Hiring twenty years ago was not the same as it is today. In fact, the way we used to hire five years ago is not the same as the way we think about it now. Times have changed, and many factors are involved in this conjunction. Even the emergence of a pandemic has turned almost everything upside down. One of the most relevant changes is undoubtedly technological.
It is simply impossible to carry out a selection process without relying on new technologies. Recruiters have more and more tools at our disposal to do our job more effectively. But, as if this were not enough, the information we want to obtain from our candidates is also much greater.
Recruitment has undergone major changes recently, so do you want to know what the main trends and keys will be in the coming years?
1. Integrate the future employee into the company right from the selection process
That’s getting off to a good start. To integrate the future employee into the company from minute zero, you have to start the selection process itself. From the moment they register for the offer, they should feel considered. You can do this through the text you compose and by using the various means at your disposal (videos, social networks…), conveying what the experience of working here is like and proposing a careful and respectful selection process. Feeling respected and taken into account is essential to start feeling part of a project.
In addition, it is advisable that as the process progresses, you let the candidate know what the phases are and guide him/her through the process. The objective must be, at all times, that the candidate is captivated by our company and continues to have a good consideration of it even if they are not finally selected. There will be new opportunities, for sure, so if recruiters like the candidate, we will always have the opportunity to contact them again.
2. Observe (and update) people’s skills and aptitudes with a magnifying glass
Skills that were important five years ago are not so important now. The changes in our society and the script twists and turns (the pandemic is one of them, of course) mean that companies must also change. Thus, if the management of digital tools could have been placed some time ago in a fifth position, today, it is probably in a first or second position. Not surprisingly, most companies have already embarked on a good part of the road to digitization.
These skills, along with empathy, the ability to work in a team, to be creative in problem-solving or results-orientation, will continue to be key in 2022. However, as we don’t know what the future holds, the need for people who excel in one skill or another will change over time. Our job as recruiters? To be aware of these trends and always keep in mind the priorities and gaps within the organization. This may require skills maps that are updated in real-time.
3. Automate a large part of the tasks involved in this process
It is true that by now, we have already updated a good number of tasks and procedures. It is part of this digitization process. However, both for the daily management of Human Resources and for the selection processes themselves, automation will be taken to another level.
In this way, recruiters can dedicate much more time to the other phases that require a more personal analysis, such as interviews (face-to-face or remote) and the subsequent stages, which require us to think more carefully about the profiles selected.
4. Attract candidates through interesting job offers
We have already talked many times about the importance of creating good job offers. This is a task that we tend to do on the spur of the moment, which means that we don’t spend as much time and effort on it as we really should. The job offer is our first meeting with the candidate, and you know how important first impressions are. Our recommendation, in this sense, is that you prepare a complete and detailed offer in which the characteristics of the position are well specified, as well as the skills and knowledge required. It is also important to give a good description of what the company is like and to offer, if possible, the vision of the people who work with us. Who better than them to tell you what it is like to work in your house? If you are doing it right, their role will be fundamental in attracting the best talent.
However, don’t forget to apply perfect copywriting. I’d like to say that you don’t need to be an ideal essay writer, but… well, it’s better to be one. Take care of the text in detail to make a good impression on the candidates. It will be one of the first signals you will give them about your interest in a job well done and your respect for the people who are part of the team.
5. Turn employees into ambassadors of the company
To achieve this, you need a good employer branding strategy, so this can be one of the New Year’s resolutions you make with your HR team. If the people who work with us are enjoying a good experience in their job, they will speak well of the company. They will surely be able to bring to our selection processes people they already know, who have similar criteria and value scales, and, of course, who have the training, experience, and skills necessary to fit our vacancies.
GenZ employees make up about 25% of the workforce across the globe and the figures are expected to go up to nearly 30% by 2030. These tech-savvy individuals are considered to be the most diverse set of professionals to enter the workforce.
As these individuals are entering professional life, companies need to buckle up their seatbelts in creating an environment that suits their moods.
