As a small business owner, you can feel lost with all the changes currently affecting the hiring process. And it’s not just that so much has moved online. Some generally accepted practices are starting to crumble with Gen Z’s entering the job market.
My team and I hired hundreds of part-time coaches and camp counsellors over the last 18 months in a very tough labor market. 97% of them were from Gen Z. The shift we made in our recruitment process has put us in a very good position. We now have extra staff and offer more programs while many of our competitors are limiting hours due to staff shortages.
Here is what we learned about Gen Z’s, how to attract them and adapt your hiring process to fill your part-time positions.
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Ever tried attaching a CV while looking for a job on your phone? Trust me, it’s not fun. What if you stopped requiring a CV and asked applicants to fill in a form instead.
Most of the staff we hired told us they were looking for a job while on their smartphone. This means you can easily lose out on quality applicants simply by not having a mobile-friendly strategy. We hired incredible part-time staff without ever seeing their CV.
Another trend we noticed is that some our best part-time recruits weren’t actively looking for a job. They stumbled on us, thought the job looked fun and filled the form out of curiosity. They told us they would not have applied had it been more complicated. (asking for are CV and cover letter)
A form also makes it much easier for you to compare, file and reach out to candidates since the information is stored in a single place.
Click here to see the application form we use.
We found out that most Gen Z’s don’t check email regularly and rarely answer phone calls from an unknown number. So we started texting them instead. Complete overhaul of the response rate. A texting software can help you with this.
Once we are interested in interviewing a candidate, we send both an SMS & Email. With the current job market, you can miss out on great candidates simply because you don’t integrate texting to your strategy.
Here is a sample SMS you can us:
A first contact over zoom is a great way to connect and saves everyone precious time. We usually have 2-3 people at a time on a zoom group interview just to get a quick sense of who they are. This saves time and reduces the impact of no-shows on your daily schedule.
You can start with a free booking software like Calendly to streamline this process. This isn’t meant to replace in-person interviews, but is an excellent way to vet candidates. You can discover if the job seeker is still interested, double-check basic skills, and get a sense of their personality.
Click here to see the form we use to schedule zoom interviews.
Staff scheduling still on excel? Onboarding documents still need to be printed?
This might be a shock (I know it was for me) but many Gen Z’s don’t have excel or own a printer. Now’s the time for your business to move your hiring and onboarding process online.
From the application process to staff onboarding and scheduling, using the right software should no longer be considered a “nice-to-have”. This also helps you make a statement as a tech-savvy, environmentally conscious employer, which applicants nowadays really care about.
Hiring a new employee involves a set of repetitive tasks from the application to this first day on the job. What if you could automate some (if not most) of the process.
You need a software that can help you do the following steps effortlessly:
An automated system should help alleviate repetitive tasks and attract better candidates. If too many of these steps require too much manual work, it might be time to look for an alternative.
As a small business employer, understanding the hiring process, how it has evolved in the last few years and what you can do to stand out will help you get ahead. A small investment in the right software can make all of this possible.
Now that you better understand what Gen Z’s are looking for and how most of your hiring tasks can be automated, you might be interested in a tool that satisfies the above traits: Activity Messenger
Activity Messenger takes a new approach to staff management by offering automated workflows designed for camp and class management.
