What Millennials Can Bring to Your Talent Pipeline

Talent acquisition comes with a unique set of traits to look for in potential employees. Some of the more obvious ones are dependability, loyalty, and a strong work ethic. With millennials, you might have to look even further at what they can offer. This group of candidates is defined as 18-34 years old, and now make up 75.4 million people. They outnumber the “Baby Boomers” slightly, so they are the largest group in the workforce today.

This is a wide range of possible employees. Many are just entering the workforce right out of high school, while others have completed college, their masters, or have been employed for quite some time. All of them have certain traits that will be beneficial to your talent pool as recruiters who are looking at this prime age of workers in many different fields of employment. So what can this group of candidates bring to your talent pipeline?

Ambition: Millennials are a “can do” generation. They like to get things done, contrary to reports of them being lazy or aloof. The Council of Economic Advisers reports that around 61 percent of millennials have attended college, as compared to only 46 percent of Baby Boomers. Their ambitions are high, some due to the fact that they have excessive college debt to pay down. Either way this helps to have an attitude that will allow them to achieve great things in their careers, since they desire success. Plus they know what’s it’s like to work through a down economy, during the years 2007-2009, when the oldest of the generation was just 27-years-old.

Tech expertise: “Digital natives” as this generation could be called, grew up during the beginning of the internet boom. This makes millennial candidates very tech savvy, so working in a high tech workplace and adapting quickly isn’t an issue. It can also be an asset from a work culture standpoint, as candidates can really bring different generations of employees together with technology. Many of them love being team players which fosters a solid work environment, and generally function well in a team setting.

However, one of the biggest challenges with mellennial talent is actually attracting and retaining candidates. Millennials desire different perks and environments than past generation, and companies are tailoring their workforce strategy, respectively. Check out some of our previous blogs to learn what companies are doing to attract and retain highly sought IT talent.