In the meantime most of us realised how important employer branding is for a company’s recruiting success. Surveys such as “HR strategy and organisation 2012/2013” by Kienbaum even confirm this fact. But on the question what makes an employer attractive differ not only the opinions but also the generations. While generation X is focused on traditional values like career and salary, generation Y is more concerned about their work-life-balance, exciting tasks and a pleasant working atmosphere with flat hierarchies.
Even in their communication style the two generations are different: Grown up with the internet generation Y prefers virtual, mobile and collaborative work and life. They are used to communicate every time and everywhere and expect the same behaviour from everyone else. So if you want to attract the digital natives with your employer branding strategy you should take the following advices into consideration:
Employer branding generation Y advice 1: social media & mobile recruiting
One of the most important marketing rules is: fish where the fishes are! This means for the generation Y: social media networks. If you present your company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or XING and if you communicate it authentically, emotionally and in a personal way you strike the digital natives’ chord. Please note that social media are not an advertising channel but live of interaction. This means you need to enter into a dialogue with your followers or fans and, what is most important, you always need to react quickly on their questions and comments. The people of that generation are online all the time – thanks to their smartphones – and they expect you to be there too. That’s also the reason for you to set up a mobile version of your online presence.
Employer branding generation Y advice 2: authentic communication
Whatever generation you want to reach with your employer branding campaign: Being authentic always needs to be your main goal as you would like to establish a long term relationship with your candidates and future employees. Without the right corporate fit your relationship does not have a future. So be honest about your corporate culture and all relevant details of your job ads and the recruiting process. The generation Y sets great value upon being authentic: they don’t want to communicate with faceless companies that fob them off with senseless business phrases. Make your company profiles personal: A unique corporate language is as important as to communicate a personal contact person – especially on corporate social media accounts!
Employer branding generation Y advice 3: show, don’t tell
Your marketing department might talk 24/7 about how wonderful it is to work for your company but it only gets trustworthy if you really show how it is to work for you. Using recruiting videos in which your employees play a role is a good way to create attention – pictures are worth a thousand words. An employees’ blog on your career website is another great possibility to give personal and authentic insights in your company.
