Staffing Smart Series: post 2 of 6

Success factor #1: Creating an exciting work experience for millennials

In our last post, we talked about hiring underemployed millennials in place of temporary foreign workers. Since the Temporary Foreign Worker Program changed, looking within Canada has become the first, best option for filling labour shortages across the country. But millennials think differently – and require a different approach to capture their interest. So how do we attract this elusive group? We hit the road to figure it out.

We asked millennials one main question: what would it take for you to move across the country to work at the toughest jobs in the hospitality industry – like a housekeeping placement in Fort McMurray in February. After holding focus groups, speaking to countless young Canadians, and burning through a ton of free pizza, we learned a lot. This is the first of five posts that talks about the insights we gained from that experience – and used to create Mobilize.

Millennials are the online generation.

Their online world directly influences almost every major decision. They communicate through smartphones, find restaurants and hotels based on user reviews, and care deeply about how their friends respond to their posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tinder and other social sites. Millennials want an experience they can share online. They’re looking for an adventure. An amazing location. Opportunities to meet new friends. A chance to make memories for life. It’s more important to them than a stable long-term job. This is the complete opposite of what a temporary foreign worker seeks in an overseas job.

Pump up the adventure.

When you’re designing a position that might originally have gone to a temporary foreign worker, it’s important to keep that “shareability” in mind for millennials. Make it fun, make it interesting, make it dynamic. We do that by moving Mobilizers around seasonally to different employers in different Canadian locations. Whether they’re posting photos of hiking in the Rockies on their days off or adding to their friends list with all the great new people they’re meeting, they’re gaining value from the experience that goes beyond getting paid every two weeks. They’re living. Learning. Travelling. Having fun. And sharing it all online.

For millennials, it’s not always about the paycheque. It’s about the experience. Remember that.

Next up in our series on recruiting Canadian youth: making the experience educational.

About Mobilize

Mobilize is an exciting alternative to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. It’s a new approach to harnessing the skills and talent we already have right here in Canada: underemployed youth looking to gain experience and have an adventure. We recruit millennials from parts of Canada with low youth employment and place them in jobs in hard-to-staff industries. They go on seasonal placements, gaining experience while you get the workers you need.

Want to know more about Mobilize and reduce reliance on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program? Get in touch with us!