What You Need to Know to Hire Millennials

By 2020, millennials will make up 50 percent of the workforce. As a recruiter, knowing how to get their attention will be essential to the success of your company.

To help you understand what motivates this generation, LinkedIn surveyed 5K + millennials across the world to find out how and why they switch jobs. According to the data, the number one reason millennials change jobs is to advance their career, followed by compensation and the desire for more challenging work and roles that are a better fit for their skills and interests.

Although other generations rank these reasons highly when choosing a job, millennials find them to be significantly more important. Furthermore, millennials are motivated to change jobs by reasons that will affect them long-term, rather than satisfy them short-term.

The data gathered from the survey also provided a few more insights on millennials:

1. Millennials extensively research companies online

Millennials spend a lot of time researching companies and their culture. In fact, they’re more likely to use online job boards, company career web pages, and social media to hear about a new job opportunity, compared to other generations.  

They also use more resources in general to learn about the company culture, which is a good reminder for companies to focus more energy on talent brand.

2. When it comes to compensation, they don’t settle

Millennials won’t compromise when it comes to their salaries. Almost 80% of millennials are making more money in their new job - and ⅓ of them make as much as 30% more when they start a new gig.

This makes sense, as they are likely to “climb the ladder” early in their career, which leads to bigger benefits. Clearly, they are ready to negotiate.

3. The job hunt is different for millennial men and women

Although millennial men and women have the same top 3 reasons to accept a job, there are some reasons that resonate more with one gender than the other.

Women search for better work-life balance - they want to feel proud to work for their company, and care more about culture fit and company values.

On the other hand, our data shows men are more concerned with their compensation, the company’s potential for innovation, and challenging work.

There are also unique differences when it comes to researching a job. Millennial women were more likely to use social media and the company’s career web page to research the company’s culture, while men were more likely to use search engines and contact someone they know at the company.

What this means for recruiters

First and foremost, millennials want a job that will advance their career and a benefits package that will match it. So, the best way to get them to work for your company is to offer both.

As they are relatively young in their career, millennials tend to be more active job seekers and are more willing to change job functions because they are still trying to find out what’s right for them. In fact, 21% of millennials stated the reason they left their jobs was to try out a new industry.

As a recruiter, this means it’s important to consider candidates who may be coming from outside of the industry you're hiring for.

Also, talent brand should be top of mind when appealing to millennials. Use online resources, such as your career web page and social media accounts to provide information about your company and its culture. Millennials rely on these resources heavily when searching for jobs.

Finally, women and men do have different reasons to accept and leave jobs, so keep that mind when hiring.

If you want to learn more about why and how people change jobs, download our full report here.

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