GenZ is the generation of people born in the mid-90s who have grown up during the swiftly changing times over the last two decades. They have witnessed the Great Depression, the ever-growing danger of environmental crisis as well as the recent global pandemic due to Covid 19 to name a few. They are also called the internet generation or iGeneration.
If compared with the previous generation, Gen Zers have a totally different perspective on life. What makes this iGeneration different from the other generation is their behaviour. Their interest isn’t focused on how much they are going to earn or what others think of them but is worried about work-life balance and mental well-being.
In the part where the previous generation always focused on working late till it drained them, Gen Zers are more attracted to having a paid leave from their organisation, and a day off for a mental break.
What Makes Gen Z So Different?
There are several characteristics of a Gen Zer that makes them unique from the others, especially from a millennial. These people love to have their own working space and do not like sharing it with others.
As mentioned earlier, this group was born during the recession time, which makes them more realistic and practical. Gen Zers are also believed to prefer learning through different educational platforms such as the live-classes, online tutorials or receive on-the-job training classes.
What Does Gen Z Expect in the Workplace?
The hype created because of these Gen Zers is what puts a lot of companies in a tough situation of hiring them. But why should organisations hire them? That is because they are young and smart, and believe in innovation and creativity.
GenZers are very expressive about their feelings and aspirations, so they usually expect lucid and transparent communication from the leadership.
Organisations need to put control and policies in place which ensure clear messaging across the hierarchy. They need to focus beyond traditional benefits and form a culture where they embrace Gen Zers as a whole person and not judge a person for what they can accomplish in eight hours a day.
How to Manage Gen Z Employees?
Here in this read, let us figure out an in-depth understanding of how can organisations manage GenZ employees.
Build a Sense of Community
One of the most important aspects of keeping a Gen Z employee is to give them the liberty to interact and communicate with one another on a digital medium. They are born in the digital age and love to be connected 24×7 through the internet.
Gen Z carries its smartphone everywhere and utilises social media in every way possible. They prefer communication through texts, video calls, and phone calls to face-to-face interaction.
They develop a platform or community where they discuss and share ideas with like-minded people who feel their effort has a purpose and work-life feels more enjoyable.
Accordingly, they expect the workplace to support them in working with innovative technologies. Research shows technology will be a crucial factor that Gen Z will consider while deciding on a job offer.
Reward Them for Their Hard Work
Gen Zers are true performers as they put a lot of effort into getting work done. For them, their hard work must be paid off. They expect at the workplace that whatever work they have carried out should be worth their effort.
They are not someone who will accept any amount of reward if it doesn’t match their performance. Organisations need to put in mind the negotiation part while hiring a Gen Zer.
They crave independence and like it under their control
Let Them Work Independently
When it comes to handling a project or any kind of work, Gen Zers expect their managers to listen to them. Since they have a knack for creativity, they want their ideas to be heard.
These young employees want managers to give them work without any help or support from other teams. Being one of the most self-sufficient employees, Gen Zers like to keep things under their control.
Embrace New Technology
Organisations must change themselves in the way they operate to meet the expectations of GenZ. They must indulge in launching such initiatives that reinforce the company assignment, and employees’ roles in achieving goals and permitting people a chance to speak up their minds.
They look for a platform that gives them easy access to information and resources. Two-way dialogue with leadership fosters a way for a greater understanding of expectations in the workforce for these young employees. To think that they were born during challenging times, these youths stand up for what they believe in.
Prioritize Mental Health at Your Workplace
These energetic individuals do not like stress at all. For them, mental health is an essential factor to stay productive and successful.
In a competitive world, these young employees find themselves lost most of the time, which is why their focus is on overall well-being to lead a happy and fruitful life. Moreover, they like to choose those organisations that are diverse and have an inclusive work culture.
Conclusion
Every generation is different from the other. It is time for companies and organisations to incorporate the things and adapt to the flexibility that these Gen Zers have been asking for all these years.
For a company to have high-performing results, it must indulge in the above-mentioned measures to manage these young employees properly.
FAQs
How do you motivate Gen Z workers?
Appreciate them for their efforts, Provide regular feedback, create a sense of community, and Provide growth opportunities.
What do Gen Z employees want?
