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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
The rules have changed. No longer can companies relax and rely on their name brand to attract and retain top young talent. Gen-Y workers want engaging work and a relaxed environment. And we want to be treated like we are (dare I say it?) special.
Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae contains 14 marketing trends that no marketing professional can afford to miss. More importantly, it claims that the rules for marketing have changed drastically. Godin describes the difference between old marketing, disrupting an audience with a product they aren’t looking for, and new marketing, bringing a product to the exact community or niche that is looking for it.
But here’s the best part: the new rules for marketers capture perfectly the new rules for recruiting and retaining Gen-Y. Employers can’t afford to ignore these new rules if they want to recruit and retain top employees.
Here are how the first three trends from the book relate to recruiting.
Direct communication and commerce between producers and consumers
The recruiter’s company is the producer. Your potential employees are the consumers. Your potential employees want to know when they will hear from you after the interview, and they expect you to meet that deadline. I can’t tell you how many people I talk to who interviewed for a job where they were supposed to hear back within three days. Often, weeks later they still haven’t heard back. And it’s not just the ones who were turned down; many of these people end up receiving an offer a week or two later than promised.
This is unacceptable. If your company can not hold itself accountable to your potential superstar employees, your employees will see little reason to be accountable to the company, and they are less likely to take the job.
Set up a shared calendar that each interviewer will use to record the mandatory response deadline. Make sure one person is in charge of reminding each interviewer to respond to the candidate they interviewed.
Also, it’s essential that the person who interviewed the recruit sends a follow-up email (this should be easy because any smart candidate will immediately send a thank you). This is direct commerce between you (the producer) and me (the consumer). If there are extenuating circumstances, it’s fine to send an email explaining why you don’t have an answer.
Amplification of the voice of the consumer and independent authorities
In Meatball Sundae, Godin tells the reader to do a Google search on “Dell Hell.” Do this and you’ll see Jeff Jarvis’ name all over the place, and you’ll quickly see the power a consumer can have on a brand. Well, guess what? There are quite a few potential employees that can have that same power.
You never know who, but some interviewee is bound to have a big-time blog or a few deep online connections. Therefore, your company needs to treat every single employee and recruit with an extremely high level of respect. It doesn’t matter if they’re a VP or an intern, everyone should be treated with equal respect.
And you must make sure to answer every email. Make sure someone is in charge of personally replying to every inquiry from a potential recruit or disgruntled employee. It’s basic customer service, but it’s also marketing and brand management. And we all know how important that is.
If you do happen to piss off the wrong “independent authority,” take a hint from Dell and own up to your mistake in a public forum. Go straight to the source. Join the blog conversation. Apologize for whatever you did, and don’t make excuses.
Need for an authentic story as the number of sources increases
You cannot tell a recruit that they will be on the fast track to making partner after two years if 99 percent of employees never make it!
One of those people who didn’t make it is bound to know someone who knows someone who told your recruit (on their blog) that the company works you to the bone for two years. And the only way to make partner is to give up your personal life for those years.
After you make your story authentic, you need to actually tell some stories! Stories are sticky, while job responsibilities, salaries, and bonuses are not. Tell your recruits a few first-hand accounts of what people have done and where they have gone since joining the firm.
If it’s true that a new employee gives up two years of a social life to get on the track to partner, tell a story about how someone did it, and why it’s worth it. Some people actually want that type of job. Besides, you should only want to hire someone who knows exactly what they’re getting into.
These are the first three trends that no marketer (and no employer) can afford to ignore in today’s work environment. Stay tuned for the next 11 trends in the coming weeks.
Re: Amplification of the voice of the consumer and independent authorities…
Thats a load of crap actually. Responding to every single employee and interviewee disgruntlement depending on company size and other characteristics is time spent uselessly chasing your tail. Jumping into the fray of someone trashing your company can often hurt the company more than it helps it.
The real skill for companies is know who to respond to and when to respond, not just responding in blanket form to everything.
As for being blindsided by an employee with a huge blog or internet voice…companies should remember that the internet works both ways (most good ones do) and do some research on a person’s online presence the minute they review their resume.
It’s interesting how you say “some interviewee is bound to have a big-time blog.” It’s as though employers ought to treat interviews as though they are on trial, as well as the interviewee. As though any one of these candidates might be the food critic to their restaurant, or even the health inspector.
In my opinion, this is just another great reason to have a blog. If one has those sorts of connections, or that popular blog, then they are a lot more likely to actually be hired, based on their own proven record of success.
These trends Ryan, seem to be pushing for a respect level that is rarely seen in any workplace, let alone the corporate world. However, it is absolutely vital that we attain it. Generation Y is born with a sense of entitlement not seen in past generations. We feel entitled to respect, and to a job that we like. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, either.
I look forward to seeing the new trends.
