If you’re going to market for Gen Z talent right at the moment you need them, it’s too late. Highly skilled and smart members of this cohort have been researching companies for years. In the early days of their education, they’ve already been looking for student jobs; later, looking for prospects for internships; along the way identifying and pursuing companies they want to join as soon as they graduate.
For professionals focused on early talent acquisition in California, future-proofing your company means attracting the attention of this talented generation. And that means being where they are before they get there. That means thinking about talent supply differently. Specifically, pipelines rather than pools.
The difference is more than semantic; the two terms mean different things. Your talent pools are the groups of people who could potentially be employees. For example, one pool might be ‘software engineers located within commuting distance of HQ with exposure to ‘X’ technology, and over ‘Y’ years of experience’. While the people in that pool change incrementally over time, a talent pool isn’t something you actively manage.
Not so for a talent pipeline. For an early talent recruiter, the pipeline represents a dynamic process: there’s a beginning, middle, and end, and there are ways to tap into that pipeline at various points — adding momentum to it when needed. A talent pipeline taps into your talent pools and moves people along the path towards being a prospective employee. That’s precisely what it takes to engage this generation so that your organization can attract and hire more of the skilled talent you need.
It begins with building your employer brand on campus, among the talent pool you might think of as ‘Gen Z talent enrolled in relevant programs’. Form relationships with the career services teams and the professors in the campuses that are a strategic fit for you. Those individuals are the bridge to the students you want to connect with, and when you demonstrate your interest in a cooperative and collaborative relationship, they’ll respond in kind. There are plenty of ways to begin to build awareness of your brand as an employer of choice. Events on campus are a great way to get face time with students. Attending is great; sponsorship is even better if that’s possible for your organization, since that gives a higher profile for your brand: visually in event collateral, and often speaking opportunities as well. These larger-format events aren’t the only opportunities for in person brand building, though. Profs are always on the lookout for industry professionals to speak and present to students. Being perceived by students as subject matter experts in your industry is of extraordinarily high value at this stage in their careers, and they will remember when it comes time to start thinking about potential employers.
One key at this stage: whatever the forum, the information you share with students is important; the ‘vibe’ you project is just as much so. The goal at these initial points of contact is to get them excited about your industry generally, and of course specifically your company. The people you select to participate in this kind of outreach — and the messages they deliver — should be chosen to do just that: get them excited. As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Forward thinking professionals sourcing early talent complement in-person efforts on campus by enlisting online sourcing tools like Jobamax to identify and connect with high-potential talent targets, beginning to build relationships with the people you’ll want to draw into your pipeline.
Use these campus initiatives to start building your social media audience, attracting followers in your target generation. Some companies choose to create separate social media accounts for this purpose specifically — to allow them to more directly target prospective talent. The messaging here isn’t about recruiting people, though. It’s about engaging them, and being where they are; relating to them, so they can relate to you. Gen Z is highly visual, and accustomed to ‘snackable’ content — think short and snappy YouTube videos, TikTok content, Instagram stories. You can use all those formats to share industry and company news, some messages showing how your company’s mission and vision is brought to life, maybe your social contributions and causes. Whatever you share, keep it real. Remember that this generation knows how to research, and they have a nose for inauthentic messages.
Best of all, use social media to tell stories: real-life stories about young people who came to your company and had a great experience. Choose people who can help you target people at various points in your talent pipeline, and let them tell their stories. Shoot brief interviews with interns just before they wrap up their internship with you, for example, and you’ve got a great share: “5 Things my Internship With [Company] Taught Me About …”. Profile new grad hires in a similar way: “The 10 Things I Love About Working For [Company]”. Better still, if you’ve got younger creatives on your team, let them take this on as a project. LinkedIn data suggests that candidates trust current employees’ opinion about work culture significantly more than information that comes directly from the company — to the tune of three times as much. Give your younger employees ownership of the message, because nobody knows how to connect with Gen Z like Gen Z.
As you build your audience, have a system in place to track your followers — especially engaged ones. Interaction with engaged members of this community can cement your relationships with them. Use follows, likes, mentions, and — sparingly — even DM’s to directly engage and foster relationships with this talent. Gen Z has been building online relationships all their lives; they’re digital natives who don’t value in-person relationships differently than those in the digital space.
Throughout this time, talent acquisition professionals look for opportunities to attract the people in your talent pipeline to a more formal contact management structure — your ATS or CRM. That final conversion step allows for more overt communication about internship and employment opportunities. With that audience, you can be direct. Share postings for internships or jobs, and let your audience know you’re always on the lookout for top talent. Engage your pipeline and ask for their help finding great people — they want to be involved in this way, and doing so will prompt them to amplify your message further.
Don’t leave your Gen Z talent swimming in pools. Talent pipelines are your key to being where they are before you need them. Build, engage, manage … and win the war for Gen Z talent.
The Jobamax Team
