Are you about to take the plunge and launch your social recruiting strategy? Do you want to reach the largest number of job seekers possible and promote your employer brand? Then Facebook is the perfect fit. Facebook is the most active social network, its Company Pages feature is great for employer branding, and the ability to add a Career Tab to your Page makes Facebook a top choice for social media recruitment. Launching your Facebook recruiting strategy takes planning, consistency, and as much creativity as you can muster. In this article, you’ll learn the basics of launching an effective Facebook recruitment campaign.

Start Early and With a Plan

Start planning your launch well ahead of time, two months is good, but three is better! In the months leading up to your launch, you’ll need to devote some time to compiling intel and making a plan. Research the best social recruiting tools, research your target audience (the candidates you wish to attract), and determine any restrictions or policy-based constraints you may face. Then map out your launch strategy. Plan what materials and content you’ll need to create buzz around your employer brand, how you’ll create or acquire that content, and how much time you’ll need to dedicate to implementing your strategy. Build Up Your Content

Start a stockpile of content that you can use on your Facebook Page and for Facebook Ads. You’ll want to create content that is visually appealing, consistent with your employer brand, appeals to the job seekers that you want to reach, showcases company culture, and includes a variety of different formats. A few suggestions are:

• Employee profiles

• Infographics

• Photos of Staff events

• Educational content

• Job postings

• Information about perks and benefits

For more ideas, check out these 11 types of content for social recruiting.

Build Excitement

Let everyone at your company know about your plans and ask them to Like your Company Page. Start posting some of the content that you’ve made to promote your employer brand and ask your staff, audience, and personal connections to share the content that you post. Video is an especially good medium to use at this stage of your launch because video has a greater reach and receives a higher level of engagement on Facebook than text-based content. Launch With a Bang!

Start posting jobs, promoting those job posts with Facebook Ads, and reach out to job seekers. Make it known that candidates can now learn about your latest job openings through social media and that they can ask your recruitment team questions and apply for your jobs via Facebook. This should be the focus of the content that you post when you first launch. During this period engagement is vital so you’ll want to focus on fun posts with high-quality images, videos, and strong calls to action. Measure Results

Sit down with your Facebook analytics and any other reports that you have access to and figure out which techniques worked the best for you. Do your video posts get the most engagement? What does your audience demographic look like now? What Facebook Ads worked best for you? Then take this information and use it to help you improve your strategy. Say Thank You

Thank your team, staff, and anyone who helped you spread the word about your Facebook recruiting efforts. Show your audience that you’re thankful to them for following your Page and Liking and sharing your content with a post to your Facebook Timeline. Facebook is an awesome tool for getting the word out about your social media recruiting. If you would like to learn more about how the Jobcast social recruiting app can help you set up a Facebook Career Site and automate your social sharing check out our website. Or try Jobcast Premium free for 30 days!

It’s always a bit of a struggle trying to figure out what you, our readers, want to read. Facebook tips, social recruiting news, stats… There are so many different topics that fit with our demographic (you!) But just because the topic fits, doesn’t mean that you’re actually interested in it. Statistically speaking you should be extremely interested in articles about recruiting for diversity and talent analytics. According to our view counts, those statistics are wrong! You are, however, extremely interested in content creation. Our recent article, 11 Content Ideas for Social Recruiting, is one of our most popular to date. Which leads me to believe that you would like to learn more about how to improve your content marketing to candidates. This is a lovely coincidence because I am always trying to improve my content marketing skills. We’re in it together! This week’s Link Love features 5 articles that will help us all improve our content creation skills.

Brainstorm and Execute Killer Content Ideas Your Audience Will Love

- By Isla McKetta @islaisreading

This is a #longread that is definitely worth the time investment. Isla explains the process of brainstorming new content ideas, suggests helpful tools for the process, and then teaches you how to differentiate the right ideas from the wrong. She also covers audience profiling, competitor analysis, and what makes content valuable. Isla is a content marketing boss!

