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Gen Y is the fastest growing section of the workforce today. As this generation comes of age, the number of Gen Y professionals entering the workforce is huge. No wonder their presence is creating a whole new world for recruiters and recruitment firms: they must adapt and find more efficient ways to connect with these potential candidates.

Where is Gen Y Spending Their Time Online?

So where is Gen Y online and what are they doing there?  Generation Y is constantly using social networks, and in vast numbers. Their activity on social networks surpasses their usage of television and is where the majority of this generation is obtaining their news and social interaction.

Social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have millions of users. Google, who just opened their latest attempt at the social network scene with Google+, is boasting a usage figures within a few short weeks that is comparable to what took other networks years to accomplish.

The latest figures indicate that a huge 82 percent of Gen Y are using social networks. This is broken down further with LinkedIn holding 15 percent, Twitter at 26 percent, and Facebook at 24 percent. Google+ is still too recent an addition to report statistics at this point.

Gen Y is entirely comfortable with having profiles on the social networks this newest group of candidates is not afraid to publish details of their lives, characters, and careers – and in great volume. They’re putting their information out there and the attitude seems to be: here’s my information; come and get it.

How Can I Engage with Gen Y?

How is this affecting the overall recruitment and job hunting environment? This generation, with it’s acuity for posting and publishing loads of information, are increasingly opting to include their CVs in their social network profiles. It’s easier and less time consuming for them than sending out printed formats. They would far rather send a link to their LinkedIn profile, for example, and have you access their information at your – and their – leisure, rather than having to chase you down and present it to you.

Recruitment firms are finding that this is providing a huge, readily accessible candidate pool for from which to locate the perfect new hire. To keep up, increading numbers of recruiters are using recruitment software that is able to adapt and actively seek out this information without expecting candidates to continually send CVs to them.

The digital footprint Gen Y users are making is astonishing when you think back to only a few short years ago, when the overall usage of social networking sites was a shadow of what it is today. Gen Y has embraced the world of digital technology and is establishing an unprecedented presence online. Recruitment software can help recruiters harness the richness of information that now exists online and use it to locate and interact with the strongest candidates for their jobs.

The adult rate of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) increases to £6.08 (£5.93) an hour from 1 October 2011. This is payable to those age 21 and over.

The rate for those aged 18 to 20 increases to £4.98 (£4.92) and for 16 and 17 year olds to £3.68 (£3.64) an hour.

The apprentice rate, for apprentices under 19 or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship, increases to £2.60 (£2.50) and hour.

Updated guidance available on the Business Link website includes specific situations such as those engaged on work experience or internships and their entitlement to the NMW. The guidance also includes a new worker checklist for employers and case study examples.

The press release confirms:

‘Entitlement to the NMW does not depend on a job title but on whether the arrangement they have with an organisation makes them a worker for NMW purposes. Where an individual is a worker – and no exemption applies – then they must be paid at least the NMW.’

Employment Relations Minister Edward Davey said:

‘Internships and work experience of all forms offer an excellent opportunity in helping to bridge the gap between education and the workplace. And for businesses it allows them access to a wide talent pool of some of our best and brightest who didn’t take the traditional route into a job.

Fairness though is absolutely paramount with all placements. When a worker is entitled to the minimum wage, they should be paid it and we will continue to enforce the law. Today’s publication will help clarify this for employers and will also make sure that all interns and those on work experience placements have a better understanding of their entitlement to the minimum wage.’

HMRC are able to charge penalties to those employers found to be in breach of the NMW rules.

It is important to understand and evaluate your position. It can be very flattering to receive an offer from your boss to stay, however you have to first go back to the reasons that made you want to leave.  If the issues are still there and unsolved, better salary etc will only paper over the cracks and it is likely you will be looking again in another 6 months.

If you are going to risk your potential new employer withdrawing their offer, it is important to have established the above in order to establish what risks are worth taking.

If you have decided to take the counter offer to you potentially new boss, you have decided to ask for more.  It is important to be up front and honest. If you are offered an improvement, only accept it if it is sufficient for you to turn down the counter offer.  Dragging your prospective employer into an auction is a high risk strategy and one which most employers do not entertain.

Therefore, once both employing parties have had the opportunity to talk with you, consider both options in detail, consider what is best for you all round and make your decision. Once made, stick to it otherwise bridges get burned and you never know when you might need a good contact.   Whoever misses out on your skills and expertise, will respect you more if you have conducted yourself in the right way, a credible way.

It is important though to understand what the candidate’s position might be. Although there are obvious benefits, there are also pitfalls. A counteroffer can put a person in a very awkward situation, confusing even the most stubborn and desired of minds. Patience and communication is key in assessing the situation and gaining commitment.

The battle for the best talent is as fierce as ever, even in what is deemed a “buyers market”.  With excellent people tougher to attract away from stable and “safe” jobs, you have to be prepared to encounter the counter.  What is important though is to ask the right questions. Make it a 2 way negotiation. If you up your offer, will the candidate put their stick in the sand. What would we as an employer need to offer to ensure the counter offer is rejected? What is most important about the potential move, The role? The company? The money? Or all 3?

By understanding motives and needs, the counter has already been countered (however, sometimes offers are made over and above expected).  Rival employers are so keen to hang on to their key staff, that they will pay above market rates. 

Don’t get involved in an auction.  If you wish to up your offer, make a full and final offer, take it or leave it.  New hires should want to join based on the opportunity not just the package. If it’s all about the money, the person is seldom the right one for you.

The model for employer branding has been evolving since the concept emerged in the 1990s A new working paper from the REC provides an innovative way that employers can enhance their Employee Value Proposition, to deliver competitive advantage in their battle for the best local talent. 

AF Comments:  Every business spends time and money on how their company is perceived by customers.  What we can sometimes forget is that in the quest for talent, even in these turbulent times, the best talent can pick who they want to work for.  How you are perceived by your workforce will have long term ripple effects on how good your staff will be.  The key word is “attraction”. What can you do as a business to “attract” the best people and what can you do to ensure you don’t detract desirable hires

AF’s thoughts:

I recently made contact with a candidate who had applied to register.  This person hadn’t worked other than casually for 4 years since quitting university. Answer when asked why? I live at home and it’s free so I didn’t need to work, I’m just getting bored now. I should think so after 4 years!

Can I take this person to one of my clients and recommend employing them? It’s a difficult sell and one which isn’t worth pursuing.

It just makes you so frustrated.  Young people are being tarred with a “useless brush”. A lost generation that employers and society have little faith in.  The recent riots and looting have done the demographic no favours. “No job, no college, no prospects” was the repeated comment.  You need a brain to go to college and or get a job and you won’t find one on the other side of a shop’s  smashed window. Bricks are for building.

However, overall this  is a minority. I meet good, keen and enthusiastic young people who will give their right arm to be given the opportunity.  What I am impressed by are graduates who work during their studies to earn and gain experience. Individuals who undertake voluntary work to gain more skills but also do some good.  The Princes Trust do a great job in providing these opportunites, and it’s free to participants pending funding.

This gives me and the candidate something positive to talk about and demonstrates a quality or qualities.

 Here in Rothley, there is a great community spirit. We hear and read all the time about a group of young people who have made a positive contribution, achieved something. It’s a traditional value that will stand them in good stead for the future.  Do something good now and you will have great choices in the future.

It isn’t the private sectors duty to give a young person a way out, however with the right person; businesses have everything to gain from moulding their own. Give us a reason to hire you, give us a reason to carry on investing in you and everybody wins.