How are clients engaging with millennials beyond the interview stage?

The gap between employer and employee can be vast for a variety of reasons, and only limited to personality and age.  Clients trying to make lasting connections with the millennials of the new age workforce can be difficult, so we found out how clients in the legal sector can battle this social construct and engage more effectively with their millennial employees, far beyond the interview stage.

Before employees can hope to broach the gap between themselves and millennials, they will need to make themselves desirable. The growing and innovative nature of social media has made a big change in the recruitment process for a lot of organisations. Clients can utilise platforms like LinkedIn to post vacancies and to target specific candidates, who may be perfect for the role. 

Alternatively, a great face-to-face way to engage with millennials is to attend careers fairs at universities. All students are encouraged to attend these events and they might find themselves becoming attracted to specific companies, as well as considering industries and specific law firms that they had not thought of as a potential career.

Once you have secured a new employee and they are past the interview stage, you might want to think about how they are communicating within the business. Millennials respond well to internal social media platforms that connect the employees digitally. This outlet for sharing internal news, offering online training and tracking performance, are a great way to get them engaged with company activities, as well as benchmarking their own progress within the organisation.

Incentives can work well when looking to hire for a legal position. Filling a vacancy that requires very specific skills, qualifications and experience, can be difficult at times. Previously for example, mass LinkedIn messages have been sent out to a selected list of candidates offering a £200 voucher for anyone who referred a suitable candidate, and we have been successful in placing for roles in the legal sector.

Offering incentives allows us to access the best candidates on the market that might otherwise have been unaware of what we do. When we promote incentives we also gain brand awareness and can attract more clients and candidates, a process that all organisations can do and see positive outcomes from.

After the interview stage the incentives still pay off for us, keeping in touch with candidates that we have placed previously to offer them the referral incentives, allows for building long-lasting relationships rather than one off placements.

Employers are noticing the increase in requests for flexible working. If a candidate is already in a full-time role and looking to move, it can be tricky for them to subtly take time off work, particularly when companies require multiple rounds of interviews. It is great if candidates can be sent online aptitude tests for the role, complete video assessments at their own leisure, or arrange Skype interviews so they aren’t forced to physically attend too many rounds of interviews during work hours.

If applicants are allowed this flexibility then they are more likely to be bought into a company that is sympathetic to their needs from the outset. This also indicates the levels of flexibility the firm is willing to offer their staff.

To encourage communication, collaboration and sharing of ideas amongst the millennials within the firm, companies should be creating dedicated digital millennial groups and leverage existing technology. 

Firms should be implementing a social media groups on their intranet to encourage millennial engagement in discussions surrounding the future of the company. This could be an accessible, easy-to-use platform that would be more beneficial than generic questionnaires or round table discussions.

The millennial generation are very focused on career progression, if they don’t think an organisation has room to grow then they will look elsewhere or leave the company prematurely. To avoid this happening, organisations need to use examples of current employees who started out at entry/graduate level and have risen within the company, highlighting what they needed to do at each step of the journey in order to achieve the next promotion. 

Millennials have grown up in a culture of instant gratification, so the prospect of working hard for a long time to reach a promotion, may be daunting and somewhat alien. Transparency of the company’s career journey will avoid disappointment and highlights exactly what they need to do in order to get to the next level. Knowing what you need to do as a business to elevate progression, is motivating and ultimately, it encourages people to stay.

Remaining engaged with your millennial workforce, in order to get the best out of them may seem difficult. Making them aware of their potential career journey within the company, will make it obvious what they will need to achieve in order to progress, whilst outlining what is on offer to them whilst working for your firm.

For more advice or to discuss your current recruitment requirements, get in touch with your local Page Personnel office today.

Senior Consultant, Page Personnel Legal

T: 020 7269 2432

E: [email protected]