What makes a brand or vacancy stand out from the crowd when it comes to recruiting young people? Youth Employment UK’s webinar on youth friendly recruitment practice has some of the answers.
Please complete our short survey after watching the webinar to help us with our impact measurement
Topics covered:
- Brand awareness
- Job descriptions and person specifications
- Terminology
- Advertising platforms
- Top recruitment tips from young people and the Youth Employment UK team
- What are young peoples’ salary expectations?
- What’s most important to young people looking for a job?
- What makes an employer brand stand out?
- What makes young people want to work for an employer?
- What sources do young people use to learn more about an employer before applying?
- Are young people more interested in applying for work with employers who have a youth-friendly seal of quality?
- What makes a good job description?
How do young people think recruiters should reach them and appeal to their needs?
Many of us could take a guess at what makes a youth recruitment drive successful. Some of us who work in roles involving recruitment probably feel we have a good grip on the answer. But… how often do you (or the organisation you work for) ask this question of the very young people you are trying to recruit?
As we see employers embark on their next apprenticeship and graduate recruitment campaigns, we wanted to understand from young people what it is that really works. What makes a job application or employer’s brand stand out? What more can employers do to increase the quality, diversity and volume of applications?
We know from the Youth Friendly Employers in our network that recruitment and HR teams work really hard to create quality opportunities and engaging campaigns for young people. Yet some employers find that their efforts don’t always yield the results they are looking for.
Central to everything we do at Youth Employment UK is the belief that young people should be empowered to lead and to share their views and experiences. We embed their voices in our policy work and the best youth employment practice we share with our employer network.
What’s most important to young people looking for a job? If you guessed ‘money’, you’re wrong.
101 young people responded to the survey, with 66% of participants still in education. Many of them responded to questions in their own words, providing particularly rich insights.
Did you know? Money was rated as quite important as an incentive to apply for opportunities, but it’s certainly not the most important thing to young people seeking work. The atmosphere (both social and work), location and that the role linked to an area of personal interest were all considered more important.
This finding may not be new news, as it has often been reported that young people are less interested in money and more interested in the company itself. Yet still many employers fail to pull out these more intrinsic benefits within their brand profile and recruitment campaigns.
Review how your business handles the following to increase the impact of your recruitment messaging:
- How can you showcase the atmosphere of your working environment?
- How can you paint a picture of what colleagues do to socialise together?
- How can you demonstrate the available support for colleagues to be themselves and thrive at work?
- How does the job description bring to life the interesting things about the role?
Employers who creatively share these messages in places frequented by young job seekers will no doubt benefit from a greater and more diverse number of high quality applications.
Would young jobseekers be more interested in applying for work with employers who had a Youth Friendly Employer Mark of Quality?
93% of young people said yes.
As part of our youth recruitment research, we asked young people if they’d be more interested in applying for a job from an employer who’d been checked out for offering decent youth job opportunities and had a Youth Friendly Employer seal of quality. 93% of our respondents said yes.
When we explored this question in more detail with our youth network, we found that a Youth Friendly Employer seal or mark would help them trust that the brand wanted young people to apply for their jobs, that their applications would be favoured, and that there would be the right level of support in place through the process and within the employment opportunity.
Youth Friendly Employer Mark: Be recognised for your positive youth employment practice.
Did you know that Youth Employment UK is home to the Youth Friendly Employer Mark, available to all members of our Youth Friendly Employer community?
The Mark allows a business to be recognised for its positive approach to youth employment. In the survey whose findings will be revealed in this webinar, more than 93% of young people said they would be more interested in applying for a job if that employer had been checked out for offering decent job opportunities for young people – and had a Youth Friendly Employer seal of quality.
Youth Friendly Employer Mark holders receive:
- Full use of the Youth Friendly Employer Mark (93% of young people said that they would more likely apply to a company with the Mark)
- Youth Friendly Employer Certificate
- Listing on the Youth Friendly Employer Database accessed by young people using the careers website
- Access to free advice and support webinars on a wide range of youth employment topics including Apprenticeships, Recruitment, Work Experience, Diversity & Inclusion
- Access to Youth Employment UK’s expert team for your specific inquiries and/or support needs
- Invitation to Youth Employment UK Annual Celebration Event
- Opportunity to attend APPG for Youth Employment UK meetings in Parliament and help shape Youth Employment UK policy work
In addition to membership to the Youth Friendly Employer Mark, organisations can upgrade their membership to include an Employer Profile on the Careers Hub. An Employer Profile operates as a mini-microsite and helps brands to engage with our youth audience (70,000+ young people per month), bringing the organisation to life through images, videos and inspiring careers content.
