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It’s Only Common Sense: Hiring—The New World Order

Let me start with some facts: Boomers wanted jobs for life. They wanted security. Remember when working at the post office was a great career choice because you would have a job for life? Comedian and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David likes to tell the story about how disappointed his mother was that he did not take the civil service test again to get a job as a postman. Even after he was working on Seinfeld!

Remember when people got a job and held onto it for dear life? I knew many people in large corporations who were miserable the last 20 years of their work life, but they hung on for the sake of that pension. Wow! That one really scared me.

There was very little thought to doing what you loved back then. No, you simply got a job that paid well enough to put food on the table and a roof over your head—and you learned to like it.

Boomers were raised by the Greatest Generation, the one that not only lived through World War II, but also lived through the Great Depression and knew what it was like when there really were no jobs. These parents were petrified of that ever happening again.

Their kids—the Boomers—grew up fighting for everything. There were so many of them that they had to fight to get into the right schools, for summer jobs, and for their first jobs. For example, go back to the company’s beginnings and you’ll see that McDonald’s only hired honor students; even worse, they only hired male honor students! It was a big deal when McDonald’s started hiring female honor students. Working at Mickey D’s was a big deal for Boomers when they were in high school. Everybody wanted to work there.

Fast forward to today when it is so much harder to hire good young people. They seem much more independent, always be looking for a perfect job they will love and that will interest them. They will only consider a job that suits them perfectly. They are, in fact, only interested in doing what they love. Who can blame them? When I hear my fellow Boomers denigrate them, it is pretty obvious to me that they’re just plain jealous.

There are a few good reasons for this. The most obvious is that when the Millennials (I hate that term, but I feel forced to use it for the sake of easily understandable communications) came of age there were 10 million fewer of them than when the Boomers came of age. The second reason is that there are many more jobs than there are young people to fill them. Third, they grew up in a much more secure environment. Fewer of them grew up worried about having a place to live and enough food to eat. They also grew up connected to a little device they held in their hand that allowed them to access all the information in the world—past, present and even insight into the future.

What does this mean to those companies who are frantically looking for the new generation to join their company? It simply means that they must get into a “sales mode.” Just like their sales and marketing departments are sales focused, a company’s HR group must become sales focused as well.

Our need for good, smart, young people is growing as the “Silver Tsunami” ages out of the workforce.

The fact is there are not enough young people to fill the job openings we currently have, not only in this country but around the world as well.

Companies must realize that they are in a serious competition for these young people, and they have to strategize accordingly. Here are few simple steps that you must take to successful recruit young people today.

1. Create a profile of the candidates you are looking for. What are the characteristics of your target candidates? List everything from education to life situation to off-hours activities.
2. Create a model for each job you are hiring for. Create a solid and informative position description for that job.
3. Create a vision for the future, not only for your company but also for the exact job you are hiring for. Show this vision to your candidates. Let them know the places they can go in your company. Not only your company but in your industry as well.
4. Provide opportunities for what is important to them. The companies that are most successful at hiring these days are companies with a social consciousness. What do you offer in terms of paid time off to do good works? (Okay, I can hear you groaning from all the way here in Maine.) Sorry, but this is a real way of life now. Whether you like it, social issues are very important to this new generation of the workforce and if you want to compete with other 21st century companies you are going to have to provide this to your new employees. They want to work for companies that are supporting programs to make the world a better place and they want the opportunity to participate in those programs. Remember, this is a new world order and you need to get with it.
5. Be flexible and have an open mind when meeting and interviewing young people. Remember that this is now a employees’ market. They have many choices and you are going to have to learn more about their needs. You will have to learn what they are looking for in an employer and you must find a way to accommodate those needs.

One final bit of advice would be for all HR departments to develop a strong, sales-focused method of finding and hiring—and retaining—the right people you already have on staff.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.