In his first blog on Millennials, How to Recruit Millennials for B2B Sales, recruitment expert Chris Carlson touched on how Millennials in the workplace are different from previous generations. In this second preview blog for his upcoming July 30th webinar, Chris shares how the most talented of Millennials approach a job search. In the webinar, Chris will leave you with several actionable insights into how to attract the best and brightest B2B sales candidates.
“Today, job seekers are using social and mobile to apply for jobs and gain insight into a company’s culture and values. Ignoring these platforms isn’t an option.”
2015 Jobvite Survey
Passive vs. Active Job Seekers
It’s important to distinguish between passive and active job seekers. Our own recruiting experience has shown us that the most talented of sales professionals (and our most successful placements) come from the passive category. Buyer behavior is radically different when a potential candidate already has a solid job. They have something to lose which makes them more skeptical.
With active job seekers, we find that they are often unemployed or trying to get out of a bad situation. Accordingly, their vetting process is usually far less thorough, they’re eager to move through the interview process quickly (further inhibiting their ability to determine if an opportunity is a match) and they concern themselves less with potential red flags (such as a pattern of poor Glassdoor reviews). After all, they really need/want a new position. With that in mind, this blog is geared towards understanding the behaviors of passive candidates.
Social Networks & Employment Branding
I believe that close to 100% of job searches by Millennials in the U.S. today includes a heavy element of online research and discovery. Research by Marketo confirms this with their finding that 93% of consumers start their buying journey online. Linkedin’s research confirms my own experience that people treat their career search decisions the same way that they treat any other purchase decision.
How this plays out with passive candidates is rather straightforward. Before they agree to an interview with a potential employer, their first stop is to research the company’s online presence and online reputation. What they find there will likely be their biggest consideration when deciding whether or not they’d like to interview. If you’re a hiring manager that feels like the candidates that you’re interviewing are the best of the worst, you may have your reason. In my view – If your online “employment brand” is broken; your candidate funnel is broken.
“47 percent of Millennials now say a prospective employer’s online reputation matters as much as the job it offers.”
Survey by Spherion Staffing
Millennials are Mobile
- 21% of Millennials almost exclusively use a mobile device to go online. (Source – comScore Media Metrix)
- Over 50% of social media usage is conducted from a mobile device. (Source – eMarketer)
- 46% of consumers won’t return to a webpage if it doesn’t load properly on their mobile device (Source – Gomez research)
Social Proof
I introduced in my previous blog on Millennials that questioning is the norm and social proof is key. I’d like to back that up with data. According to extensive surveying by the Nielsen Group less than 20% of consumers trust companies’ claims. Conversely,
92% of consumers trust peer reviews.
- > 50% of job seekers in the U.S. now use the site at some point in their career search.
- 2/3rds of Glassdoor users are Millennials.
- 2/3rds of reviews are positive and the average company rating is a 3.2 (out of 5 stars).
- 89% of Glassdoor users in a recent Glassdoor survey reported that they find the employer’s perspective useful when deciding where to work.
- In that same survey, 69% of users shared that their perception of the company improves when the employer responds to a review.