Millennials are on track to be the majority of the workforce by 2025. At Accenture, that's already the case.

As an employer of approximately 384,000 people, Accenture is clearly a people business so we have a very strong focus on how we attract and retain some of the best people round the globe. Within this total, approximately 30 percent of people recruited in fiscal 2016 came from campus hires, while we employed 90,000 Millennials last year.

These two groups continue to be key targets for us. Millennials now make up 74 percent of our total workforce across 120 countries, and so with predictions that millennials will comprise 75 percent of the workforce in 2025, Accenture is almost there in 2016. As a people business, our “people first” culture makes Accenture an exceptional place for graduates to start and grow their careers. Our philosophy is that we grow our people to grow our business. By investing in a highly specialized, engaged and diverse workforce, it allows us to help our clients deliver tomorrow’s consumer experiences today.

So what does this mean for potential recruits? Many of the things that I joined Accenture for over 25 years ago still exist today and attracts new talent. It starts with the people. We pride ourselves on a workforce that is very collaborative, who roll up their sleeves to produce the best results with - and for - our clients. This might be helping them to reduce cost, get a new product to market, open a new channel, enter a new country, or product innovation. These are the things we do with organizations every day.

And the type of work we do clearly attracts our recruits. Some of the world’s largest and most interesting organizations partner with us on their most important challenges, where they want to invest in their business, to take it to the next level. These are businesses we have been working with for many years. Our relationships with some of the world’s biggest brands, be they Shell or Unilever, span 20 or 30 years. In contrast, we are working with some of the newest start-ups and disruptive companies that have burst onto the business stage in recent years. All of this creates the opportunity to work on new business areas, be it for new clients and in new countries – there’s always an opportunity to learn and grow.

Millennials and graduates appeal to a business like ours because they are often very comfortable with using technology, they are very connected and are both supportive of, and represent diversity. Millennials are often characterized as a group united by a desire to make a difference by making a positive effect on everyday lives. Along with graduates, they are forward-looking and so all of this means that they remain a key group that Accenture seeks to attract and retain.

Since I joined, there have been changes that make it an even more exciting place to work. As mentioned above, we are more diverse as a company than ever before, and our people get to learn and innovate with the help of colleagues with a wide range of backgrounds. But there is also the technology. Whereas 30 years ago we were focused on helping companies with back-office systems and processes, today we are focused on the technologies at the heart of our clients’ businesses. It’s at the heart of how they engage with their consumers, how they operate their manufacturing plant, how they connect their products to each other and the rest of the world, how they make products smarter. Accenture was always about business and technology but today business is technology, which makes it even more exciting than before.

We also ensure that we are practicing what we preach so our own technology adoption is high and continues to evolve. And our recruitment process is no different, characterized by hyper-personalization.  Graduates and Millennials live a consumer-driven and customized life, so they expect the same type of experiences at their workplace. Our focus on social in the recruiting process allows us to tailor their Accenture experience to the individual. We have over 500,000 potential candidates engaged through the Accenture Talent Connection, while our “Get Referred” program enables job seekers to quickly and easily identify who in their extended social networks may work at Accenture, and ask them for a referral to Accenture.

For specialized digital skills we used smart analytics and social to identify and market careers for specific niche skills in a range of areas such as user experience, front end development, enterprise content management and digital strategy. We demonstrate our commitment to new technologies by using them. For instance if someone on LinkedIn was talking about digital strategy, through analytics we can identify them and highlight opportunities they might be interested in. We can then send customized digital or video offer letters, and have also developed tools to reduce the traditional 45-minute application to just five minutes.

For us, the job offer is only the start. We have a comprehensive new joiner program, which begins before they walk in the door thanks to our “Countdown to Accenture” program. It’s a personalized, digital experience that helps them to feel connected immediately. It’s customized to the individual and the part of the business they are joining and there’s an online gaming simulation to help them understand the company better. 

We enable new joiners to start taking advantage of a range of online training opportunities because their development is very important to us. We also ensure that they can connect with other new joiners and with Accenture people to get any questions answered. I can honestly say there has never been a more exciting time to work at Accenture. 

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