Attracting Millennial Candidates in a Job Seeker’s Market

By Chris Castillo, Millennial Career Coach and Corporate Trainer

With a booming job market, it’s a great time to be a job-hunter. That said, as hiring managers, it can be more and more challenging to attract great talent. There are so many opportunities out there! How do you ensure that millennials will want to work for your company?

Since employees are a key asset of a business, here are a few tips for attracting millennial talent:

Have room for growth. A company with room for career development is a must-have for young employees. Especially as more millennials are considering the path of entrepreneurship, having a company that allows them to develop long-term skills is crucial. Sit down with your employees and ask them how they want to grow their careers. If they’re not as interested in their current path, try and find another way for them to do more fulfilling work internally. As a business, be sure to share these stories. By highlighting employees’ abilities to design their careers, you’ll draw attention from more job-seekers.

Emphasize a culture of transparency. Since many job-seekers have their choice of several opportunities, culture is becoming a larger factor in decisions. If you have internal processes to share feedback with the senior leadership team, or a flat organizational structure, be sure to mention these perks in interviews. A culture of candor is paramount, so if you have this, you’ll certainly stand out from the crowd.

Invest in your managers. An employee’s manager has a huge impact - as the old adage says, it’s often what keeps (or repels) them at a company. With that in mind, it’s important to know that your management team is up to the task. Unfortunately, often I hear from clients about managers who don’t really know how to manage; they’ve never been trained to do it and are simply in a managerial role because they kept getting promotions. This is not what we want. We want managers who have been trained on developing their employees and realize that this is a central part of their role . By investing in your management team, you’re more likely to attract and retain great talent.

There are so many complex factors when it comes to retention and company culture, but if you start by truly investing in your employees and their career satisfaction, I’m certain that you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results.