Gen Z employees want a better work-life balance, growth opportunities, great work-life balance and improved mental health and wellness support.
Past One and a half years have been hard for everyone. We were in a global pandemic that confined everyone to their homes. The social aspect of being a social animal was almost cut off and thrown out of sight.
One of the most affected or I would say affected domains is the work domain. We all learned to work remotely in these tough times. Technology proved to be a good companion in these times. This was a good test for that too.
While almost everyone’s opinion says that work from home is no substitute for in-office work. Remote working can be cost-saving, time-effective, and can break physical location barriers. It is thought that it might just never be the future of work. As it is not as efficient as the normal mode of work.
While we talk about the opinion of the general public, a company goes ahead and makes this mode of work their primary model of working. After doing that it touches a valuation of more than one billion dollars. The company is GitLab, and it has pulled off a magic trick. How can a company pull this off? This is the article about how GitLab managed to touch billion dollar valuation while all employees working remotely. Read on to uncover the growth mystery.
GitLab is a software company. It makes a product, which is a complete platform for DevOps. The DevOps platform empowers organizations to maximize the overall return on software development by delivering software faster, more efficiently, while strengthening security and compliance.
So what is a DevOps lifecycle? It is a continuous cycle of software development. It involves development, integration, testing, etc. What makes GitLab unique is that it creates a streamlined software workflow for the organization.
One of the shiniest traits about this company is that It recently was named the biggest remote working company in the world. Crazy, right? Well, it takes courage to make the whole organization go remote, after all, it is a 1400 member organization and it can be difficult to manage work with this big of a team. Let us see how the remote working works and does it even work at all?
Remote Working in GitLab
GitLab recently was named the biggest remote working company in the world. Surprisingly the whole corporation works on a model of work-from-anywhere. Even with remote working, the company managed to create a billion-dollar valuation. This has put many people in awe like us on how it does it. The company has more than 85 per cent of employee retention that is higher than most companies average.
How is the company able to manage and work efficiently with all the employees working remotely from anywhere in the world? First, let’s discuss what types of models exist for working remotely and then how GitLab follows an efficient type.
Stages of Remote Work –
No remote – A model where no remote work is allowed. It can be due to a leadership mandate. Remote time – When some remote work time is tolerated and seen as a perk for jobs. Remote exceptions – When some employees can work indefinitely and others work from physical offices. Remote allowed – When anyone is allowed to work remotely, except few location-based exceptions. Hybrid model – A mix of remote work and physical office work when and as needed. Remote days – When the entire company works remotely (even executives). Remote first – When the leadership assumes that the whole company is distributed. Remote only – When the work is remote but team-based and time-based. All Remote – Companies like GitLab where there is no office, no fixed time zone, and greeted flexibility. It also discourages frequent meetings. Strictly remote – A company where it is strictly decided to never meet in person and work remotely always.
GitLab has its employees all remote. Remote here means that the company has no office, literally no permanent office at all. It however says it is open to small bursts of hybrid models. It is open to renting a desk but the company has no physical working space. So, how did the remote work model worked for GitLab.
Leadership Quality
Employees at lower levels of responsibility mimic the leadership at the top level. GitLab knows this and thus invests more on the senior level of executives. They choose carefully the leaders who are effective communicators and can handle a team remotely with the same efficiency as offline work.
Transparency
Remote work at GitLab discourages informal communication and it leaves fewer chances of communication. So, employees communicate more than normal to avoid any discrepancy. This leads to transparency of the whole company and betters the organization’s administration.
Asynchronous Decisions
GitLab follows a DRI approach to decisions. DRI stands for Directly responsible individuals. This means, At GitLab, everyone can make a suggestion but the person who is actually making the decision can choose whatever he/she wants without explaining themselves. This ensures that decisions are not vanishing all over the employees. Otherwise, there would be just too much convincing work.
Iteration for coordination
Coordination is hard in any company. When it comes to remote, there are more time and location zones and it becomes even more trouble but GitLab has found a solution for itself. It does small tasks first to synchronize various departments and then increments the process in order to fulfill a bigger goal.
