Millennials, i.e. the generation of people born – according to various divisions – between 1980-2000 or 1980-1996. In Poland alone there are about 10 million of them. It is estimated that by 2025 they will constitute as much as 75% of all employees, and already today many of them are employed as managers in Polish companies. Their importance on the labour market and for the whole national economy will only grow. So if you are conducting or planning to conduct employer branding activities for Poles, millennials are likely to be your main target group. Discover the dos and don’ts of employer branding to Polish millennials!
Table of contents:
- Who are the Polish millennials?
- Polish millennials at work
- Employer branding to Polish millennials: dos
- Give millennials space
- Make the recruitment process as comfortable as possible
- Make sure your EVP is tailored to them
- Employer branding to Polish millennials: don’ts
- Job ads poor in relevant information
- Ignoring key external communication tools
- Lack of monitoring of employer branding activities
Who are Polish millennials?
Work or family
In line with the global trend, for Polish millennials the family is no longer the top priority. The approach of millennials to starting a family and deciding to have children is not changed even by numerous social programmes popular in Poland, such as 500+ (i.e. PLN 500 monthly child-rearing benefit for each child). Young Poles, especially those from larger cities, today largely prefer to focus on developing their careers and businesses.
Mental health is paramount
Among Polish millennials there is also a noticeable trend of taking care of one’s own mental condition. This is the first generation that is fully aware of its emotional state and is not ashamed to go to psychotherapy. They are less eager than older generations to participate in the culture of hustling, and translate the corporate rat race into healthy competition and work-life balance.
Openness to other cultures
Polish millennials are mostly people who are very open to the world and other cultures. The vast majority of them are fluent in at least one foreign language (mainly English) and have no problem working in an international environment. They travel a lot, and are mostly not as attached to traditional values or religiosity as older generations (although, of course, this is not the rule).
Polish millennials at work – what is important to them?
Development opportunities
For Polish millennials work and development are extremely important. According to the Gromar 2022 report, development is a key value for as many as 87% of millennials. The possibility of acquiring new competencies is as important to them as a salary. What’s more, they are open to gaining knowledge using modern tools, as well as in areas in which they have no experience. So it is important that a company that wants to keep Polish millennials in its ranks has a training budget and systematically encourages employees to undergo training.
Flexible work environment
Outdated rules of the game? Not with them! Long hours of internal training, classic annual appraisal system, rigid boss-employee hierarchy – these are things that can effectively scare off even highly motivated Polish millennials.
Freedom first and foremost
According to research conducted by the Gallup Institute, the freedom that millennials value so much at work manifests itself on many levels. Firstly, young employees appreciate the departure from the classic subordinate-employer relationship. Instead of bosses, they value mentors more. They also like freedom while performing tasks. They choose projects in which they have great decision-making power and which allow them to develop their personal competences. Naturally, they look for employers who guarantee them this.
An employer who cares about his employees
For Polish millennials, an attractive employer is one who cares about the physical and mental health of its employees. Medical package, protective prophylactics, sports programmes, mental support programmes, and even webinars or well-being trainings are strongly appreciated by them – especially after the pandemic. Show them that you really care about them. This will be especially important, since according to recent data, 62% of millennials have a negative attitude towards business and say that the main purpose of business leaders is only to make money.
Employer branding to Polish millennials: dos
Give millennials space
According to the Employer Brand (Marka pracodawcy) in their Poland 2021 report, almost 70% of representatives of the millennials generation identified home office as a factor that reduced their work-related stress levels. Working from home caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced the level of work-related stress in employees of this generation by more than half! Currently, among Polish office workers, the most liked working system is the hybrid system. So unless you have a specific reason to do so, don’t keep Poland’s millennials in the office for 40 hours a week. This will be a solid bargaining chip during recruitment. And the hired employees will thank you with loyalty and higher productivity.
Make the recruitment process as convenient as possible
Of course, you can look for employees in the standard way, such as posting an ad on popular job sites or Facebook industry groups, or contacting candidates directly on LinkedIn. However, you can do one additional and not expensive thing that will change the whole recruitment process. For Polish millennials, technology is an essential part of their lives and if instead of having to send an email with their CV they are given the option to do so by directly adding their application to your website, they will apply to you more readily. The HRM Institute report on employer branding indicates that as many as 89% of Polish job candidates indicate that the “career” tab is the most important source of information about the company for them. At the same time, almost half of them indicate that they do not find what they are looking for in these tabs. Make sure that such essential elements as:
- a list of positions for which recruitment is underway, together with their description and expectations,
- convenient form to recruit for each of the positions,
- possibility of direct upload of CV and cover letter.
Ensure a tailored EVP
EVP, or Employer Value Proposition, is nothing more than a set of differentiators, values and promises to potential employees, which the company communicates externally. When defining EVP in employer branding for Polish millennials, one should take into account everything they themselves value in their work. According to HRM Institute, the most desired values for Polish candidates are atmosphere at work, a favourable system of appreciation, and remuneration and benefits. It is also worth bearing in mind how important separating work from private life, lack of overtime and relaxed and honest communication with superiors is for them. Fruit Thursdays or Pizza Friday are nice, but not if it’s with these that you want to attract candidates.
Employer branding to Polish millennials: don’ts
Job advertisements poor in relevant information
Nothing annoys Polish millennials more in job adverts than omitting important information. Lack of information about salary or responsibilities can effectively discourage people from applying, especially since the statistical millennials are unlikely to reach for the phone to find out more, but rather ignore you. A decent job ad targeted at Polish millennials, apart from the job description, includes
- salary given in figures or in the form of a range,
- information about the employer and the department the company is recruiting for,
- candidate profile they are looking for (required and additional skills and experience)
- description of the further process of recruitment (especially information on the number of subsequent stages).
It is also better to avoid generalities in job advertisements, which unnecessarily lengthen the text and divert attention from what is most important for the candidate. On the other hand, if you work in the creative industry, millennials will have no problem with an ad written, for example, in a humorous style, with a funny video or even a meme. This should grab their attention.
Ignoring key external communication tools
Planning to reach millennials with a message about your company and encourage them to join your team? You need to be where they are! But it doesn’t stop there – you also need to communicate in a way that they will find natural. These are the two golden rules for effectively reaching younger generations online. Although it seems simple on the surface, it’s not. Especially as social media platforms become more and more numerous and it seems that millennials are simultaneously everywhere… and nowhere.
This is why we, as an agency specialising in Polish employer branding, often do a thorough research of their potential candidates at the beginning of our cooperation with foreign companies. This allows us to effectively determine where on the Internet career discussions are taking place among them. We know from experience that it is not worth ignoring these inconspicuous platforms. Indeed, not only LinkedIn or Facebook, but also Instagram, Twitter and sometimes even TikTok are suitable for employer branding communication.
Lack of monitoring of employer branding activities
With employer branding it is like with classic marketing – it is impossible to build an effective strategy without monitoring the effects of our actions. Only then we are up to date with everything that candidates say about us and we can react to it in time. And believe it or not, such discussions sometimes take place in the least expected corners of the network. In addition, monitoring tools allow us to track not only the mentions of the employer’s brand, but also the general trends in the market and to see what the competition is doing. It would be a shame not to use such a powerful instrument!
Are you looking for support of professionals in the field of employer branding targeted at Poles? Contact us – we are an experienced agency that supports foreign companies in developing and implementing employer branding strategies, both internal and external.