This is a guest blog written for us by James Johnson, CEO Nicoll Curtin and Raymond Pennie, Managing Director, Kamanchi.
For any of us with children in school, college or university, July heralds not just the Summer, Wimbledon jollies and the wedding season, but also the end of the academic year. And with it, another tranche of young people will be joining the workforce.
In fact, these young people from the millennial generation are the single largest demographic ever and, in less than 10 year’s time, will account for over 70% of the global workforce. This is the generation that is deemed ‘digital natives’ – they do not know a world without the internet. As a result they are wired differently to previous generations. They expect to share continually and to be constantly connected; as a result they expect instant responses and information.
And their tech-savvy ways and attitude are filtering into the world of work. This is something all of us need to embrace. Recruitment companies in particular need to factor this tech evolution into their plans on several levels.
First, recruiters need to ensure that their consultants who aren’t part of this generation are still tech savvy and adaptable. These employees must not only be comfortable with using new technologies but also must be willing to quickly understand new products and services and assimilate them into their working life. Why? Simply because they need to engage with millennials who are continually trying new tech and apps in all aspects of their lives, and expect others to do the same too.
Millennials want to interact with recruitment firms in the way that suits their lifestyle. Consequently, recruiters need to offer intuitive, easy to use mobile-first websites and apps and work across a wide range of social media, not just LinkedIn. Fortunately almost all firms – and in-house recruiters too – are already doing this. So far, so good but this is only one part of the equation.
Millennials are fast becoming a large part of the entire workforce – including our own. In ten years time over 70% of our consultants will also be from this generation. These digital natives expect the same easily-deployable, app-based, access-anywhere experience in their professional lives that they are accustomed to in their social lives. Offering this can mean that firms are not only able to hire and retain these bright, young things, but they are also able to better harness their innovation and creativity. For instance, this generation is all about sharing and providing them with the right tools to collaborate. This can reap huge productivity and efficiency rewards for their employers.
But how can you do this? One example that springs to mind is from international recruitment firm Nicoll Curtin. Like many others in the sector, the firm uses the Broadbean recruitment management app to search CVs and post job ads externally. However initially, although it was effective consultants found it cumbersome to transfer information. It meant logging into the software for each job, viewing the applications received and then manually importing the chosen CVs into a database. This was nothing like the one-touch, intuitive apps that many young consultants were used to in their personal lives. So with the help of its IT partner, Nicoll Curtin integrated Broadbean into its database. Now, once suitable candidates are flagged, they are automatically imported into the database. Not only do consultants find the interface and software functionality more suited to their needs, they are also saving time and, manual errors – like importing the wrong CVs – are minimized. It also suits the collaboration mindset by gathering valuable data in the Nicoll Curtin database rather than on an individual’s desktop.
Taking this a step further, Nicoll Curtin has moved its IT infrastructure to the cloud. With all software delivered via a user-friendly, web-based interface, consultants are able to work from anywhere, on any device and at any time. Nicoll Curtin has found this suits the lifestyle of its young consultants better. They are able to update information when out and about, meet candidates, work from home or even process CVs in the evening after a meeting with potential candidates. Also, it enables better global collaboration with Nicoll Curtin’s offices in Singapore and Switzerland.
Research from BT shows that two-thirds of respondents from the millennial generation are frustrated with the technology available to them at work. Most business technology wasn’t built for the way millennials expect to work. Continuing to rely on the same old IT will exacerbate problems and risk serious long-term issues with employee productivity and satisfaction.
Typically, IT has been seen as a blocker, rather than an enabler in most recruitment firms and this has to change. Watch the video – ‘IT in Recruitment: From a necessary evil to a necessary differentiator’.
Teenagers and young millennials have grown up in a world where they take technologies like the internet for granted. Now, they are fast becoming a sizeable force in the workplace. Yet many of the people who run the companies that employ or partner with them are of a different generation and are not necessarily interacting with these potential customers in the way that best suits them. It’s time for all of us adapt to new ways of working.
