Snag Passive Job Seekers With a Dynamic Online Career Center
An analysis run by LinkedIn shows 85 percent of the full-time employed workforce consider themselves to be passive job seekers. This trend is particularly prevalent among the growing population of younger employees known for their lack of tenure: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees between 20 and 34 years of age average a median stay of two to three years in their jobs.
With the majority of employees regularly on the hunt for their next big opportunity, the labor force is becoming much more transient, and job hopping is becoming the new norm. This presents associations with some unique opportunities.
First, associations have more access now than ever to talented candidates and should revamp their staffing strategies to include these less tenured employees. While job hopping carried a stigma in the past, the reality is most people leave positions in favor of promotional opportunities or to join more prestigious organizations. This is more indicative of ambition and talent rather than instability as previously believed.
Particularly with younger workers, it is important to note many of them entered the workforce during the economic recession between 2008 and 2010. Because of the recession, they missed out on a couple years’ worth of potential pay increases and promotional opportunities and are still trying to recoup these losses.
Some recruiting advisers suggest employees make a point of changing jobs every several years as a way to keep their skill set up to date and their compensation competitive, because, as pointed out by Forbes, workers who stay at a company longer than 2 years are paid up to 50% less over the course of their career.
Regardless of age, candidates who have worked with a variety of firms bring several skills to the table:
- Knowledge of competitors
- The ability to learn and adapt quickly
- The tendency to mature quickly into their roles.
These are employees know how to be highly impactful in a short period of time. Associations can benefit from the competitive skills and quick on-the-job learning these short-term employees offer.
Second, associations should revise membership offerings to reflect their member base’s focus on employment. Recent research from Naylor’s Association Communications Benchmarking Survey suggests that more than half (56 percent) of associations admit they have trouble engaging young professionals. These are the same young professionals who are focused on their careers and moving from job to job.
Associations can engage with these young professionals by maintaining a robust online career center as a membership benefit. The backbone of any career center is a dynamic job board that allows industry-leading employers to advertise their open positions and peruse member resumes. Members receive the benefit of confidentially uploading and displaying their resumes to relevant, desirable employers and the ability to browse jobs pertaining specifically to their field without weeding through other, non-relevant postings.
The real value in an association online career center, however, is the rich, career-related content – job search tips, market trends, and industry-specific information associations can host through an online career center that give their members a leg up in the employment market.
Make membership in your association more attractive by offering an online career center that assists your members with the career growth they seek. An online career center can take many forms depending on your association’s size, existing resources and manpower, and your membership’s needs. Active job seekers will appreciate the help for obvious reasons, and passive job seekers will also enjoy the tips, videos, and articles your career center provides as they keep an eye out for their next possible job opportunity.
Want to know more about different online career center solutions that may fit your association? Contact [email protected] for a quick tour of options.
