5 reasons Millennials and PR agencies are the perfect match

The Millennial generation are making their mark on the professional workforce, gradually climbing the corporate ladder and bagging leadership roles, with many taking an entrepreneurial path and running their own successful business.

There are a lot of opinions out there about this (large) group of individuals, who make up a huge percentage of today’s workforce. Some say they’re entitled, narcissistic and lazy – but if you can harness their potential in the right ways, you might see the magic that makes this chosen generation a special one.

Speaking from first-hand experience as a Millennial myself, we can break away from the archaic and stiff stereotype office environment, and are fiercely creative. We thrive on collaborating and brainstorming, but can also be independent workers who enjoy the alternative, less beaten path and the thrill of a challenge.

We can help push the envelope for your brand, forcing and enabling your team to come up with better and more challenging ideas that stray away from cookie cutter corporations. We’re not perfect – and there are always going to be challenges for companies managing multi-generational employees – but we can give that edge and bite you might need.

If you’re on a bit of a hiring spree for your business or agency, keep in mind the following reasons Millennials can help with your overall workflow and success.

  1.     We multitask like we were born juggling

I’ve got my headphones plugged into Mixcloud, both Whatsapp, Facebook and my email open on my browser, and I’m Skyping colleagues while writing this blog.

Millennials are natural multitaskers, having grown up in a distracting world full of screens, bright lights and loud noises. Yes, for some it can be distracting – I mean, it’s not like we’re all the same – but a rather natural ability to multitask forces us to practice discipline and time management to get top priority tasks done.

  1.     Creativity and brainstorming is our bread and butter

We thrive on collaboration and forming ideas. We enjoy the social aspect of work, throwing ideas around and drawing on others’ expertise and knowledge to shape our own thoughts and opinions. We like strategy, and we like to feel part of something bigger. We want the big picture to feature our faces (perhaps this is where we get someone narcissistic…), meaning we’re willing to put in the creative work needed to execute big campaigns and manage dynamic clients.

  1.     We’re outspoken

Millennials aren’t afraid to speak their minds. Because we want to be heard, we are confident in our abilities and won’t hesitate to share our ideas, thoughts and displeasure equally. However, this doesn’t always work in our favour – it’s easy to come across as unreasonable or defensive, but with the right management and support in place, we can very much harness our strong opinions in the right way for your business.

  1.     We’re hyper-aware

We are in tuned with current affairs, trends and understand how social media works. We scroll through our feed in the morning like reading the papers. We’re present on multiple platforms, taking in bite-sized pieces of information about what is happening around the world around us, making sure we don’t miss anything. Sure, sometimes our knowledge isn’t in-depth, but you can’t argue that most of us don’t have an awareness of the latest news and trends. This can only help with building ideas for campaigns and story ideas for journalists that are timely and interesting.

  1.     We are egalitarian – and we expect our employers to be, too

Our generation is a diverse one. We have progressed to become more understanding and accepting of cultures, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientation and much more, and we are therefore generally empathetic to differences. This is especially helpful when it comes to client management in a social setting; we’re more aware of different cultural practices such as bowing, saying “cheers” in different languages, and so on.

At the end of the day, Millennials aren’t really all that different from the generations before them in terms of what they want to get out of their lives. They simply come from a different, more modern, background – and depending on the individual and the company they work for, this could work for or against them.

Intuition, skill, capabilities, attitude and a smidgen of luck all play a part in achieving your ideal hire. All the best!

Interested in boosting your employer branding through a strong PR or content campaign to attract the best talent? We can help! Get in touch at hello@mutant.com.sg 

Content Marketing for HR: Attracting the right talent

Hiring good talent is tough. The recruitment process can be long, expensive and exhaustive, especially in a competitive talent marketplace like Singapore and wider Southeast Asia.

Over the past few years, recruiters have had to become increasingly creative with how they attract and connect with the right talent. Today, we know this goes well beyond well-written job descriptions and Facebook likes – you’ve got to go deeper and think long-term about how you make effective candidate connections.

One of the best ways to do this is with content. Regular, targeted and insightful articles about your company, its core values, your people and the way you operate (for starters!) is an enormously effective means of drawing in potential talent with the right skills, personality and mindsets to match your culture.

Then, you can go deeper. Engage your audience with thought pieces from your senior management; share your opinions on newsworthy topics and relevant industry happenings; provide inspirational stories and videos about employees who have done great things within your organisation, or share your insights around any research or data your business and its various units has released.

Let’s be clear: this is not a short-term strategy. In order to actively promote your company as an attractive place to work, you need to consistently and effectively write and share stories on the platforms and networks where your ideal talent spends their time. From brand awareness to creating a desire to click “apply” for a role you are advertising, content can seriously change the way you recruit if you capture people at the right point of the sales funnel.

Why does it work? It’s simple:

  • Because people who agree with you and what you write about will share your content with like-minded people.
  • Because if they don’t agree with your culture or values presented in your content, you weed them out early on.
  • Because if you are regularly producing interesting content for potential employees to read, you’ll likely see an increase in the quality of candidates you interview.

If you’re brand new to the content marketing game, don’t worry. It’s not something that can (or should) be rushed, and it requires a decent amount of planning and strategic oversight to get it right. In fact, producing poor quality content hastily could actually do more damage in the long run.

If you’re an HR professional or business leader looking to get started with content, consider the following:

Do you have somewhere to host your content?

Your content is yours. Make sure you have a good, easy to find, platform on your company website or careers page to host the dozens of articles you plan on writing. You’d be surprised how many businesses think plonking an article on their ‘news’ page amid other press releases and internal announcements is effective. If you can, make sure these articles, videos and other pieces of content really stand out to anyone who finds their way there, and is easy to navigate.

Do you have a social recruitment strategy attached to your content marketing plan?

Although you need to have a place to host your content on your own site, potential talent isn’t just hanging around on that page waiting for you to post new stories or blogs. You need to ensure what you produce is being shared on platforms they frequent. Content needs to be promoted and boosted in targeted areas to boost exposure and ensure the right people are clicking through to read what you’ve written. Anyone can spend money and advertise a post to get thousands of likes, but if you’re not increasing the chances of the right people applying for a job with you, then what’s the point?

Your current employees can be your biggest advocates

But it’s not as easy as forcing employees to share your company’s articles. There is a deeper element of employee engagement that plays a part here, and any HR professional worth their salt knows they can’t simply dictate their employee base to like and share content – they have to want to do it. And if they do want to do it, it’s quite simply one of the best ways to show that your business really is an awesome place to work.

Your content marketing efforts should strongly tie into your overall employer branding strategy and company culture. After all, how can you write about what an amazing culture your business has if it’s not exactly true?

Content Marketing CTA

If you’d like to discuss how content marketing can help your business attract talent, please get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg