The New Generation Gap

Ambrion’s Back recommends identifying personable and persuasive in-house executive personnel to boost your recruitment efforts. “A lot of the younger generation employees we work with are influenced by good, strong leaders,” he says. “So the people within the organization that are selling the opportunity have to be dynamic—they’re the ones that are going to be leading that charge.”

Consequently, Back says organizations with a hiring process driven by human resources might want to consider moving HR personnel off the front-line evaluation positions and providing candidates with access to managers and executives earlier in the recruitment process. “I’ve had candidates tell me that if HR is involved in the interview, they don’t want to go,” Back says. “They want to go right to the decision makers and know exactly what they’re getting as almost a first step in the interview process.”

Finally, Oman says, companies must start breaking some old habits. Traditionally, she explains, companies have targeted young talent they can hire and develop over time. But the Generation Y population no longer supports that model, so organizations must look for promising new leaders across the generation spectrum.

“There has to be a new paradigm, because there aren’t as many young people available to hire and develop,” Oman says. “You have to become comfortable with people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, which means you probably have to change how you think about staffing in order to succeed in this environment.

“If, for example, 80 percent of the companies are looking at 20 percent of the applicants, people aren’t filling up their houses before the shortage really hits,” Oman adds. “And that’s something people should be doing right now—looking at all the alternative ways of getting people in the door to fill up the spots now before the shortage happens. Get people settled and happy. Be proactive, definitely.”