Writing culture
Documenting everything. It’s easier to create and delegate tasks in an offline setting but not easy in remote work. So what GitLab does is that they write a lot, they write tasks completion details in a handbook, make annotations and get the work progressively done.
There are many benefits of working remotely. The most common that are the most easily clear is -
Cost-effective
Imagine running a business with no office at all. No physical space or office at all. This is highly cost-effective. This is what remote work enables employers to do. It saves cost and allows us to spend on more important tasks of the company.
Commute time
Employees save a lot of commute time, which can be devastating if you live away from work. The employees get the time back to themselves, leaving them with more time to spend with family or with themselves.
Flexibility
Employees get the benefit of work flexibility, which otherwise didn’t exist. They can spend time with family when needed. Moreover, it boosts retention. GitLab reportedly has more than 85% employee retention.
Recruitment
When employees can work remotely they can be located anywhere. Even far from the workplace, even in a different country. It saves cost when we hire people from non-metro cities.
What to Avoid while working Remotely
If you are someone who wants to create a remote work organisation, there are a few common pitfalls that GitLab says you should avoid:
Do not Assume that there are No Resources Available Yet
In this tech world where you might think that everything is easy and can be done, you are not wrong there. Yes, every resource that you want for having your organisation go remote is already out there. Do good research and work with your employees to figure out what works best for your case.
Do not Replicate the In-office Experience, Remotely
This is the least you should do. If the arena is different, the rules should bend too. After all, it is a new dynamic work view. So replication of office experience will lead to turmoil. It is vital to reorganise and recalibrate at this point.
Do not transfer all in-person meetings to virtual
Remote work is not something unintentional. It is what you consciously choose to do for more efficiency. Transferring all meetings to virtual mode will not be efficient as it will take more time and lead to less productivity.
Do not assume that everyone has access to an optimal workspace
While people who are working remotely for a long time now would have calibrated to a more organised work desk. But do not assume that everyone has that privilege. Organisations should encourage employees to spend companies money as their own while constructing a home office. Also, consider reimbursing expenses.
Do not assume that remote happens overnight
Oh yes, it is a dynamic process, change can be a long process. Every employee may not be familiar with this mode of work or might take time to get used to it. Productivity may differ at different times and the solution is not to panic but to give it more time. Don’t assume your existing values can remain static.
According to the software company GitLab, “All remote is the future”. The world opens its eyes to a new and refreshing reality that is unlocking new potential. They can, as it turns out, accomplish their work from anywhere.
When you have the freedom to work anywhere with a stable internet connection, you’re able to build your career around your life, not vice versa. You can chase superior air quality and schools, move to a smaller community, move back home, relocate to be a caregiver, or travel full time. All these benefits provide an agile edge not only to businesses but also and primarily to employees.
FAQ
Is GitLab fully remote?
Yes, GitLab is a fully remote company, meaning that all of us (currently six) work 100% of our time from home or any other place in the world.
Is GitLab a good place to work?
According to a report 95% of employees at GitLab say it is a great place to work.
What is the meaning of remote working?
Remote work is a practice where employees do their jobs remotely or from their home.
The Indian startup circuit has become synonymous with outstanding developments in recent times. One of the biggest names in this circuit is Flipkart, the e-commerce behemoth that has set a benchmark for various entrepreneurs around the world. Flipkart is one of the most popular online shopping platforms in India. From dresses to grocery items, it covers a huge product catalog.
While Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are seen as the face of Flipkart, one more person deserves credit for taking Flipkart to the zenith of success. He is Mr. Amod Malviya, better known as the co-founder of Udaan. For the uninformed, Udaan is a B2B marketplace that attained the unicorn status in just 26 months. Amod’s net worth is about INR 3500 crore, making him one of the richest Indians. This StartupTalky post sheds light on the success story of Amod Malviya.
Name
Amod Malviya
Age
38
Citizenship
Indian
Education
B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Title
Co-founder of Udaan
Net Worth
INR 3500 crore
Amod Malviya – An Industry Veteran and Entrepreneur
Technology has become all-pervasive in our lives. Internet is one example that attests to this statement. Our dependence on the internet for various reasons, be it to pass time, gain knowledge, or stay in touch with others, shows that we cannot survive with technology in modern times.