How to Write Social Media Content

- By Kelly Vo @kevowriting

These tips are so simple that they verge on cheats! I’m especially fond of step #4, “find a great quote,” because it really is one of the simplest ways to create engaging content. People love quotes! (You can quote me on that.) Kelly’s steps will get you sharing like a pro in no time.

21 Places for Finding Social Media Content to Fill Your Schedule

- By Michael Patterson The title of this article is somewhat misleading. Michael does not just suggest places where you can find content, he also provides you with tons of resources for creating your own. Including a tip that he calls Surprise and Delight.

The Blogging Tactic No One Is Talking About: Optimizing the Past

- Pamela Vaughan @pamelump

“Nine months ago, I analyzed a report that would transform not only my role on the HubSpot blogging team, but also the whole blog's editorial strategy.” How’s that for an intriguing opener?! In her article Pamela explains a content marketing strategy that she calls Historical Optimization, and how it revolutionized the content marketing at Hubspot.

Warning: These 58 Social Media Tips Could Explode Your Content Marketing

- By Scott Ayres @scottayres Talk about click bait! The title may ridiculous, but the tips are sound. Scott’s advice ranges from the super basic, “make use of hashtags,” to the wonderfully informative, “Page Post Targeting (PPT) is a new service from Facebook that allows you to handpick your audience, allowing you to deliver a clear message to a smaller group.” That’s all for this week. Enjoy the links, and stay social!

If you’re like the majority of HR professionals and recruiters that we meet, then you’ve recently taken on the task of social recruiting.

In today’s candidate-driven market, more companies than ever have turned to social in order to broaden their candidate attraction strategy.

Learning how to effectively and consistently attract qualified candidates via social media is the contemporary HR struggle.

And the struggle is real!

If you, like so many of the people that reach out to us, are struggling to make social recruiting work then these tips are for you.

5 Key Success Factors for Attracting Candidates on Social Media

These are the best practices that we see contribute most to our clients’ achieving their social recruiting goals time and time again.

1) Use photos, pictures, and video

Images boost social media engagement.

Visually appealing content gets more shares, clicks, and favourites than any other kind. So including images with your job posts is a surefire way to attract more applicants.

This is part of a growing trend to make recruitment more like marketing.

Our most successful users add YouTube videos to their Facebook Career Sites, Tweet photos, and share memes to their LinkedIn.

2) Make Your Words Count

Another way in which recruitment is becoming more like marketing is the copy being used for job ads and employer branding.

Boring job ads do not attract candidates.

Smart, engaging copy is what sells your jobs and your employer brand to potential hires.

Use exciting language, be direct, and add humour whenever possible!

Save specific requirements for the job description and focus on key points for your social shares.

Quickly sum up who you are looking for, then focus on why your company should be their first choice, and then finish with a call to action that prompts them to apply ASAP.

This simple formula works for writing effective job posts that convert on social media.

3) Use targeted ad campaigns

Social recruiting can be free, but you’ll get much better results if you’re willing to allocate some funds to Facebook Ads.

Organic reach has declined in response to the growing number of companies flocking to social media.

Targeted ads are the best way to counter this decline.

Take your best content and most important to fill jobs and turn them into targeted ads for Facebook and/or your target candidates’ other main social networks.

These ads will help you reach a huge talent pool that print ads and job boards do not. They will also help grow your employer brand and your social media audience.

If you’re not sure how to get started with social media ads, here’s a paper that explains how to create and use Facebook Ads for social recruiting.

And here’s an excellent blog post by John Loomer explaining how to budget for Facebook Ads.

4) Prioritize mobile

A substantial amount of job seekers conduct their search via mobile device.

71% of social media use is mobile, 86 percent of active candidates use their smartphone to begin a job search, and 70 percent of active candidates want to apply via mobile (Source).

You must make mobile a part of your social recruiting strategy!

Thankfully, all 3 of the previous tips will help you reach mobile job seekers.

Mobile friendly social recruiting is visual, includes short concise copy and employs targeted ads.

Facebook Ads perform 10% higher on mobile devices than they do on desktop and improve CTR (click through rate) by approximately 29 percent.

