How to Attract Millennials by Building Your Team Leaders’ Personal Brand!
In this first of my series on “How to Build a Millennial Friendly Company Culture” I want to take you through a key element that has implications for how you’re able to both recruit AND retain fresh young talent.
Recruitment these days has completely evolved from the traditional job listings. Your young recruits are looking to work with companies they feel identified with and can trust.
I know it can be difficult for you to find ways of achieving this. Engaging with your younger target audiences to show them why they should apply for your business can be tricky. But now you can find ways of doing this online!
How? By building your company leaders’ personal brand and thought-leadership online.
So many established corporations are uncomfortable with allowing their leaders to have a voice on social media. This is partly due to their strict hierarchical nature. But, giving your company a face (or a group of faces for that matter) is a way for you to stand out as a business. Having the company leaders represent you online is a way to humanise your businesses and make working for you relatable to younger audiences. Keep reading if you want to know why this could be a game-changer for your recruitment.
It makes your company feel more relatable and allows for those who you are targeting to identify with your leaders and aspire to be a part of your team.
This is something we see frequently in the flatter culture of tech startups. Giant tech companies have opened the door to their businesses through their leaders’ profiles and now so many millennials and Gen Z aspire to work for them. Their founders are more open to being on social media and feel more accessible.
- Mark Zuckerberg recently posted a picture of him with his wife and kids wearing matching pyjamas.
- Virgin’s Richard Branson posts videos of him playing with his grandchildren.
- Gary Vaynerchuk has a reality series called “Daily Vee”.
- Bill Gates talks about the latest books that he read on his holidays.
- Elon Musk shows his sense of humour with posts like this.
Entrepreneur Europe agrees with this! They’ve titled building your personal brand “the Recruiting Secret You’re Missing” bringing to light how with a personal brand you can “attract individuals who want to rally around you and your company’s mission”. Now, who doesn’t want to accomplish that for their recruitment efforts?
Unfortunately, large companies have yet to benefit from this new form of corporate communication and are still relying on their brand name to get the CVs through the door. But does relying on who’s recruiting actually retain your young recruits?
As we broke down in our award-winning documentary, “The Millennial Disruption”, younger generations’ behaviour has changed drastically due to the impact of technology. This means we also have to change the way we communicate with them and unfortunately large corporate brands are not adapting fast enough.
We’ve yet to see the directors of JP Morgan and HSBC in their Pyjamas, or the CEO of Mercedes with his pet. We don’t know who the face of Barclays is! Unless Simon Cowell qualifies!
Many long-established corporations suffer from being faceless when having your top talent represent you online can give a leg up from other businesses. It will not only make your company brand more human, but it will also make new recruits connect with your business at a personal level, making them more likely to feel committed to working for you.
Moguls like Forbes agree with us! A recent article titled “How Personal Branding Cements Your Thought Leadership Efforts” taps into how building a personal brand can boost your network and credibility. Forbes also notes it helps your company by “bringing your business to life” and creating new opportunities.
Not to mention how it will help your company leaders feel ownership and commitment as well. It is an all-around positive initiative that will open the door to new ways of communicating with your current and future talent.
So in a nutshell: don’t let your company be faceless!
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