(Part 2 of the "Gen Z" series; read part 1 here) When it comes to talking about strategies to reach Gen Z; it would be easy to moan, groan and gripe about "another post telling people what they need to do to appease an entire generation." It would be easy, but it would also be somewhat short-sighted. Generation Z's eldest members turned 20 last year and given their younger members are still in pre-school, we'll be recruiting from their ranks for literally decades to come. Each generation has slightly different needs, attributes, and productivity styles; so while we could stodgily complain about the additional work tailoring our recruitment marketing strategy to them specifically brings... it's probably more productive to spend that time better understanding this new 'world of work' audience.

Inside the Minds of Gen Z

The good news is that this group seems to be more loyal and open-minded and less motivated by compensation advances than Gen Y, according to a 2014 study on Global Workforce Expectations of Gen Z and Y by Millenial Branding & Randstad. They're also more realistic about the realities of industry and the workplace; focusing on what's needed to adapt and succeed. This is good news for organizations, but will dictate a shift in the college recruitment messaging you're likely putting out. Where Gen Y was more focused on more money and so smart college recruitment marketing like Deloitte's showcased the lifestyles working for their firm could provide; Gen Z is more entrepreneurial and concerned about advancement. Sharing employee testimonials like AT&T did with "Inside Stories" highlighting the ability to gain diverse work experience, promotions and longevity within a company will resonate better with this incoming group of workers. Finally, this group wants to be able to trust in organizational leadership; but they have high standards. 52% of surveyed Gen Zers see honesty as the most important leadership trait, followed by a solid vision for the organization and strong communication skills. Use this information to your advantage and highlight the leaders who exhibit these traits as Intuit Careers has done. Again, Deloitte is on the leading edge with their "Reflections" campaign. Nearly 1/3rd of those surveyed reported a belief that they are self-centered/focused; which again, will shift our messaging from the "how you're bettering the world" as an organization to more messaging on how you are impacting/advancing your individual employees, along with the meaning of their work. "Meaningful work" was ranked 3rd in retention factors for both Gens Y and Z, but up 8% with the newer generation.

Let's Talk: Where & How to Reach Gen Z

One surprising factoid about this generation is that despite the fact they've grown up with social media, they prefer "in-person" and personal communications to the constant connection of social, email, and instant messaging. This is, perhaps, why platforms such as Snapchat, Whisper, and Secret are preferred platforms for this group and 33% of them see Facebook as a workplace distraction. Recruitment marketing messaging focused around video and video chats such as Culture Google Hangouts sessions for potential recruits will perform better with this group. Gen Z is also very adept at locating info online: 52% of them already use social media platforms such as YouTube for research purposes. That means it's important to have a presence with a built digital footprint featuring information on your company's COBBS ready for them to consume. Not familiar with COBBS? It's:

  • Company - mission, culture, workplace environment,
  • Opportunities for advancement,
  • Benefits of working for your org (not health insurance),
  • Boss/leadership,
  • Special circumstances/differentiators from your competition

This is the "emoticon generation" and the use of visual-based marketing is imperative for this group. Infographics and videographics are the best way to disseminate large data sets to this demographic; so consider using them to create visual job descriptions and job ads. While industry experts have been harping on the importance of mobile as part of a recruitment marketing strategy, this generation will be more likely than any other to shift "important" to "imperative." They're already receiving more than 3,000 texts on a monthly basis and watching twice as many videos on mobile devices as any other group. This means looking at technologies like LoopWorks to ensure you're reaching this audience in a way they will interact with: mobile text marketing. Use mobile video content to share your messaging, remembering to include mobile sharing links (currently 1 in 5 don't include mobile playback capabilities, which is a real miss), and execute your recruitment marketing & branding campaigns cross-platform, with an emphasis on Instagram (and consider developing a Snapchat Story campaign). Doing these things will play to 2 of the 5 primary attribute pillars of this incoming Generation: it will show that you are willing to invest in them and take their generation seriously as part of the workforce. And that is a win for all of us.