Amod Malviya has made significant contributions to the Indian startup ecosystem by leveraging technology. The prime example would be his stint as the CTO of Flipkart in its early years. From being an engineering manager to becoming the chief technology officer, Amod has played a crucial role in Flipkart’s success.
As the co-founder and engineer at Udaan, an organization that is redefining B2B commerce in India, Amod has only substantiated the wonders of technology. It doesn’t end here. He has also served as the vice president of engineering at ApnaPaisa. Through these involvements, Amod has shown that an individual with technical expertise can make it big as an entrepreneur.
A graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Amod takes keen interest in startups and entrepreneurship. His ideologies revolve around engineers. During a conference, he spoke on an ideology which deemed engineers as differentiators. According to him, the type of code one writes is not a differentiator.
Amod Malviya
While talking about infrastructure, he said that the ability to build scalable architecture was also no longer a unique factor. With the current public cloud ecosystem, one has to be stupid to not create naturally scalable systems. Moreover, the platforms used to create such infrastructures are commoditized.
According to Amod, technology has been commoditized at a rapid pace. If an engineer is identified by a tools, framework, or skillset, then he or she is being commoditized. Engineers go way beyond this identification. The ability to think through scenarios usually seen as impractical and turn them into reality makes engineers a rare breed.
Amod Malviya – Questions that Differentiate Engineers from Code Monkeys
Being an expert in the field of technology, Amod put forth a few questions to developers in a conference. These questions compelled the developers to wonder whether they were creating products that benefit the ecosystem or were they just “coding monkeys”. The questions were:
Are you responsible for the success or failure of the product you develop? Are you just an extension arm of someone who directed you to what to do? Do you hold yourself personally accountable? Plethora of companies treat engineers as delivery products.
If you are responsible for the development of a product, when was the last time you spoke with your customer? Who in your team speaks to your users? Is it your product development team or you?
How much time do you devote to analyze how your customers are using your products? Is there someone else in your team who is doing that and telling you what changes you should make to develop your product?
According to Amod, the answers would help determine whether one was a real entrepreneur or just a code monkey.
Amod’s Questions which Differentiate Engineers from Code Monkeys
Amod Malviya – The Future of Work Lies in Staying Connected with the Real World
Amod has shared some valuable tips for engineers who wish to make a mark in the startup circuit. One such tip is centered on identifying inefficiencies in the world.
Since most engineers are disconnected from the real world and remain lost in imagination, they fail to identify opportunities that call out for a complete transformation. Amod cites this is a reason for the abundance of non-technical entrepreneurs in India. These entrepreneurs keep their eyes and ears open to opportunities others overlook and then headhunt for a technical co-founder to conceive a solution. Engineers need to learn from opportunists and identify problems.
The Future of Work according to Amod
Another advice from Amod to budding engineers-entrepreneurs is to be accountable. One should analyze the problem, talk, draw opinions from the users, and continue developing the solution. All of this should be done while owning up to the consequences.
Amod also emphasized on building a tool craft. As an entrepreneur, one should explore the diverse set of tools available in the Indian startup segment. One can start his or her company using these tools. Those with existing ventures can level up through the use of such toolkit.
He also attributes the success of Indian startups to the internet. Distribution is massive in the era of the internet. One should remember that he or she is not the only one who has identified some inefficiency in a product or service. There are several others too. This competitiveness has spurred people to take action and come up with initiatives that create value for the society.
Amod believes that companies need to create the right kind of accountability. According to him, they also need to solve problems for the internal teams by creating in-house tools. Amod gave an overview of one such system currently in use at Udaan. The company measures engineers on their end impact on a business metric; hence, the management doesn’t shed excessive spotlight on delivery as the engineers are given that choice and flexibility.
Amod Malviya is a role model for millions of people, particularly engineers. While Udaan, the company he co-founded, continues to make giant strides, it is being ensured that the engineers employed by the organization are given complete freedom to develop and implement their ideas. Amod has proved that success is inevitable when knowledge and intelligence are implemented in the right manner.
