Why you're shit at hiring young people.

*Gasp*

I swore in the title.

Here come the LinkedIn police.

Yeah it’s click bait. So what? All good content uses click bait. Maybe not sweary click bait, but it worked, right?

In many industries, particularly Digital, we have a huge skills gap. That’s not new news. But what are we doing about it? And I mean actually doing about it?

As far as I can see, most employers still tread the same path. They realise they’re in need of a certain skillset (whether it’s a new requirement or one of their team leaves), they fire the vacancy over to whoever’s in charge of hiring, that person pops out a generic ad on the company’s careers page which brings in a grand total of no-one, the hiring manager panics because they need that person’s skillset yesterweek, so they fire the vacancy out to 17 agencies who produce a single CV that vaguely resembles the job spec. As that’s the hiring manager’s only option, they bring the candidate in for interview only to find that it’s a baboon in a tutu.

Sound familiar? 

“So what’s the answer, smart*rse?” I hear you call (Open mouth emoji. Another swear word. Technically, from the way it’s written it looks like you, the reader, said it).

Drumroll please…

Young people.

And by ‘young people’ I don’t just mean graduates. Look at school leavers. Look at those that are struggling to get on the employment ladder. Look at young people who are in a job that they hate. Everyone is passionate about something. If you can tap into that and it aligns with the skills you tend to look for, you may well have found your next great team member.

By identifying young people with the right potential and drive for your team before you even have a vacancy, you’re already one step ahead of your competitors. In fact, you’re a company-sized slingshot ride ahead.

All you need then is your own top-notch development programme, and you’re already half way to closing the skills gap in your business (and no, an apprenticeship through a government-funded training provider doesn’t count – I may explain why in a separate post).

Oh, and we have approximately 6.5million 16-24 year olds in the UK. Those with the right potential are out there. They are. I promise. 

The thing is, companies are generally rubbish at finding young talent. They put a few bean bags in a corner, harp on about ‘duvet days’ like it’s a revelation, and expect the brightest, young peeps to have formed a queue outside their office the next morning before the cleaner arrives.

So what’re you, and so many employers getting wrong?

Easy. You’re not on a level. Simply put, your company and culture just aren’t attractive enough to the younger generations.

“But we manufacture dog poo bins. How do we make that attractive?”

Well, I’m not here to write your marketing strategy, but what I can tell you is that popping a direct message to a young candidate on twitter saying “Hey there, we’re struggling to recruit for a really niche skill and you seem to be the the only person that slightly smells of what we’re looking for” doesn’t quite cut it.

Engagement has to start early. It has to be all about interesting content. It has to be led by an honest narrative (Young people are sceptical. They’re experts at seeing through the bull…nearly swore again). And most importantly, stop thinking it’s cool to yap on about offering a work/life balance. For millennials (and Gen Z) there’s no such thing. We work 40+ hours (LOL) a week, have a car on finance, store cards to pay for our clothes, credit cards to pay for our mojitos, and a crappy (is that a swear word?), 1-bed flat because we can’t get on the housing ladder without a leg up from our parents. 

Work IS life, and vice versa. When you spend the majority of your working week somewhere, it has to feel like home, especially when the flat you go back to every night costs you half your salary and barely accommodates a bed and a fridge. 

But don’t misconstrue what I mean by that.

You see, it’s not a beanbag and a bit of fake grass that will make young people jump out of bed on a Monday morning with a smile on their bearded, tattooed, pierced, little face. It’s praise and encouragement from their seniors. It’s development (and by that I don’t mean some training programme written in 1983 by a 65 year old CEO). It’s responsibility. It’s working in a job that they genuinely love and are passionate about. It’s belonging.

And you know what that creates, don’t you? The most powerful form of marketing there is. Word of mouth.

That’s right, captain. If they like working for you, they’ll tell their ubertalented friends about you, who’ll tell their friends, who’ll tell their friends…you get the gist. Suddenly, you’re referral city.

Boom.

I’m not telling you something you don’t already know, but if we all know what needs to be done, why aren’t we doing it?

And as my final point (hallelujah!), stop judging young people on a CV. You need an application route that allows them to show you how passionate they are about whatever it is you’re hiring for. 

After all, what was it that airline bloke said?

“You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.”  

Herb Kelleher (Google, Page 1, told me he said it, and I couldn’t be bothered re-googling it to make sure, so if that’s not right, sorry!)

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Vonkel is a recruitment app for iOS and Android that allows young people to pitch to employers via a 1-minute video.

The app launches soon.

Thanks for reading!

www.vonkel.co.uk