“Gen Y is the first generation of young people who expect their careers to align with their ability to achieve impact in the world,” said Tiffany Dufu, Chief Leadership Officer at Levo League. If you feel like it is hard to articulate how you will help Gen Y-ers achieve this goal at your company, you are not the only one.
Here are 7 tips that will help you engage and recruit top Gen Y women!
1. Find Gen Y where they are >> on Social Media
Many companies are getting creative with hiring, including using Twitter handles strictly for recruitment purposes. Levo showcases job opportunities on the @LevoJobs handle, but @LevoJobs goes beyond job postings and also posts career search content. Creating conversations online with such twitter handles will show that you not only know how to speak to the Gen Y audience, and but you also are willing to use innovative and creative methods to find them.
2. Make the language in your job posting appealing to Gen Y women!
As a recruiter, you understand that a candidate has a few seconds to impress you with their resume and cover letter. The same can also be said about candidates reading job postings. Excite them early! Go beyond discussing what they will be doing in their job. Who will they interact with? How will their work have a direct impact on the organization? What kind of flexibility will they be given? All of these questions are important to Gen Y women, and you can’t wait until you get them on the phone to tell them so.
3. Tap into the brains of your Gen Y talent
Talk with Gen Yers at your organization to hear their suggestions around recruiting and work with them to implement best practices. Young companies like Levo, who are built by Gen Y to target Gen Y, understand how to reach this audience because it is simply just reaching their peer group. Larger organizations can use the Gen Y talent within their own network to better understand women in this generation as well.
4. Go beyond the one denominational job posting
Gen Y-ers want to bring their personality to work. They want to work at a company where they feel their needs and desires are understood and where they feel like their job is an extension of who they are personally. Online company pages on websites like Levo provide a great way for a company to showcase its personality.
5. Make it clear you want someone who is passionate about their work
Gen Y women are told to find a job they are passionate about, and they are not going to stop looking until they find it. In Levo’s Office Hours with Rachel Book, Associate Director for Global Talent Attraction and Diversity at AT&T, Rachel reiterated this point by telling the Levo audience, “Life is too short to continue doing jobs that you are not passionate about.” By simply using the word “passionate” in a job posting, Gen Y women understand that you are looking for someone who loves that type of work, not just someone who checks the boxes.
6. Mentorship Access is Key
In a recent survey of the Levo audience, the majority stated that they find having a mentor at work extremely important. During the hiring process, show them that your company values mentorship and that you want to make sure they are matched with both peer mentors and a senior level mentor at work.
7. Utilize Companies who specialize in Gen Y Women
If hiring Gen Y women is a particular pain point, make sure to contact companies like Levo who specialize in reaching this audience. One of the reasons Levo was founded is because, as co-founder Caroline Ghosn stated, “There is a real need to recruit, retain and engage millennials. And there’s a huge gap in the labor market around our generation, specifically women.” Companies like Levo want to help you find Gen Y women, so don’t forget to talk with the experts.
As the largest destination for career driven, Gen Y women, Levo knows a thing or two about how to attract from this talent pool. Levo League, founded in 2012, is a career coaching site for young women that is designed to also help companies solve this problem. Take advantage of a special office and Post a Job to Levo League to receive 25% through March 27.
Ellen McKay is the Director of Business Development at Levo League. Lila Barton is the Sales Development Manager at Levo League.
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