The HR World has teamed up with the University of Bristol (UoB) to host Culture Clash, a panel debate on what SMEs and corporates need to know about attracting emerging talent. Here, Rob Taffinder, assistant director of UoB’s Careers Service makes the case for the young – what they need and, crucially, what they are not currently getting.
The talk in recruitment right now is all about the war on talent. But there is one key area we’re curiously silent on – the fundamental generational disconnect in how we are looking to attract talent in the future. It’s time to accept the old ways of doing things are no longer fit for purpose. We must radically rethink both our attitudes and approaches. At universities nationwide this year, student engagement with employers has dropped. In a world of digital seminars, young people haven’t logged on in the way employers have come to expect in the drive to attract fresh blood. Exhausted by a pandemic and busy with study they’ve often had to negotiate alone, young people have been hard to reach. Many are also putting off career decisions until after they’ve crossed the degree finish line.
Drop in economic prosperity
But this isn’t just another Covid quirk. Underpinning this trend are the far deeper currents governing how young people now live their lives – and it’s these that companies, however large or small, must better adapt to. Too often, the talk in recruitment centres on the younger generation coming into business. But let’s start instead with those at the top of it – Baby Boomer or Generation X leaders who came of age without social media, the luxury of realistic house prices and an acceptance of anything from paternalistic to exploitative corporate culture. Put simply? We are now anachronisms when it comes to attracting future talent. And we must start to meaningfully empathise with the vastly different realities that young people are now coming of age with. Practically, they have more career choices than ever before. It’s a huge opportunity for them. But it’s also overwhelming. Financially, they are aware that the Millennials who came before them are the first generation to experience a drop in economic prosperity.
A sharp lesson
Psychologically, they can no longer live in blissful ignorance of the progression, promotions and pay rises of their peers thanks to social media. Add in the sharp lesson, at a relatively young age, about just how fragile what we’ve long taken for granted can be and it’s a perfect storm that employers must now skillfully navigate. We can start by acknowledging a fundamental psychological shift in the emerging talent we are trying to recruit. Just as Maslow said, there is a Hierarchy of Needs that motivates them. But, with rising food costs and energy prices, stagnant wages and ever-rising house prices, those entering the workforce today are facing a far more complex dance to meet even the most basic of needs.
All this certainly makes them willing to be more demanding of employers than ever before. But it is a misnomer to say that Generation Z is entitled.
Punishing landscape
They aspire to what older generations did – namely, security, lifestyle, home ownership and job satisfaction. But amid the punishing landscape they must now negotiate, they are understandably more bullish in their salary expectations and prepared to move jobs to achieve them. They’ve also come of age in a culture that is far more questioning about what motivates companies – and their leaders. Many young people have the sense that neither really cares about them. Gone are the days when those entering the workforce felt they had found an employer that would guide them parentally through life. They are consequently more individualistic about realising their aspirations. But still the attitude persists that talent is a resource – not an asset. And this manifests itself in a thousand tiny details – the expectation that graduate employees will stay for years and a sense of grievance when they don’t, or a distinct lack of curiosity about what drives the very people we’re trying to attract.
Investing in tomorrow’s talent
It’s crucial that companies focus on the time and effort they are investing in tomorrow’s talent. Increasing links with young people in local communities is key. Recruitment tomorrow is about laying the groundwork for long-term relationships today. To be an attractive employer to diverse talent, you need to demonstrate why young people would want to work for you and this starts with relationship building at a far earlier point in their lives. Greater focus is also needed at the early stages of careers. Those moving into the workforce are experiencing a far more rapid rate of change now than ever before. Technology is ever-relentless, the pandemic has radically shifted the practical ways in which many work – from physical spaces to a variety of hybrid working models.
But still we expect new recruits to hit the ground running. They’re young, they can do it surely? Well no. They need more support.