But, if your application process is not mobile-friendly, then you risk alienating the mobile applicants that your social recruiting strategy attracts.

At Jobcast, we’ve solved this problem by making it possible for applicants to upload resume directly from their Android device or by using Dropbox for iOS.

We also encourage our users to create a social recruiting call to action and pin it to the top of their Facebook Timeline.

Here’s a bit more about how Jobcast makes social recruiting mobile-friendly.

5) Emphasize employer brand

People are more likely to engage with companies that they know and trust.

This is as true for recruiting as it is for marketing.

When job seekers see other people engage with your company online it makes them more inclined to do the same.

This is called social trust and it’s a powerful way get more applications from qualified candidates.

The more recognizable and likeable your online employer brand is the more social trust you’ll build and the more applicants you’ll attract.

To build a recognizable employer brand make sure that all of your branding is consistent.

Use the same company colours, logos, and language for all of the content you share, on all of your social networks, and on your company website.

You’ll also want to share tons of positive content about your company and your employees as well as job posts.

Check out this article for more about what steps you need to take to improve your online employer brand.

If have tips for better social recruiting, please let us know in the comments!

Candidate experience should be a core consideration at every stage of the recruitment and hiring process. Social recruiting, mobile-friendly application, and video interviewing should enhance the candidate’s experience as well as the talent acquisition process. I’ve highlighted these three aspects of hiring because each of them speak to how today’s candidate wants to be recruited.

56% of candidates now turn to social media first when commencing their job search, 9 in 10 job seekers are looking for work via mobile device, and 66% of candidates prefer video interviewing to the traditional. Candidates want to be able to connect with companies through social networks, they want to apply for a job from their phone, and they want the option to interview via video. Excellent candidate experience is all about giving the candidate what they want (at least within reason!)

How Do Candidates Want to Be Recruited?

- By Axel Andersen @axelandersen

Are you trying to attract candidates by offering fancy job titles and goodie bags? If you are, then according to Axel Andersen, you might need to rethink your strategy! In this post, Axel discusses the latest findings from LinkedIn and what those findings can teach us about how candidates want to be recruited.

3 Integral Ways to Better Personalize the Candidate Experience

- By Chris Brablc @cbrablc The current job market is candidate driven, which means companies need to pull out every tool in their toolbox in order to attract qualified applicants. Talent analytics is one such tool. Chris explains how companies can use data to create better more personalized experiences for candidates.

4 Ways to Efficiently Schedule Candidate Interviews

- By Emily Tatum @ETphonehome91 Try as it might, technology has not solved the frustration that is scheduling. Scheduling meetings is an unpleasant part of life for everyone, but it can be an especially frustrating experience when it comes to interviewing. This is especially true when the interviewee is currently employed. Emily Tatum has 4 great suggestions for improving the interview scheduling experience and the candidate’s experience as a whole.

Stop Lying To Candidates: Here's a Good Way To Tell Them Why They Didn't Get The Job…

- By Kris Dunn @Kris_Dunn Despite popular belief, a candidate’s experience doesn’t end when you decide not to hire them. Candidates that don’t make the cut for one position may be a perfect fit for a future job opening. Even if you are certain that a particular candidate should never be employed at your company, or any other, they may have friends you’d love to hire. If you burn your bridges with the undesirable applicant, then chances are they will tell their colleagues, friends, and connections about it! Kris Dunn explains how to tell candidates they didn’t get the job in the best possible way.

10 Funny Images That Perfectly Sum Up Recruitment

- By Sophie Deering @sophiedeering How does this contribute to candidate experience? Laughing is the best antidote for a bad mood and happy recruiters, hiring managers, and interviewers makes for happy hiring :D

There are over 1.44 billion monthly active users on Facebook, according to the social network’s first quarter 2015 earnings announcement. Facebook is now up to 936 million total daily active users and has 798 million mobile daily users!

Facebook just keeps on growing as does the amount of hiring managers and recruiters turning to Facebook to reach candidates and share their job openings.

