I was tapped on the shoulder at a bar in Mission Valley, California, and asked what it takes to move a traditional manufacturing company—with a conservative approach to policies, politics and principles—into a more aggressive position so they can hire more Millennials through social media tools. The company blocks access to Twitter and Facebook—which is timely because so does China and Iran. That’s awesome company to keep.
Anyway, I hate answering a question with a question [or series of questions], but here’s where I want to start the discussion.
- Why does your company think it needs to hire millennials? I support succession planning & developing the next generation of talent, but we are in a recession and the labor pool is deep and wide with Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. It’s great to hire a young and energetic employee; however, I think many companies make the mistake of trying to develop MBA programs and rotational programs without realizing that every job is temporary. I remember laughing when other ‘chump companies’ would invest in a new employee for a few years, train them, and I hired them away in their late 20s and early 30s when they were still cheap enough—but they had some great skills.
- Why do you think you need to use social media tools to hire millennials? Sure, job seekers under 30 are on social media sites—but so is my mother-in-law who is seventy-five years old. This is what I learned at the social recruiting summit: demonstrate a commitment to fresh ideas and new ways of thinking. Connect with existing consumers, future clients, and potential employees. Just don’t hop on the internet and expect young kids to apply for a job because your company has a Twitter account.
- Why would you want to hire someone who uses social media sites when your company blocks those sites? An authentic social media strategy should align with the mission, vision and values of your company. If you block Facebook and other sites at work, your ideal candidate may not even be on those sites. Furthermore, you might be punished in the marketplace for overstating your commitment to these emerging technologies.
Other thoughts? Advice? Dissenting ideas? What’s your perspective as a job seeker for this company?
{ 1 trackback }
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you make a great point here – why hire a Millennial when you could get an Xer?
I like young people. And I realize how hard it is to start up your career in an economy like this, because I graduated from college in 1993 (bad economy). But if I was someone who did the hiring, I’d go for the Xer because:
1) The tech skills are there
2) You don’t have to deal with the bravado everyone goes through in their 20s
3) You’ll probably keep them longer, because Xers are knee-deep in parenting and changing jobs when you have kids can be a real pain.
4) Someone else has broken them in for you.
5) The economy is in the toilet, so you can probably hire an Xer for less than you think.
I agree wholly. Understand your company culture and recruit people who can fit into it and thrive in it.
Now that we’ve generalized Gen Xer’s and Millennials, here’s some real advice. We’re young and full of energy, but you don’t bring us in to “change” the culture. If you’re bringing us in to a stuffy environment with lots of policies and restrictions, you’ll suffocate us before you have a chance to see any real results… not to mention the potential of alienating current staff with a bunch of hipsters.
If you want to attract younger talent, start with changing your work environment. We’ll be right behind you.
Great post Laurie! I recently blogged about Millennials and ran into some similar questions.
1. I agree. Yes, I would love to stand up and say you should hire Millennials but the economic job market is terrible and the job seeker pool is vast with qualified professionals, regardless of generation.
2. I agree. Frequently you hear about companies on the news or see it for yourself online – they decide that they will create a Facebook account because it will “bring them more business and recruits.” And that is that. What they lack is the strategy necessary to do all of this! It doesn’t happen over night! On the other hand, this company would have to do more than just the social media thing – they are moving from a traditional manufacturing company with conservative policies, politics and prinicples (I just threw up a little in my mouth.). That is not appealing to most Millenials, we want a casual yet professional work enviroment – among much more.
3. I agree with this. Why use social media for recruiting when you block it at work. Some companies have their employees use Facebook and Twitter while at work to gain more exposure. (example: Bernard Hodes Group) On the other hand, what do you mean by being punished in the marketplace? Can you elaborate?
On a sarcastic note, in response to GenerationXpert’s comments, check out my post “Generation Why?” over at http://www.hrgumbo.com for another perspective.
Don’t even get me started on being determined to hire outside the company culture.
The last FT job I had was working for a company owned and run by a ultra-conservative bible-thumper. He blocked all internet usage outside our company site and intranet. There was a dress code: No bare arms, no tattoos, no jeans, no capri pants, no facial hair, etc. Grey metal desks, no posters or non-work-related cube personalization allowed.
