Attracting Gen Z & Millennials to the Transit Industry: A Look at Virtual Hiring Events

As older workers in the transit industry retire, younger generations will make up a larger proportion of the talent pool and active workforce. Millennials are already well represented and on target to be 75% of the workforce by 2025. Meanwhile, Gen Z is fast on its heels and is projected to represent 30% of the workforce by 2030. This means employers need to find ways to be more attractive to this growing talent pool right now—by employing tools that deliver the kind of candidate experience younger job seekers want, as well as the types of solutions that will provide flexibility and scalability for the years ahead.

The younger generations of workers value many of the same things—namely convenience, speed, and human connection. Virtual recruiting events help employers deliver what Millennials and Gen Z want from a recruiting experience, whether your entire hiring process is done virtually, you need tools to streamline and support your in-person recruiting, or you need a hybrid approach that blends the two.

Here are 5 key ways virtual recruiting events helps transit agencies attract and engage with younger workers:

1. They offer a mobile-friendly experience
2.  Enable you to expand geographical reach
3. Help you speed up hiring
4. Scale the power of conversations
5.  Create candidate engagement
   

Let's take a look at these more in depth. 

#1 Mobile-Friendly Experience

The best virtual recruiting event platforms require no app downloads and support an easy-to-use mobile experience, so candidates can join from their favorite devices. Many Brazen clients use virtual events to engage with candidates during their lunch breaks, while commuting on a train, or from the sidewalk outside their favorite brunch spot. The key is having technology that allows candidates to have more control over when, where, and how they engage with potential employers.

#2 Expand Geographical Reach 

Younger workers may be more apt to relocate for the right job and virtual recruiting events give employers an easy and effective way to reach talent, no matter where they are currently located. By expanding their reach outside your immediate geographic area, transit agencies can attract more (and often higher quality) candidates, meaning you can make better hiring choices.

#3 Speed up Hiring

Speed is a hiring advantage in a tight talent market because it reduces the chances of losing a candidate to a competing employer. But for younger generations of candidates, speed is also simply a way of life. Many employers are finding success using virtual recruiting events to accelerate the recruiting process, with some even condensing the funnel from awareness to offer in a week or less.

#4 Enable Conversations

Most high-quality candidates have questions—and they deserve answers. Having the ability to hop on a virtual recruiting event and have a text or video chat with a live recruiter (or even a hiring manager) is a highly effective way to keep candidates’ attention, build trust, and create excitement around the recruiting process.

#5 Create Engagement

When employers use virtual recruiting events, they offer a lot more opportunities and options for engagement than those that still rely on a lifeless application form. Candidates want to engage with employers who want to engage with them—and hosting a wide variety of virtual recruiting events gives them ways to do that.

Learn more about transit recruiting trends in the Transit Recruiting Resource Toolkit. Download it here.

Ready to learn how you can hire more people for less with Brazen?
Let's talk. 

Like this post? Try these!

• The Transit Recruiting Resource Toolkit

• Key Insights from the Transit Workforce Shortage Report

• How to accelerate your hiring process with virtual hiring events

Stay in the Loop. Join 10,000+ Talent Acquisition Leaders

• Subscribe to our newsletter here.