Social recruiting is rapidly becoming an essential part of hiring strategy and Facebook is the major network being used by companies, such as Pepsi and the Gap, to spearhead their social recruiting efforts.

Facebook recruiting is particularly relevant today as millennials continue to take over the labour market.

Does Facebook Recruiting Actually Work

The line between passive and active candidates has blurred to the point of near irrelevance. These days, everyone’s a candidate!

And, these days, everyone’s on Facebook.

To keep up with the competition and win the war for talent, companies must adapt to the millennial way of thinking about and looking for work. They must have an employer brand presence on Facebook.

What 1,355 Millennial Candidates Want in a Job

Most of the Jobcast blog readers are already savvy enough to know that Facebook recruiting is an awesome way to reach top talent, but it never hurts to be reminded of why we do the things we do!

Nor does it hurt to revisit some of the keys to running successful Facebook recruiting campaigns.

3 critical things all companies should be doing for Facebook recruiting:

1. Start with Employer Brand.

Your employer brand is how your company’s values, purpose and corporate culture are perceived on the social web.

Your employer brand helps ensure that job seekers know what your company is all about and whether or not they are a good fit. It’s also what will attract top talent to apply for your jobs.

You need to communicate all of the perks being employed at your company has to offer and show job seekers that your company is a place where they can grow.

Your employer brand must also be consistent in the way that it is communicated across all of your social networks and on your company website. This communication should involve not only words, but also photos and video!

5 Innovative Ways to Build Employer Brand

2. Social Means Getting Everyone Involved.

Facebook recruiting success is not possible if you ignore the social part of the network!

The most effective way to reach top talent, communicate your employer brand, and get more high-quality applications is to get your employees/colleagues involved.

Ask for their help!

“When you ask for support, you are trusting in others, which strengthens the trust between you and your supporters.” – Lorie Corcuera

You’ll be surprised by just how eager most people are to lend a hand.

Have employees spread the word that your company is an awesome place to work. Encourage them to post on their Facebook Timelines and the Company Page’s Timeline about their work and the office culture, share photos and engage with job seekers.

People are significantly more likely to consider a job if they hear about it from someone that they know, so capitalize on all of the social connections that your employees have.

3. Share, Comment, Like, Engage.

Content marketing plays a huge role in social recruitment.

Your company should be marketing itself by putting out a variety of written and visual content about accomplishments, events, and awards and sharing this content on Facebook.

You’ll also want to share links to other people’s content that is interesting to the candidates you are targeting.

11 Content Ideas for Social Recruiting

But on top of pushing content out, you also need to engage if you want to draw job seekers in!

Joining Facebook groups, liking other people’s content, commenting on posts, and engaging with anyone who reached out to your company via Facebook is an essential part of building a well-rounded social presence.

The more positive exposure and engagement that you cultivate for your company, the more your content will be shared and the more qualified candidates will want to connect with your company online.

The rules of work have changed a lot since I got my first real job. It used to be that I had to commute to my job, dress up nicely, and arrive at 8am sharp every morning. These days my work life looks very different... I’m working right now. I am also sitting on my couch wearing slippers. Some days I start at 5am and I'm done by 4pm. Some days I start at noon and work late into the night. Most of my meetings take place on Skype, and our team projects are managed with Basecamp and Trello instead of whiteboards and memos. And my commute is non existent save the occasional bike ride to a near by cafe or coworking space. Some of these changes are extremely welcome (goodbye high-heeled business lady shoes!) Some of these changes are not so great (goodbye coffee break chats with sassy coworkers!) But, love it or hate it, this is a new reality for many of us. Ross Perlin recently wrote an interesting piece for Fast Co. in which he says that these “new rules [of work] belong to another universe—flexible, precarious, and entrepreneurial, less and less tied to specific times, places, and employers.”

These Are The New Rules of Work

- By Ross Perlin

The article provides 5 examples of how work is changing, for better or worse. Perlin’s article is quite controversial and, as such, warrants dialogue and response, which it got from this Blogging4Jobs article:

5 New Rules for the World of Work

- By Mike Haberman

Mike agrees that there is a general shift towards the way of working that Perlin describes, but argues that he is likely overstating the size of that shift.