But I was directed to develop a social media presence that would target the young, the hip, the outside-the-box thinkers.
I don’t know how many times I asked the owner what he planned to do with these millenials once their interest had been piqued. I mean, really–without a plan that involved a Grimm’s fairytale witch and some pretty beefy padlocks, they weren’t going to remain in an environment that stifling.
They’ve since gone out of business, that company. Big surprise.
Totally, totally, TOTALLY agree with #3 and with Elise. There’s nothing dumber than a company whose recruitment strategy resembles those internet dating people who use photos of their younger, cuter siblings or something.
I also hate the whole concept of targeting people based on the arbitrary “generation” to which they’ve been assigned. Hire qualified people. Period.
This is us: —–> “….If you block Facebook and other sites at work….” Then again, until I got here 3 years ago, only a select few EEs were allowed internet access and the ability to email into/out of the organization. I was dumbfounded.
But – FF to today – now our Marketing Dept has been contemplating a FB page and possibly Twitter (and it would totally fit for our customers and line of business). When I said to the planning group (Marketing, PR, IT) “then we need to unblock FB for our EEs” they didn’t understand why that would be necessary. “They’ll waste time! They won’t be working if they can be on FB all day!”
“How”, asked I, “can our EEs answer questions and mirror the company’s social media message if they can’t even view what the customer is viewing/reading?” (**crickets**)
“Oh, ” said they, “we never thought of that.”
All great questions, and I second Kerry’s comment about hiring qualified people, period, rather than hiring based generation or facility with social media. As a university professor, I would also caution anyone against assuming that recent college grads have any great facility with “technology” just because they’re Millennials or recent college grads. Sure, they’re good at updating their MyFaceSpace pages and texting during class, but I can’t get them to put page numbers on Word documents. (When I fight them about it, they tell me other professors don’t expect page numbers.) When I expect them to participate regularly in a class blog or update a class wiki for a group project, they tell me they resent having to spend so much time online.
Yeah, I’m a little burnt-out. Can you tell that the school year just ended last week? Yay for summer vacation.
every job is temporary – HooRah!, glad someone said it.
And the companies know it in their hearts – in engineering “Must have DOORS”
A half-day training session and you have DOORS. If it was two weeks training – no?
So we have now determined what investment I am worth to you. Base pay divided by ~3600 = 1/2 days pay. So I’m worth less than a car payment, up front, before you even meet me. Go ahead and give me that Career speech again.
Yet every job hunting website (and they are probably correct) says do your research so the company will understand your commitment to working for them.
And the real advantage (nod to arbitrary gen division comment) of hiring older workers is they are in debt. They will continue to show up and work no matter how awful your workplace.
Kind of on-topic as in how do you get/keep good employees: I worked for an old mfg company that kept losing professional women (clerical women couldn’t afford to quit, usually) in the 30s once they’d had kids. Why, why, why? they would ask in frustration.
I suggested that perhaps they could retain that talent if they offered part-time professional work.
Oh, that would NEVER work! What about their benefits? What about office space?
Never mind that across town, FedEx was doing just fine by halving the time, pay and benefits of moms who wanted a more flexible schedule. People wanted to work at FedEx. They weren’t exactly breaking down the door at International Paper.
An ongoing debate among engineering firms located “undesirable” places has always been – telecommute.
“Oh no – how would we, how could we, what would we…”
Well…you were willing to outsource overseas? But you cannot figure out how to manage with No language barrier, minimal time zone shift, constant communication, monitoring software?
I used to tell companies – do not outsource what you do not do well – because you have to master doing something before you can remotely supervise it.
Now I wonder if the corollary is outsourcing/telecommuting successfully IS the test of whether you were actually managing in house in the first place?
If you want to attract the best employees here’s the formula: pay people well, treat them well.
That’s it.
Simple.
Along with Puffinstuff I have to add, I worked for a firm that simple begged to be eaten by GE. At every level.
I finally closeted my manager and asked why.
Turns out they deeply admired the MANAGEMENT of GE.
So the only way we are going to manage well is being acquired?
The same question revolves around this post – So the only way to change your culture is through hiring?
So depending on your generation (See – I did bring it back!)
