With a demographic shift going on in the country, the challenges to find and retain great new employees will only grow over time. It is a mathematical certainty that we will be short 6.5-8 million people in the workforce for the next decade. So, with competition for workers being more challenging than ever, how can we get younger people who are just entering the workforce to choose our industry? The answer likely lies in looking at the way YOU chose it.
So how did YOU choose this industry over all the others? My guess is that you were invited into this industry by someone. You didn’t do an in-depth research project to sort through the 10,000 other places you could have gone to work in your community. You didn’t do an exhaustive research project to identify what jobs best fit your skills and personality type. My guess is that you bumped into someone already in the industry that told you that you belonged here. Whether it was your best friend, your uncle or maybe even the company’s recruiter, someone suggested this industry to you. THEY told you that you would be a great fit here! That’s important, because without that suggestion you’d likely never end up here. So, if that is true for you, can we assume that is true for virtually ALL jobseekers? With that in mind, let me share some truths I have learned by working with 5,000+ jobseekers as a career coach, and hundreds of companies I have taught “Winning the War for Talent” concepts to.
There are really three things to keep in mind if you are attempting to connect with late millennials and Gen Z about considering a career in the damage prevention field:
Virtually none of them have had any training in how to choose the job or industry that is a good fit for them.
It is unreasonable to think a person who has never seen the work that damage prevention does, or has experienced it at any time in their life will choose it over all the others? People choose to become fire fighters because they see fire fighters and fire trucks. People choose to become police officers because they see police cars and police interactions as part of their daily life. Think of it in these terms: “What did YOU know about this industry before you ran into someone that knew about it?” Likely, nothing. It is most likely you had never even considered this career until someone explained it to you and told you that you would be a great fit there! So, if that was true, then keep that in mind as you are trying to think of ways to influence young people to consider this industry…someone has to tell them they belong here.
With that in mind, take a look at one of your job ads. It is likely made up of duties, tasks, responsibilities, and job deliverables. Quick question: “What good does it do to describe a job to someone who has never seen it or knows what it is?” For example, if someone has never done or seen welding, what good would it do to tell them the duties, tasks and responsibilities of a welder? They literally have no idea what they are talking about. Also, doing so makes your job ad look like every other job ad on the job boards. But what if there was another way?
If the job seeker doesn’t recognize the job, the only rational thing to do in the job ad is to describe the ideal candidate…who they will recognize as themselves!
Since so many people that we need will be at the entry level (we are going to train them in what they need to know), the job ad should describe the person that will love this job and will find it a natural fit for their skills, values and interests. You can do so easily by surveying your best entry level employees and creating a persona of the ideal applicant. You can do so by asking them these questions:
How do you spend your free time on nights, weekends, and holidays?
The key idea is: “Don’t describe the job in the job ad, describe the person we hope applies to this job.”
Remember, job seekers are waiting for someone to tell them where they belong…just like YOU did. Since we in the industry are the only ones that know who fits here, describing the person we hope applies is the only thing that makes any sense. Let’s let people clearly know that if the job ad describes you…YOU belong here!
Chris serves as the SME for hiring and developing talent for hundreds of manufacturing and construction organizations across North America. To learn more about how his processes can help your organization become “Self Staffing” reach out to him at contact@chrisczarnik.com or visit his website www.chrisczarnik.com.