3 Keys to Effective Branding in a Millennial World

- By Maren Kate Donovan

One of the reasons how we work is changing is that the generation of workers has changed significantly. Millennials work differently and they need to be recruited differently as Maren’s article explains.

5 Scientifically-Backed Ways to Increase Job Tweet Reach

- By Greg Rokos

Researchers at Cornell University conducted a study backed by the National Science Foundation to measure sentences based on construction, rhetoric and keywords to determine which tweets get shared more than others. Greg explains how to improve your Twitter recruiting based on their research.

How to Optimise Your LinkedIn Company Page for SEO

- By Sophie Deering

Once you’ve optimized your Tweets, why not hop on over to your LinkedIn Company Page and get it up to speed as well?! Check out Sophie’s article to learn how. Actually… I think I’m going to head over the our LinkedIn Page and make a few changes too!

Jobcast is one of the top three companies nominated for BCTIA’s Most Promising Startup award.

We are very excited about this nomination and the perks that come along with it!

One such perk was the recent article about Jobcast featured on Techvibes, Canada’s leading technology news site, events calendar, and job board.

In the article author Jonathan Woods highlights some of the key benefits of social recruiting and Jobcast. He also interviewed Jobcast’s CEO, Ryan St. Germaine about why he thinks social is the future of recruitment.

Here’s a snippet from Jonathan’s post:

Jobcast Transforms Recruitment in Age of Social

“Social is the new major channel for career success and talent recruitment.

Jobcast, a Facebook Recruiting App that makes it possible for employers and recruiters to build fully branded career sections on their company Facebook Page, plans to capitalize on this.”

Read the rest of the article, Jobcast Transforms Recruitment in Age of Social, on Techvibes!

Working with Facebook is both a blessing and a curse. You probably feel the same way as you try to navigate Facebook recruiting! You love the volume of job seekers that Facebook gives you access to, the ability to share job postings and recruiting videos, and the opportunity to highlight your brand. If you’re anything like me, you hate the constantly shifting rules, disappearing features, and declining organic reach! One specific thing that all Jobcast users and Facebook app developers struggle with is that Facebook hides third party apps from their mobile users. Our clients and other companies with Facebook Career Sites find this extremely frustrating as it makes it difficult for them to advertise their Facebook Career Site to mobile job seekers. And we all know that mobile recruiting is essential!

In response to Facebook playing hide and seek with our users’ Career Tabs, we added a mobile-friendly custom URL feature to Jobcast. Your custom URL is smart, so it can tell if a job seeker is using a mobile device or desktop. When the job seeker is using a mobile device, they are directed to a mobile-friendly version of your Facebook Career Site. Once the job seeker lands on your FB Career Site they can browse your jobs, and even apply directly from their mobile phone by using Dropbox (iOS & Android) or the upload button (Android.)

Check out this tutorial to learn how to create your mobile-friendly custom URL with Jobcast But you still need to advertise your custom URL to the mobile job seekers that land on your Facebook Page. Here’s how: Create a post that advertises your Facebook Career Site and pin it to the top of your Timeline! Start with a nice large image that fits your brand well. I like to use Pixabay.com for this because the images are free to use for commercial purposes (always make sure that your images are legal to use!)

Then find yourself an image editing tool. I usually go with Photoshop, but unless you do a lot of graphic design I would recommend using Canva instead. Canva is an excellent tool for making all kinds of great graphics for social recruiting! Use this tool to add text to the image that you’ve selected that let’s people know that you are hiring or that you’re company is a great place to work. Here’s an example of how to do this using Canva. Select Facebook Post from their templates:

Upload your chosen image:

Then add your text by choosing either the simple text editor or a template:

Download your image and save it somewhere safe :D

Now go to your Facebook Page and create a Post that features your custom URL and instructs job seekers to click the link and view your job posts:

Add your image and then click Post:

Once you have shared your post, click on the little grey arrow at the top right of the post and select “Pin to Top”:

A small bookmark symbol will now appear at the top right of your post and it will remain pinned to the top of your Page’s Timeline for 7 days:

After that it will return to the date that it was published. You now have the option to re-pin this post to the top of your Page or to create a brand new post advertising your Facebook Career Site. If you have the time, we suggest creating a new post to keep your content diverse and interesting!

