BY EMILIE, CO-FOUNDER OF MY JOB GLASSES
Putting clichés to rest and better informing young people about the different jobs within a company so that they will be happy and successful: there is no better way for a company to turn their employer branding strategy into success!
EMPLOYER BRANDING: THE ULTIMATE STRATEGY TO PROMOTE ALL THE DIFFERENT JOB POSITIONS WITHIN YOUR COMPANY
The “back to school” (or “back to work”) season is just around the corner. Unfortunately, for some companies, this period is quite difficult since it translates into applications shortages within their industry.
The first thing these organizations need to realize is that, whether they are looking for a boilermaker or a data-scientist, they will not be able to give young people a clear vision and understanding of these professions unless they get to speak directly with them. Plus, knowing that 85% of 2030’s jobs do not exist yet, it is highly time for companies to react quickly if they hope to change this dynamic.
This sense of urgency is even more alarming when we know that almost 1/2 young people quit their jobs before the end of their first year, costing lots of money to their former company. Some calculations indicate that every person leaving costs about one year of salary to the organization. Indeed, the recruiter had invested in hiring and recruiting them only to be bound to start all over again.
But how can we change the bias and make sure a big data student contemplates the idea of joining a company outside famous GAFA? How do you bring their attention to a bank or an insurance company — however large it may be — if they are not even aware that their skills are needed in these types of structures?
How do you tell young people that the word finance refers to more than 10 different jobs? That they need to master Excel if they hope to become a good Product Manager? Or that L’Oréal is more than a marketing company and that they are looking for talents in areas such as Research & Development, Operations, and Logistics?
Let’s take the airline business as an example : how many applications do you think they receive for pilot and flight attendant positions in comparison to other jobs that are just as necessary for the proper functioning of the company? How is it possible that France lacks welders and boilermakers, professions that have nothing to do with what Zola described, when these sectors offer some of the most attractive salaries?
It is up to each company to turn down these clichés and to invest in employer branding to make their businesses more popular among young talents. However, not all companies have the same means to achieve this.
COMPANIES SHOULD NOT WAIT FOR INTERVIEWS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUNG PEOPLE!
While most of the companies feature a career section on their website where people can find the company’s story and vacant positions, others simply share small job descriptions and videos that will portray the company in its best light.
Because they lack the time and the budget, some companies are content with only sharing little information on their website, while young people really expect and need to learn as much as possible to be inspired. Those companies aiming for young workers to join them one day, must go way further and be part of their life as early as possible.
Today, the vast majority of companies await internship interviews with potential employees to make their first contact with young people. However, these discussions are not sincere enough because there is obviously something at stake for both parties: one person is looking for a new talent, while the other wants to get the job.
It would definitely be more interesting and effective on both sides to discuss upstream, in a more informal and self-interested way. This would help the young individual identify the profession which best suits him/her, and, at the same time, help the company decide on the adequate internship for that person, one that is meaningful and serves the employee to build his/her professional project in the future.
To this end, some companies have decided to turn some employees into mentors who will share their daily experiences with young people, most of the time on campus. Whether it is through forums or the famous lecture halls, there are special moments to bring together young people and companies.
However, many would argue that this solution does not solve the problem. The reasons ? Too many students do not visit all the stands because they believe some companies do not have any position that suit them, or because they only wish to look into the most popular sectors or businesses.
HOW DO YOU GET YOUNG PEOPLE TO OVERCOME PROFESSIONAL CLICHÉS?
What can be done to make young people go over the clichés? Where should companies promote their corporate mentors if young people do not even browse their career page, simply because they do not imagine they will find a job they could be interested in? And what about these forums that only provide limited answers to their questions?
It seems like the solution can only be found in places which bring many structures together. We can mention, for example, social platforms like LinkedIn, where the company can encourage its mentors to speak out about lesser-known professions.
No matter which method you go for, nothing will ever be as effective and convincing than a meeting with one of your employees. If you want to fight against a cliché, nothing will ever beat the speech of an employee who describes his day-to-day life at work with his own words. It is definitely the best way to help a young person figure out if they want to join your company or not. We are living in the 3.0 employer branding era, the opportunity for you to engage your collaborators in a positive and rewarding mission.
This is the reason why at My Job Glasses, we came up with the idea of gathering professionals from more than 3,000 companies in the same place and connect them with young people from 15 to 30 years old. Our goal? Helping young people finding out about new career options and building their professional network.
To sum up, we give young people the opportunity to search for professionals based on their job title rather than which company they are working at. It allows young people to meet professionals in sectors they would have never expected or heard about.
By the way, our latest internal survey interviewing interns and young people who were offered a first job after a meeting on our mentoring tool shows that, for 82% of them, chatting with a professional had been decisive in their choice. Indeed, they declared if the meeting with the mentor had never taken place, they would probably never have thought of visiting the career site of the mentor’s company, or even considered working in his/her sector.
What applies here to young people also applies to all types of professionals, including those in retraining. Nowadays, most people occupy at least 4 to 5 different jobs during their career. It is definitely time to acknowledge that access to good and concrete information will definitely be a game changer to everyone hoping to find their dream job.
This article was originally written by Emilie Korchia, co-founder of My Job Glasses, the leading mentoring tool in Europe. It was originally published on Parlons RH and last updated in August 2021.