We are all the pointy haired boss – Scott Adams
We have met the enemy and He is Us – Walt Kelly
Regardless of the generation, it is not that hard to attract great talent for your companies (in good or bad economy). Social media and other new fads are just tools, some will become mainstream and some will fade away. What does not fade away are simple 3 rules to attracting great talent:
1. Treat current employees well and they will promote your company to other great talent
2. See #1
3. See #1
If your own people won’t help you look for new talent, than you know you have a problem. Better address it first, before you waste more money on fads.
Answering a question with a question(s) isn’t always a bad thing. It was good enough for Socrates. You did an excellent job of nailing the broader issues surrounding the initial question.
#3 is spot-on. I wouldn’t work for a company that blocks such sites; silliness. As a Gen Yer, #1 bothers me, but you make a good argument.
Makes sense…As a millennial, I get pretty worried about the tough job market. It is really crucial for millennial’s to stand out from the crowd and I found OneCubicle.com to be a great tool for us millennials.
OneCubicle.com is a great tool for college students that are on their first, second and third job. It is a social networking website that is like a hybrid of LinkedIn and Facebook that allows you to network with other students, like-minded professionals as well as recruiters while also allowing you to find cool jobs. It is a great way to brand yourself online. Don’t lose hope Gen Yers!
The cynic in me wonders if they wanted to hire through social media “tools” so they could avoid paying recruiter fees…
Agreed. If it doesn’t fit with your current culture, don’t do it. It will seems forced and not thought out (with good reason). FB fan pages and getting Tweet-hearts to follow you is not going to change company culture, of course. Unless you ARE a social media company, I guess…
On a side note, my aunt recently made an FB profile “for work” and kept her original one as “personal” – trying to seperate the two can be trick. Do yall do this? I’m contemplating it….
@KFPinHR I don’t keep two separate accounts and I don’t advocate it. It’s too much work, and frankly, it never works out. Why don’t you just exercise some boundaries? Facebook allows you to control access you give to certain readers, and you can always decline requests from friends and your boss. http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/02/12/facebook-friend-your-boss/
@Nevin You’re not a cynic. That’s exactly the reason why.
@Mai I only approved your comment to show an example of inauthentic comments. Entrepreneurs — don’t do this. Mai, if you’d like to advertise on my blog, you can contact me at punkrockhr@gmail.com
@Productivity I’m at the very end of Gen X and I think some of these generational issues are bogus; however, I think people should focus on hiring talent. Talent transcends generations.
@Greg Thanks. I’m no Socrates but I like your comment.
@Apollo You’re right about employees becoming evangelical. That’s so critical to this whole discussion, yo.
@GenX I totally agree, but I really hope Gen Xers opt out and take unemployment for awhile rather than work for a shitty company.
@HRPuter Thanks. Culture is everything, isn’t it?
@Allen Or how about this? If you want to attract talent in general, young or old, let’s all act like adults and stop pretending like we’re going to achieve nirvana through a job. Not. Gonna. Happen.
@Stephen I’ll let you and GenXpert go back and forth. I love her.
@Elise Maybe that was God’s plan?
@Kerry I’m gonna barf if I hear another social media strategy based on a plan to hire anything other than talented people.
@Rool You are an example of how asking questions and pushing management can change the company’s approach. Good job.
@Elle God I hate kids. God forbid you demand page numbers. My response would be, “Just shut up and do it or drop the class.”
@Emmett That is so cynical (re: debt) but kind of true (unfortunately). The closer you are to your retirement, the more you realize the crushing burden of debt. It’s sad.
@Class God forbid we try something new, right? I’m glad you made the suggestion and it’s too bad the reception to your idea was so poor.
@Puf Dude, why do I even write this blog? You nailed it. I couldn’t say it better, myself.
Ok, I’ve read the intro paragraph and I’m already laughing. Hold on… I’ll be back.
I just want to say ditto to most of the comments. @ roolvoel – I totally agree. Thinking that a SM strategy is the way to go when you won’t provide access to current employees …. yeah, not going to work. How are your employees going to be your brand messengers? Are you going to be managing your SM “after-hours”? It’s amazing to me how scared companies still are when it comes to SM. Instead of looking at the possibilities, many seem to only be able to focus on the negative “What if… ?