Welcome to the third addition in the Gen Z Talent Playbook series.

Before I jump straight into the candidate journey, I want to recap on what we have discovered about Gen Z so far in the series.

When we talk about Generation Z in the workforce, they’re often portrayed as the "New Wave" or the "Next Generation." While that’s true for younger Gen Zs just entering the job market, it’s equally important to recognise that the older end of Gen Z, born as early as 1997, are now 27 years old. These are seasoned professionals, not newcomers, and many are part of the "Experienced Hires" segment of our workforce.

In fact, millions of Gen Z workers are already contributing to workplaces globally, and by 2030, Gen Z is projected to reach roughly 51 million people. This doesn’t mean that Baby Boomers, Gen X, or Millennials are any less significant. But just as we’ve evolved to meet the needs of previous generations, we must now prepare to meet the evolving expectations of Gen Z as they take on an increasingly prominent role. This includes embracing shifts in technology, incorporating GenAI, focusing on skills-based hiring, and adapting to new approaches in recruitment.

Why is the candidate journey so important for Gen Z? and why is investing your time into your recruitment process going to lead to greater recruitment success?

What we know:

• They are Digital Natives who expect a Tech and AI enabled working environment.

• They are fiercely driven by their values and want to work for companies whose cultures align with those values.

• We have a charge of entrepreneurially spirited individuals. With 42% wanting to work for themselves someday.

• Gen Z want to be treated as individuals and are really put off by generic, disingenuous  communication.

• They want flexibility and autonomy but also want to balance this with face to face time with their co-workers and leaders.

• They are looking for real opportunities, not just a job. They value employers who will give them opportunities to gain new, practical skills. 44% have left jobs within the first year as their expectations were not met.

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) are not mere corporate buzzwords – 74% will prioritise working for an employer who lives and breathes DEIB.

In my last session of the Gen Z Talent Playbook, I shared how you can optimise your recruitment process through data and by comparing this against the Gen Z profile, you can find hidden opportunities to improve the success of your recruitment process. Today, I am building on that process to highlight where the ‘Moments that Matter’ are for Gen Z within the candidate journey.

Below, you can see a typical candidate journey and we have ‘Candidate X’ who is looking for their new job. We will call them ‘CX’ for short.

CX is looking for a new job, she is an experienced professional within her field, but she doesn’t feel that her current company is living up to what was sold to her through the recruitment process; including the role and the culture – she doesn’t feel like she belongs.

Now, imagine CX is about to embark on your recruitment process. Knowing what we do about Gen Z in the initial list above, how well do you think your process would connect with the Gen Z community and how would you make sure that CX has an excellent candidate journey so that you are top of their employer list when it comes to crunch time?

Thinking about where to start in reviewing and taking a deep dive into your candidate journey might feel like a task you just don’t have time for, or the very thought of it might make you feel exhausted before you have even started, but I am sharing a few key questions you can ask yourself to get the wheels in motion.

Sticking with CX and our journey map above, think about the following:

·       If you wanted to attract CX, where & how would you engage with them?

·       How do you ensure that you create a meaningful and excellent candidate journey?

·       Do you know where all the touch points are across your process?

·       Do you know exactly what you are communicating to candidates from attraction to offer?

·       Do you get feedback from candidates on their experience?

·       Do you use your data to track how your candidate experience might be affecting your conversions?

The ideal answer to all these questions is of course, Yes. However, if you can answer Yes to some but not all, great! you are on your way to improving your candidate journey and if you can only honestly answer No, that’s ok too, but if you want to create a journey that resonates with Gen Z, and sets you apart from your competitors, you need to start adapting and implementing some of these learnings to become more people-centric and ultimately attract great candidates.

Your recruitment process is the first window into your organisation and from the moment a candidate sees a job, to the moment they are offered and start their onboarding journey you are creating their very real and very unique experience. How you make a candidate feel during your process is showing them who you are as an employer and what they can expect to experience when they start with you. This first experience within the recruitment process can be the catalyst to someone accepting or rejecting your offer. Pretty important stuff to get right, right?

“People remember how you make them feel”

Now you have asked yourselves these questions and imagining CX is on your journey where are you seeing the gaps? Where do you think you can improve?

Take the time to start unpicking your recruitment process, using the journey map above, take your time to walk through your recruitment journey. I would put yourself in the candidates shoes. If it was you in that process what would you want? what would you appreciate? what would make this company stand-out for you? Do you feel valued?

Once you understand where you can make an impact on the candidates experience you need to understand what you can control. You of course cannot control everything. You cannot completely control anyone's expectations 100% of the time, or the actions of others. In recruitment, there is no silver bullet but the idea is that you set a standard and work collaboratively across all the teams involved; Recruiters, Hiring Managers, HR, Finance, Scheduling / PAs, that's why getting ‘buy-in’ from everyone involved is essential.

I know, easier said than done! and if you do struggle with buy-in, think about who your recruitment champions are in the business, who can help embed ways of working? There is always someone who is willing to help make the right changes, you just need to identify them and ask them to back you.

Always remember that whilst we swing between candidate led and business led markets in recruitment, if you set-up your strategy as if it is always candidate driven you will always strive for the best and if you don’t, someone else will.

Thank you & see you next time.

MK