What is GenZ?
I know there are multiple definitions of Gen Z and the years they are born. In this article, however, we’ll focus on the definition of Gen Z who were born between 1997 - 2012. This means that Gen Z is the generation where they could easily connect to the web on their mobile device by the time they were teens.
Stereotypes
I know what you’re thinking. GenZ is lazy, has a short attention span, is addicted to their phones and tends to multitask. So why should you need them professionally?
Their tech addiction helps you because they will adapt to any new platform within minutes. Even if you don't have a handover or a manual. Trust me, they will figure it out. They will google it, YouTube it, and TikTok it, and they will find an answer.
“When you hire a Gen Z employee, while it might be something you’ve not seen before, you’ll see a much more efficient way of working.” As an example, I have seen an Instagram reel where a GenZ intern was asked to get 50 sheets of blank paper for their supervisor and they brought 50 sheets of blank warm paper. When the supervisor asked why it was warm, it was because the GenZ intern had printed out 50 sheets of paper instead of sitting and counting 50 sheets of paper. And I assure you, they were probably listening to a new album while exporting Word documents to PDFs on their computer at the same time.
All their traits help them be time efficient, more productive, and quick to adapt to new environments. You’ll always get a light bulb ding in your head when working with a GenZ.
Be Where the GenZ is
Basically, you need visual content instead of long texts (ie. short effective job descriptions with emojis, and video testimonials instead of article interviews.
Emojis
As a true GenZ, I’ll judge a job description by the vibes it's giving. “It’s all about the vibe” Is it giving “pick me” energy or more “slay queen” energy? If we’re interested, we’ll immediately look up the careers website, try to search if they’ve got an Instagram account, and even start a LinkedIn search on current employees BEFORE applying for the job.
Job Descriptions need to be visually appealing so that your GenZ candidate can visually imagine what a day in the life of the role would look like. In other words, I need to be interested in the job description enough to look up who you are. Using emojis in your descriptions will truly help GenZ talent read until the end of the job description.
You may be thinking “Emojis really? It’s unprofessional” but hear me out, it helps humanize your job post. Take a look at examples of potential texts from your boss:
Text 1: “ Tom, great job on the new hire, it’s only week one and she has adapted very quickly.”
Text 2: “ Tom, great job on the new hire it’s only week one and she has adapted very quickly ”
I’d say most of you feel that the second text makes you feel closer to getting a phone call on how good of a job you did compared to the first text. Would you be reading this article until this paragraph if I hadn’t used emojis throughout.
Seeing a tiny animated image instead of a bullet point helps your talent market even read the “About Us” Section! Emojis aren’t just cute, they also help eliminate gender bias words such as “fireman” or “ salesman” delivering a more widely accepted job description.
In addition, GenZs aren’t aiming for senior management roles just yet. You CAN use emojis. You are not hiring Vice Presidents and Directors out of your GenZ talent pool. On top of that, emojis WILL increase your CTR rates! Even if the role was something they weren’t looking for, they’d check your careers page to see who you are just because your job description was giving the correct “vibes”.
Creative Career Websites
On a careers website, we see a lot of common topics, such as the job search engine, text description of the culture, text description of the mission, etc. However, GenZ needs to see “the vibe” through the careers website. They need to feel a sense of the company within the careers website.
For example, On has a creative touch on their website (as shown in the screenshot above) using a voice recording that plays as the text serves as a subtitle. Coming across this page, I played the recording while scrolling further down the page or already opening up a new tab searching for a contact called Oliver on LinkedIn. It serves my need to multitask and be more efficient in my company research.
Social Media
Gen Z live & breathe social media. Although understanding the importance of LinkedIn presence, keep in mind that LinkedIn is the newest, least used platform for a GenZ Candidate. Throughout their day, they use Instagram and TikTok. On these platforms, you need to target them with videos & photo content from your current employees. Content such as “A day in the life of our Receptionist Mary” is in a way, “a visual job description” which helps you attract a GenZ talent.
For example, here is a type of content I created in my previous role for the Kempinski Hotels Career Instagram Account. It shows hotel school Alumni and their role at one of the hotels to help better attract GenZ hotel school alumni looking for a deeper understanding of an operational role within a Kempinski Hotel. Reels are commonly thirty seconds to one minute. And remember? GenZ are lazy, they’d rather watch your 30-second reel to become interested in your company than read your About Us section in a job description with no emojis.
Although this type of content can be published on your LinkedIn, you will need to consider the wider branding of your company as most commonly, LinkedIn pages may need to maintain a more formal delivery of the brand. Regardless, that's not a problem for us because we don’t need to be formal in attracting GenZ. And on top of that, LinkedIn’s not where GenZ is. GenZ are on Instagram and Tiktok. Be where the GenZ is.
GenZ Talent
Use your GenZ employees to attract GenZ talent. GenZ understands GenZ best. For example, when I was a student attending hotel school recruitment fairs approaching booths for different employment opportunities, I was more interested in talking to recruiters who I could relate to compared to those whom I couldn’t. For example, talking to a fresh young hotel school alumni recruiter helped me understand where I could potentially be in the near future compared to meeting more senior recruiters who talk about becoming managers in 15 years (which I could not relate to). When I later became a recruiter, attending the hotel school recruitment fairs as a young fresh graduate, I also saw more comfort in GenZ talent in terms of expressing themselves, having icebreaker topics etc. So use your Gen Z talent.
Student Market
Speaking of schools, use students as your marketers! Students talk more than you think. Go to schools, and give presentations. Make your GenZ employees go to their schools to talk about their career journey as alumni so far. Give little giveaways. Invite students to visit your office. Putting yourself as a recruiter in the students’ presence, you are going directly right to the source.
Mental Health
Gen Z takes mental health very seriously and focuses on “wellbeing”. Use this to your advantage however, be VERY careful of the words you use. Some best practice examples include companies that give “mental health days”, however, check out how they phrase them. NerdWallet, a financial services company offers 4 self-care days every year and everyone takes them off the same day of the year so no one feels left out. And this time is for doing something to take care of yourself. Other companies doing similar practices include LinkedIn and Nike. Read more here.
Thanks for reading this far Good luck in working with, and attracting the best, of GenZ