Challenges in Hiring Millennial Technical Staff: How to Attract Millennial’s

The biggest challenge that HR teams and third-party recruiters face is the large skills gap for technical positions across their respective industries.  This challenge has a ripple effect across all industry sectors because technical hires are in such demand. Hiring millennial technical staff is a great way to meet these current demands and future challenges, however every younger generation has a different approach to working and work-life balance.

The increasing number of technical job requirements and the thinning technical candidate pool is now putting tremendous pressure on outside resource providers and staffing agencies to improve their hiring strategies and candidate sourcing channels.

Most companies and staffing agencies today consider millennial employees the most sought-after candidates for technical job openings.  Millennial candidates are not only highly skilled and tech-savvy, but they also bring a lot of enthusiasm and fresh ideas to the workplace.

In spite of their innate talents, an increasing amount of companies find it challenging to retain millennials.  Here are some common challenges of hiring and keeping millennial technical staff in a thriving economy.

Millennial candidates love technology

The best way recruiters and hiring agencies can attract millennial candidates is by developing and deploying engaging recruiting platforms during the hiring process.  Mobile apps, recruiting websites, digital assessment systems, and digital interviewing can attract and impress tech-savvy candidates aspiring for technical roles within your company.

Consider their expectations

These candidates, blessed by the technologies of their generation usually consider themselves a different class of people – far ahead of the rest of the population.  As a result, they usually have strong self-esteem that wise recruiters or hiring managers should recognize.

Unless given autonomy and challenging projects, a millennial candidate will be restless at work and will look for a change.  During a job interview, millennial candidates should be briefed about the rewards and recognition policies of an employer.

Once the candidate is on the job, an effective strategy to retain the candidate for a technical position is to periodically recognize their contributions in meetings, online forums, and company events.

A mid-year performance evaluation and reward system can also work for these overachievers.  If a millennial candidate is not constantly reassured of his or her worth, he or she is likely to leave at the next available opportunity, even for a lower-paying position.

Millennial candidates are restless and demanding

The millennial candidate enjoys two things in their work lives the most:  constant change and an increased job role.  The enterprise that knows how to exploit these characteristics will keep the best millennial candidates in challenging roles with constantly evolving responsibilities and the opportunities to be recognized for performing well at work.

Also, the organization can creatively develop lateral shifts or designation changes with increased responsibilities within the same category when vertical mobility is not possible. One element that all millennial employees respect is “merit.” Thus is an organization can demonstrate through their policies and practices that they reward merit, then it will be easy for them to retain younger and ambitious employees.

Millennial employees like to learn and grow

Generally, millennials in a technical capacity enjoy feeling challenged at work, which can inspire them to learn and grow. So organizations have to keep the most difficult technical projects for these superstars who will come out more learned, more skilled, and more experienced.

When they are not participating in the best technical projects, they can be kept motivated through in-house learning programs or online learning.  The best method to retain highly motivated millennial candidates is to provide structured training programs, which they can use based on their needs.

Millennial candidates love freedom

As these super techies are usually very bright, they prize personal freedom.  So smart organizations should allow freedom within workplace structures to keep these employees motivated and reassured.  Some innovative HR practices like in-house daycare for children, basketball courts, flex schedules (telecommuting as well), video game opportunities, work-life balance, and so on will work well for these types of employees.