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6 facts that will help employers build better relationships with Millenials

Written by Tam Salih, Communications Consultant at Tonic

Last Thursday I attended 2015’s first Breakfast News event. And having been a regular at past BNs, it was great to see such a strong turnout for the year’s first event.

With a new venue, new sponsors and even a new hashtag, it felt different. Three things remained true to the Breakfast News brand, however: the excellent networking; fantastic content; and great speakers – oh, and the food of course!

It was great to have the Rt. Hon David Blunkett with us too, who’s quite frankly nothing short of an inspiration – having done so much for UK education; never letting anything stand in his way.

The theme for this event was a particularly interesting one: “How can employers begin to understand the very different expectations of students today, and begin to create a more personal and more meaningful connection?”

What did we learn? Here are six facts to consider:

Millennials want to know how brands will make a difference to their lives. They crave meaning and purpose and it’s the job of employers to match what they’re able to offer with those needs.

By understanding the differences in behaviours between age groups better, employers can market to them more effectively – ultimately, you’ll hire more of the right people.

Millennials are truly global. These are our future world leaders, they want their opinions to matter and their voices to be heard.

There are fewer young people so it’s even more important for employers to make sure they build better relationships with them. This can only be achieved by providing inspiring leadership and a platform to nurture and empower talented individuals.

Delivering anything less than an amazing candidate experience will damage your reputation.

Social Mobility is hugely important but it’s not an issue for employers to tackle alone; education, government and wider society all have a vested interest.

These really are the expectations of the younger generations today. They have the in-demand skills that you need, and they’re fully aware of this. They’re not afraid to bargain or keep their options open.

The question for me is, how will employers respond in a long-term and meaningful manner? To paraphrase a great man, “Ask not what young people can do for you, rather what you can do for young people.”

http://www.tonic-agency.com

How useful is Google + when it comes to building talent communities around your business, and can you afford to overlook it?

When Google+ launched in 2011 it turned out to be a damp squib. It was described by many as the party that nobody came to and came in for a lot of criticism. However, 2 years on and perhaps it’s fairer to say that G+ wasn’t a failure at all. It was just a little slow off the blocks.

Now that there’s a party that we can all join, how can employers take advantage of the functionality to build brand and community? How can we use the rather nifty functionality to take advantage of what could be the most powerful tool in your armoury for having conversations with the people you need.

The answer’s quite complex and certainly more than we could cover in a single blog. So, we’re tackling this in a five parts. Each week we’ll cover some of the individual features that G+ offers its members and look at how others have successfully used the site to their advantage.

But is it really a party that we want to be at? Is the kitchen full of interesting people or should we come back a bit later when more people have arrived? After all, a social network isn’t very social if nobody’s using it, is it? We’ll, something that might surprise most of you is that G+ is actually the second largest social network, behind only Facebook.

In May 2013 it had 343 million active users. This means that people were regularly sharing content with the public, their circles and updating their profiles. That’s a 33% increase from the same point last year meaning that it’s outpaced Twitter for growth.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that this growth only looks set to increase. As this research from searchmetrics shows, by 2016 G+ could well take its place as the most popular social network.

It’s hardly surprising when you think about it. It’s free, clean and streamlined. Not to mention the unique features it offers its users and the fact that one password gives you access to all of Google.

If you have never been on G+, I’d suggest taking a few minutes to activate your profile. You don’t need to set up loads of new information – if you use YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs or any of the Google suite, then you simply need to enter the same username and password.

We’re not saying G+ is the be-all and end-all. There’ll always be a time and a place for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. But G+ sits in nicely in it’s own niche:

G+ is where you speak with people that you’d like to know.

Next week we’ll talk to you about Google Circles. We’ll explore what they are, how they’re used and what you can be doing to build individual talent communities that are united by the same passions and interests.

If you’ve got any questions about G+ in the meantime then why not get in touch with us at +Tonic Agency Ltd or visit http://www.tonic-agency.com.

HelpMarketing. What’s being useful got to do with building your employer reputation?

One of the consistent themes that we often find ourselves discussing with our clients is the way in which consumer expectation has changed and the impact that this has had on the expectations of the people we need to hire or retain. In short we all expect more. More information, more detail and more personal service – and that’s true whether we’re buying a car, a hotel room, a book or even a job. So, if we know that the people we need to make our businesses work harder want us to treat them in the same way that we would if they were buying something from us, we need to look to the way that we talk to them too. And perhaps take some guidance from the trends and developments in the broader marketing environment.

The team at Tonic – as you might expect – is excited by the change in candidate expectations and the opportunities this brings in terms of building deeper and longer lasting relationships with them, as well as with existing employees. We each read, listen to and watch as many sources of new intelligence as we can, looking for competitive advantage for our clients. That’s what helped us to come up with the award winning #MarsTweetShop and it inspires the innovations we’re building right now for a wide range of employers.

One of the podcasts that I find most insightful is Michael Stelzner’s ‘Social Media Marketing’. It gives great insight into the way marketeers the world over are building communities with their customers. And of course, for every weird and wonderful concept I hear, the question I ask myself is ‘how could employers use this idea to build better talent communities around their business?’

Listening to SMM a few weeks ago, the discussion turned to the idea of marketing by providing help. This concept (and I’m paraphrasing here), relates to building engagement and awareness with customers by simply aiming to help. Sounds counter-intuitive right? No message about product and service (or job vacancies). Just help.

The case study they gave focused on @HiltonSuggests. This Twitter account set up by Hilton Hotels in the US simply aims to suggest things that might help the people in their cities, customers or not. It doesn’t sell hotel rooms, doesn’t talk about their business. Just helps. A bit like a virtual concierge for everyone. Hilton recently helped a new resident in Chicago: the newbie had moved to the city, didn’t know his way around and had a sick pet dog. He tweeted – not asking for help, just stating a fact. @HiltonSuggests noticed and recommended a vet nearby, the guy took his dog to the vet, the dog got better and the guy tweeted his thanks for the recommendation. Which hotel chain do you think he’ll choose the next time he needs a room? And more importantly, how do you think his Twitter followers now feel about Hilton? Social proof – and if you need to know what that is take a look at our earlier blog – derived from (what I’m going to call), HelpMarketing. Total genius.

So what could that mean for employers and what can we take out of it? I think quite a lot. But who are the people that HR could look to help?

Chief Execs focused on building business reputation
Undergraduates that need advice on the right courses to choose
Engineers that need guidance on the project they’re working on
Sales Assistants wanting to be more productive
Other HR people needing to find a way to change company culture

And the list could go on, and on, and on.

If you think about it, we all have the opportunity to build a community around our businesses. That’s true whether we’re big or small, public or privately owned. These are the people who could be our next best employee, but to begin with they’re just human beings in need of a bit of support from time to time. How we offer that support might mean helping them out to start with but could easily turn into a conversation about helping them to grow their career. And after all, you get what you give.

Tom Chesterton [Aug 2013]

PS. If we can help you – and we haven’t already offered – let us know. Email us at talktous@tonic-agency.com