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OPINION, THE DIGITAL SMES ZONE, THE STARTUPS ECOSYSTEM

By Florence Broderick (@flobroderick), 2013-2015 cohort of Telefónica International Graduate Programme and Junior Digital Marketing Executive

Students across the UK find themselves frantically panicking as they approach their final university exams. Juggling excessive amounts of revision, attending numerous campus career fairs and desperately trying to savour their last moments of non-nine to five living, students get caught up in a competitive haze of conversations about internships, graduate schemes and the latest buzz-phrase: “personal brand”.

It’s not all bad news though – working in startups and smaller companies has become more fashionable in recent years with platforms like Enternships and WorkinStartups.com becoming popular amongst grad jobseekers. So, how can these SMEs attract Gen Y? What’s it going to take to convince them to swap the shiny corporate brand on their LinkedIn profile for a lesser known outfit?

Here are a few tips for those who are serious about investing in the future of their companies:

Emphasise job exposure and responsibility

When it comes to selling your SME to grads it’s so important to differentiate yourself from big companies. Talk about exposure, responsibilities, agility in decision-making and scope for progression to attract high-potential candidates who really want to make things happen. Remember that the best new grads will have done at least one internship and they will be expecting a step up so that they can learn fast and be stretched. 

“Young people don’t want cubicles and meetings anymore”

Technology is completely reshaping the nine-to-five (or rather nine to eight) workday and prompting employers to rethink what flexibility means to them. As Forbes reported the other day: “young people don’t want cubicles and meetings anymore”. And that’s true. Not everyone – and certainly not Millennials – function best at 9am, some thrive in the evening (especially in the world of software development), so consider the opening hours of your office and be flexible about working from home whilst setting clear rules.

Recruit innovatively

When it comes to the recruitment process, you really don’t need to rely on a big recruitment firm to do all of the legwork. After all, SMEs may not have the financial resources for this. Instead, think about using students (campus ambassadors) or grads themselves to find new talent by reaching out to university societies, lecturers and influencers. They know how to identify the top talent because they know exactly where to go to find them!

By reaching out to entrepreneurship groups or the computer science society, you can establish a direct and sustainable talent pipeline. Don’t underestimate the power of recruiting on social media either.  A striking 92% of companies are using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to for recruitment because that’s often where you will find the proactive and digitally savvy grads.

Get in early!

Often during the final year of an academic programme, students are swamped with all manner of deadlines and drowning in dissertations. If your company can get in early and recruit towards the beginning of the academic year (i.e. October / November) then you’re likely to bag some top talent. There’s nothing more relaxing for a student than getting the post-graduation job sorted early giving them peace of mind so that they can focus on the academic side of things and enjoy their last year of relative “freedom”.

Societal purpose

In spite of tough economic times, 81% of Millennials have donated money, goods or services, explaining why Gen Y has been one of the main drivers behind the exponential growth we have seen in social enterprise . Young people want to feel like they’re making an impact both for the business and wider community. They expect organisations to focus on social good as well as meeting and exceeding business targets. Social enterprise groups like Enactus and AIESEC are thriving at universities, so approach them if you’re looking to find the kind of go-getters really care about change and development.

Very often SMEs have a real gap when it comes to digital skills and literacies which underlines the importance of identifying their leaders of the future. Digital technologies are bridging the gap between small businesses and the big boys. If your company wants to exploit this then they need the right people from the right generation to be a catalyst for change and growth – otherwise playing catch up could be a tricky process.