The Gen Y+ GUI for Mobile Recruitment Apps and Sites

To further understand how Mobile Recruitment can be made to work for Generation Y+ I attended a presentation by Tim Hawks from Unlimited Potential on Coaching For Generation the Generation Y Era and Beyond at the recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development CIPD Learning and Development Conference HRD 2010 (#HRD10).

Tim opened his talk by analysing the first Facebook posting of a 23 year old solider on arrival at their first posting in Afghanistan. 30% of the words in that initial post were about the technology – the availability of WiFi, its speed and so on, the remaining 70% words were about and for those left at home. Such is the importance of technology to Generation Y+ a third of the words in that first message home were about technology!

Tim went on to introduce and paraphrase the eight characteristics or norms that describe the typical Generation Y and beyond, first described by Don Tapscott in his Grown Up Digital.:

[Generation Y and beyond] prize freedom and freedom of choice. They want to customize things, make them their own. They’re natural collaborators, who enjoy conversation, not a lecture. They scrutinize you and your organisation. They insist on integrity. They want to have fun, even at work and at school. Speed is normal. Innovation is part of life.

To succeed with Generation Y+ Mobile Recruitment sites and apps must take on these norms:

Freedom
Access to the Mobile Recruitment (MR) site should be available by mobile and fixed Internet with applications available for - iPhone, Android, Symbian – as well as HTML5. This choice of access methods gives GenY+ the ability to access the site how and when they want with a familiar GUI

Customisation
The MR app or interface should be personalisable so the GenY+ can select and go straight to the areas that are of interest to them. Further the MR site should know and recognise them, when GenY+ sign in delivering their personalised GUI. Gen Y+ like to make things their own so make sure they can have their own custom site.

Collaboration
MR sites and app should include the ability to interact or post to Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter , IM platforms, Digg, Skype and other social media sites. There should be a back channel so the company can interact directly with the GenY+ candidate eg DM me now on Twitter, email, Skype me now. GenY+ wants to connect with you and perhaps their friends through you – they should be given every opportunity to create and/or sustain a conversation.

Scrutinize
Maximum access to the company’s on line public on line resources and its personal so GenY+ can do their research. Consider using the Twitter and Linked-In accounts of key personal on site. The more GenY+ knows about you and your company the more comfortable they are.

Integrity
Ensure your on-line profile reflects the right image to GenY+ - respectful, equal opportunity, diverse, green - this is where your employee branding is important.

Fun
The MR app should be easy to use perhaps borrowing GUI ideas where appropriate from successful games such as Call of Duty, Halo or Grand Theft Auto.

Speed
Gen Y+ is the ‘Fast-Forward’ Generation who, the moment the video becomes boring, want to move on to next action. So the MR site and app should ensure movement is quick all irrelevant data can be passed over quickly to reach the relevant parts.

Innovation
The site can change as often as you like as long as it takes into account all the points above and ideally is genuinely a better site or app.

To conclude an MR site or app for Gen Y+ is sensitive and responsive to these eight factors creating the friendly , open and honest relationship they expect with their potential employer.