LinkedIn threw HRTech software providers and many employers for a loop last week when they implemented changes to their API that restricts the use of their “Apply With LinkedIn” feature.

But us tech nerds aren’t the only ones struggling with LinkedIn these days.

According to Irina Shamaeva anyone using LinkedIn’s “Job Posting” feature to recruiting is at risk of alienating potential hires by no fault of their own.

Why You Lose Potential Candidates with LinkedIn Job Posts – Posted by Irina Shamaeva @braingain

“While professionals may consider changing jobs for many reasons other than money, the salary is one of the most important factors. If you post jobs on LinkedIn, you need to be aware of the salary information, automatically communicated to your potential applicants.”

In her article Irina explains how LinkedIn includes estimated salary information provided by Pascale.com with job posts and in the LinkedIn advanced job search dialogue and why this may be losing you applicants!

I do give LinkedIn props for featuring her piece in their “Recruiting & Hiring” channel 😀

Data Reveals How Candidates Want to be Recruited – Alyssa Sittig

Another thing I think LinkedIn deserves recognition for is their awesome use of infographics.

LinkedIn recently released their Talent Trends 2015 survey of 20, 000 professionals working in 29 different countries.

They then compiled the highlights from their survey in this Infographic.

How Workers Find Jobs Now – Peter Cappelli

If you love information like that released in LinkedIn’s survey, but prefer more objective sources, then this article is right up your alley.

Peter shares relevant information on the state of the labour force and the mindset of job seekers found in the most recent census.

How Social Recruiting Can Give You Advantage in Tight Job Market – By Jessica Miller-Merrell @jmillermerrell

Jessica explains how social presents a unique opportunity to reach, engage and relate to the candidate before they consider applying for a job.

She emphasizes the importance of using social to connect and build your employer brand in order to really capitalize on the unique benefits that social recruiting has to offer.

How to: Actually Engage Candidates You Source (As Proven by Science) – Holly Fawcett @HollyFawcett

Just how do you go about engaging with a job seeker that you randomly tracked down online?

If this is something that you struggle with, or an area where you feel that you could use a refresher, then you will love Holly’s article.

It’s full of awesome, science-backed advice for engaging candidates effectively.

That’s it for this week! If you have a blog post that you think we should feature, then let us know in the comments 😀

Over the next the next decade Baby Boomers will leave the work force en mass.

62% of Fortune 100 companies believe that this will lead to a skilled labour shortage that will negatively effect their organization.

Companies need to start planning ahead and gearing their human resources department, recruitment, and retention efforts towards qualified millennial candidates if they want to avoid the negative effects of this “Baby Boomer Brain Drain.”

Gen Y’s employment patterns contrast significantly with those of the generations before them. They are more likely to job hop than Boomers and have very different expectations of their employer.

Software Advice recently conducted a survey that studied a sample drawn from the 1,355 applications that they received for sales positions in 2013.

Software Advice asked all of their candidates to answer a few longer-form questions, including: “What is most important to you in a job?”

Here's what they found:

#1: Money Still Matters Most (But Not by Much)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that the U.S. is still recovering from an economic crisis, “Salary and Benefits” was the most important thing to our Gen Y sample when looking for a job (mentioned by 34 percent of applicants). However, money didn’t win by much: Salary and Benefits was ranked the most important characteristic by just three percentage points.

Interestingly, several of those applicants who ranked Salary and Benefits of lesser importance noted they had previously worked in a high-paying job—and had discovered that money wasn’t everything. It seems that compensation may be of diminishing importance as Gen Y workers garner more professional experience.

