have in place to make sure your employees know their physical and positive mental health is valued?
Make sure you are a company that promotes mindfulness and wellness in your job ads and in your company branding so that you become a company that young people really want to work for.
Having a team of staff who are in good mental and physical health is beneficial to you as an employer as well as being beneficial to your staff. You will have a more productive team who feel valued and will therefore be more likely to remain in their roles for some time to come.
Comprehensive Training And Staff Development
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it has taught many of us how to be proactive and adapt to challenging situations and the unknown.
As we come out of the pandemic, many employers will be looking for ways to be more adaptable.
Young people are also looking for a breadth of experience in the workplace rather than working in – and training in – one particular role.
Give your young staff the opportunity to experience different departments of your company through work shadowing or working with mentors. Invest in their training and development so that they can earn further qualifications and also gain a broader understanding not just of their specific role but about how the company runs as a whole.
A broader range of skills and experience for your staff benefits your company as well as benefiting them. If your staff have experience of working in different areas of the company, this makes your company more resilient. In times of staff shortages or in busy periods where there is a bigger workload, your team will be able to adapt and work as a team to cover these temporary periods.
Inclusivity And Diversity In The Workplace
In 2022, young socially aware people are looking to work for a company that takes inclusivity and diversity seriously and they will want to see evidence of this before choosing whether or not to apply for your roles.
When you are updating your job adverts, make sure you are branding your company as being a diverse and inclusive place to work.
A few words in your advert are no longer enough. You will need to be able to back up what you say. Give your young potential candidates evidence of what you are staying by directing them to your website. Have you got statistics or any initiatives that you can direct them to?
Be the forward thinking company that young people want you to be. Inclusivity and diversity are right up there for young people when they are choosing which companies to apply to.
A Role That Offers Fair Pay
In 2022, young people are looking for roles that offer them fair financial compensation for their work.
In a previous article, we asked the question, are you paying your employees enough?
Especially for smaller companies where you might not be in a position to have a specific HR team to manage pay scales and staff development, for example, this can be a tough decision to make.
You need to be able to make a profit as a company but you also need to be able to pay your staff a fair wage for the role that they are doing.
Staff who feel their pay is fair for the role they do are likely to be more productive and have higher morale, therefore driving the success of your company forward. So, fair pay is a win win situation for both employer and employee.
Advertise Your Job Vacancies With e4s
If you are looking to attract a diverse range of young applicants to your job vacancies, placing your job advert with e4s will give you a targeted audience.
Getting the right people to fill your roles – whether they be Apprenticeships, graduate programmes or part time and seasonal entry level jobs for students – will boost your staff retention and productivity in the future.
