Hiring Executive Millennials: The Next Generation of Leadership
It's been estimated that 75% of the global workforce will be made up of millennials by 2025, and another recent study, HR professionals said that millennials already account for 48% of the non-desk workforces. And believe it or not, the oldest millennials are nearly 40-old enough to take on executive positions.
The timing is right, too. The business landscape has become disruptive in virtually every sector, and two-thirds investors worldwide are concerned today’s leadership is equipped to handle the challenges of continuous disruption. However, approximately the same amount of these investors think it's actually millennials (not the previous generation) that will provide the needed leadership in our shifting landscape.
One quick noteworthy stat in this regard is that nearly 60% of the world’s millennials currently live in Asia Pacific (APAC). Known as an innovation hotbed for both technology and healthcare industries—the very industries seeing the greatest influx of millennial workers—this region is poised to blaze the trail of millennial executive leadership.
It would seem millennial leaders are setting themselves up for leadership positions in the current landscape, but there’s a catch. Despite the generation’s affinity for connection and accessibility, many people in HR find millennials to be the hardest group to engage. When you compound this engagement conundrum with concern from investors regarding current leadership in a disruptive world and low unemployment rates in the world’s largest economies, you’ve a serious challenge for companies looking to hire the next generation of leadership.
So how can we engage the hardest-to-engage generation who are looking for work in a buyer's market?
Understand Millennial Values
Executive hiring processes need to adapt to millennial preferences and expectations, and to increase engagement we must understand what drives their decision-making. In addition to embracing technology, millennials famously champion experiences over possessions, as well as a sense of purpose in their work. You might assume these values wane as millennials make their way up the ranks and assimilate to existing executive conditions, but research shows they’re carrying these values with them on their way up the ladder. As a result, businesses will be forced to adjust as millennials fill executive offices.
A better strategy is what Janssen (among the Johnson & Johnson family of companies) in APAC is doing: proactively align their work environment around millennial priorities—something research shows other organizations are failing to do.
Organizations will have an easier time engaging with millennials for leadership positions if they consistently and clearly demonstrate that they, too, champion these qualities. We see two basic categories to consider for improving millennial engagement in the executive search: communication method and message.
Communication Method
We already know millennials are on social media and increasingly, executives are being encouraged to follow suit. After all, millennials know that being online pays off. Research shows a significant reputation benefit—to both the business and its CEO—when CEOs are active on social media. What does this mean for us? Today's recruiters must proactively meet prospects where they’re at by being mobile-ready and maintaining an active social media presence.
In addition to leaning in to social media, experts recommend multiple modes of communication be utilized in recruitment to ensure your message is received by discerning millennials. Phone calls and email can be a good first step, but many experts now also advocate for capitalizing on the global mobile job search trend by incorporating texting as well.
A tech-savvy and seamless recruiting experience will put companies in a better position to engage executive millennials because the process and mechanisms reflect their generational preferences, expectations and values. As a bonus benefit, the use of technology to automate or assist in portions of the hiring process frees up HR personnel to spend more time on meaningful interpersonal interactions with candidates.
The talent hunt is on, and companies can no longer afford to rely on antiquated methods of communication or conventional executive search methods just because they’ve worked in the past. Improve and change in order to attract and engage.
Communication Message
Since millennials place a high premium on experience and sense of purpose, the work culture and company values are huge factors in making their career choices. Don’t wait until the in-person interview to win over your prospects with your culture and values.
Instead, consider every interaction, regardless of how seemingly benign, an opportunity to find out what the canidates value and present the sense of purpose they desire—and how that ties into your culture. Maybe that means passing along content about your family benefits and generous parental leave or testimonials from current employees on the company’s commitment to finding purpose in your work.
However you choose to showcase these things, keep in mind that in our review-driven consumer culture, third-party confirmation is increasingly valuable. If you highlight your company’s commitment to the local community in your email signature, for instance, be sure to include links to news articles that validate your involvement. This highly-deliberate approach to messaging can turn even a tedious interview time confirmation into a compelling invitation to engage.
Final Thoughts
We are in the middle of the changing of the guard, generationally speaking. While the millennial wave will bring about even more change (as every generation does), one thing remains the same: we must find the right guards. If millennials are proving hard to engage with current hiring processes, that’s a sign that we need an updated strategy. The longer we take to adapt our executive search strategy to millennial preferences, the greater the risk we will miss out on top talent in the next generation of leadership.