“I’ve realized that a good salary is not worth it if it means sacrificing your happiness or doing something that truly interests you,” read one such response.

Similarly, the rest of the data stands in contrast to what previous generations deemed most valuable. “Stability” came in near the bottom of the list (6 percent), and even seemingly-vital qualities such as “Work/Life Balance” and “Good Management” (4 percent each) paled in comparison to the importance of, for example, “Having a Strong Team and Co-Workers” (about 20 percent).

#2: Culture and Atmosphere

Second to compensation, “Culture and Atmosphere” was ranked the most important aspect of a new position by our sample Gen Y applicants (31 percent mentioned this). This data suggests that for Millennials, it’s not enough just to have a well-paying job—they also need to like where they work.

Many mentioned wanting to be in a “positive,” “pleasant” or “friendly” working environment. They also cited a desire for a company culture that was “challenging,” “dynamic” and focused on achievement and recognition.

#3: Fulfillment and Satisfaction in What I Do

Thirty percent of applicants cited a need for “Fulfillment and Satisfaction in What I Do,” making it the third most important quality for our sample. Those who mentioned this characteristic noted that they wanted to enjoy the work they were doing every day, and wanted to do something they had a personal interest in.

Responses included “having a passion for what I do,” “loving my job,” being involved with “meaningful work” and doing something “rewarding.”

#4: Growth and Development

Mentioned by 25 percent of applicants, “Growth and Development” was the fourth most important characteristic. Part of this may be due to the fact that Gen Y applicants are, by definition, on the younger side of the age spectrum: many cited a desire for “learning” or to gain more on-the-job “experience,” and noted they wanted to “advance [their] career.”

Others sought specific opportunities for upward mobility, while some mentioned wanting to be able to set and achieve professional goals.

Gen Y Wants More Than Just a (Pretty Big) Paycheck

What Gen Y really wants is to make a good living—but these young professionals also want to find happiness, fulfillment and opportunity in their work, and to build the foundation for a career that rewards in ways beyond the mere financial.

Our data aligns with other findings about Gen Y in the workplace. A recent survey of 500,000 employees between ages 19 and 30 listed the top 10 companies for Gen Y workers. All of these companies pay their young employees very high salaries—median pay ranges from $55,800 at defense contractor SAIC to $92,800 at Microsoft—and boast ambitious yet flexible workplace cultures. But perhaps most importantly, a majority of workers at each of these companies feel that their jobs are “meaningful.”

For example, at mobile technology company Qualcomm, the survey’s number-one employer, Gen Y employees receive a staggering average salary of $90,000.

Not only that, 72 percent of these employees say they are doing meaningful work, 87 percent have high job satisfaction and 95 percent have a flexible schedule.

Google, the survey’s second most popular company, is regarded by many as the archetypal Gen Y employer—and small wonder, considering over 40 percentof Google’s employees were born between 1982 and 1993. (Birth years for when Gen Y starts and ends range from the early 1970s through the early 2000s.)

Average salary for these Millennial workers at Google is a whopping $80,000, and the company goes above and beyond to ensure that the culture and atmosphere is friendly and accommodating, employees love their jobs and there are plenty of opportunities to grow.

Examples of Google’s Gen-Y friendly perks include:

• Unlimited free food.

• Friday social hours with free beer and wine.

• A company gym with free fitness classes and team sports.

• A concierge service that handles employee chores and errands.

• The ability to bring pets to work.

• Maternity leave for moms and dads, plus on-campus daycare.

• “Massage credits,” which employees can give each other for good work and can redeem for a one-hour massage at work.

• The “80/20 rule,” in which 80 percent of employees’ time is spent on assigned work, but 20 percent can be spent pursuing “passion projects.”

• Lectures by celebrities and industry thought leaders.

So, if your company is looking to hire Millennials, make sure that you are offering positions with not only attractive pay—but also the kinds of non-monetary rewards Gen Y really wants.

For more about this survey and tons of other fantastic information about social job seekers, HRTech, and millennial candidates check out the Software Advice blog.