These are all good reasons for employers to start communicating with next gen candidates on their turf. They NEED to start using blogs, podcasts, Youtube, Social Networks to engage job seekers and brand themselves better. Your ’story’ analogy is spot on.
Brad - I disagree. It’s not time wasted. It’s certainly not quantifiable, which is why corporations don’t do it, but simply treating everyone with respect is the single best way to market your company. You can’t pick and choose who you respond to, because you don’t know who everyone really is, and you can’t make assumptions. You do have a good point about reviewing people’s online presence though.
Todd - It’s funny you say that, I think Seth Godin actually mentions that everyone is now the most important food critic in the city. These trends are all about respect. And why shouldn’t everyone be treated with respect?
When companies start to realize that attracting candidates is really all about marketing, they will be ahead of the curve.
Just a couple of comments:
Your potential employees want to know when they will hear from you after the interview, and they expect you to meet that deadline.
I don’t think this has anything to do with being a millennial, it’s just respect for the interviewee. I interviewed with a big time financial company (I won’t disclose the three letters in their name) who handled my application absolutely horribly. After I submitted the app, I waited until the job posting deadline hit and then called for an estimate. I was told about a week and I’d hear for an interview…I was asked 2 weeks later to come in. So, I did, because my expectations were still high. Interviewed with HR, went great, took some stupid tests and was above the 95th percentile in all of them. Left with the understanding that I’d be hearing by the end of the week if I’d be coming in to meet the manager…that definitely didn’t happen. I got a call 2 weeks later to come in. I had actually just that day received an offer, and figured I’d at least check it out and maybe it’d provide some leverage, it was worth a shot, so I went. Manager went great, love my background, took me around to meet a bunch of people I’d potentially be working with, went over pay etc, and explained it was down to 3 people, and she’d be making a choice that week. I was guaranteed that I’d hear back if I did or did not get the job. With only 3 people, I assumed it wouldn’t be that difficult.
Apparently it was, because I never heard back. The job I had already all but accepted paid almost 33% more, and was a better fit, but the point is that it was handled horribly.
“Tell your recruits a few first-hand accounts of what people have done and where they have gone since joining the firm.”
This is, without a doubt, the biggest oversight by corporate management. And it applies to millennials, but it’s not a millennial specific problem. I hear the same complaints echoed from coworkers in their 40s. Management had a hard time providing any examples and highlights of what the position makes you qualified for, what kind of people would want you with this experience, etc. I’m not asking for an individual roadmap, but give me something to work with.
The only way I have been able to get that kind of guidance is through specific one on one discussions with my manager and discussions with managers from other teams that I have developed a good rapport with. I really fail to see the reason behind the failure here.
@Ryan
I wasn’t saying to pick and choose based on who the person is, I was saying pick and choose based on what the problem is and its scope. Chasing endless nonessential and small employee and interviewee problems and inquiries leads to a diminishing returns situation.
Sorry if that got crossed with the second part of my previous comment.
The recruiter’s company is the producer. Your potential employees are the consumers.
You know, I’m not willing to buy this quite yet. Yeah yeah, “The War for Talent” is on, but with the economy being what it is right now, the boomers don’t seem to be retiring at the rate once feared, and companies aren’t filling the vacancies that do exist. There are still more talented people than open positions, and that makes the potential employee the “producer” and the company the “consumer.”
I agree that these roles are eventually going to switch–they have before and they will again–but by the time it does, GenY will have spouses, kids, mortgages, and a much lower tolerance for risk. I suspect that whoever follows GenY will be the real “consumer”.
That said, there’s a lot of common sense, common courtesy advice in this article that I hope will resonate for hiring managers.
Ryan, sometimes your articles chase me around all day; I love that. One more thing I thought of since posting late last night. I mentioned above that the generation that follows GenY might end up being the real “consumer” workforce, but it occurs to me that I’ve heard tell of a “baby boomlet” in that generation. That may in fact introduce a new infusion of workers to the marketplace, which puts us back at square one: more people than jobs, and the power in the hands of the corporations.
I still say that potential employees’ best bet is to make sure we know what our value proposition is for any potential employer, and to be able to articulate it clearly and simply. It helps to maintain the initiative and to expect not to be courted. Sometimes hiring decisions and timelines are more complicated than you realize, and being combative only pays in the short term, if at all. The squeaky wheel may get the grease, as the adage goes, but at some point, that squeaky wheel is just going to get replaced.
Sean - Thanks, that’s a great compliment! The baby boomlet that you’re talking about is actually part of Gen-Y. Obviously, it depends on whose definition you are using, but Gen-Y is also referred to as Echo Boomers, implying the same thing as the baby boomlet.
There already are a ton more people coming into the workforce, the reason there wont be more people than jobs is because Gen-X is so small compared to the boomers. So, unless the boomers never retire (which is possible) there will be plenty of jobs and plenty of people.
Great point about knowing your value proposition. That is probably the most important skill/knowledge you can have, especially as an entry level worker.
-Ryan