Is Picking Your Next Job Really The Same As Picking Your Next Holiday?

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Rate and review is coming to the workplace.

Dear sir. madam, after viewing your vacancy on Facebook, and checking our your recent Instagram Stories, I have decided that I am the right person to fill your current vacancy in the accounts department. Your employees seem to like working for you, based on their comments on Glassdoor, hence I attach a link to my YouTube channel and hope you will consider me for the role. Regards, A. Millennial.

It may seem far-fetched, but it is, in fact, the reality of how the modern job search goes. People are now researching jobs in the same way they study holiday destinations. So you’d better not be the Kavos of Recruitment agencies, or the Skegness of sales teams!

Gone is the sense of fear and dread about what your new boss or working environment will be like, because savvy millennials are checking it all out online before they even think about applying, and they are not using the channels employers expect. Why hit the company website, when the juicy insider details are all on Facebook?

Just because earlier generations felt grateful just to find a job, any job! Millennials and Generation Z are taking their time, and evaluating if jobs are right for them, before they sign on the dotted line and commit their valuable time to ‘working for the man’.

It’s all part of the disruption of the workplace, say research specialists BPS World. The online reviewing culture, inspired by sites like Amazon, and Trip Advisor, has reached the boardroom.

According to a recent BPS survey, a staggering 80% of employees would be inclined to check out an employer online before they accepted a new job offer.

But if you think employees are bossing the bosses, you’d be wrong – 74% of employers are doing the same thing!

Facebook is seen as a more useful gauge of how an employee might perform than even LinkedIn, with Glassdoor, an HR focused site that provides the inside scoop on what it is really like to work at a particular company, also used regularly by employees to get the lowdown on their prospective new employer.

This is a recent phenomenon, as BPS’ research reveals that 62% of employees did not bother to research their current employer before joining them. Clearly, they are determined not to make that mistake again.

“These findings suggest that the open, consumer-led platform of Facebook is preferred for creating a truer picture of what the potential employer could be like”, says Simon Conington, Founder and Managing Director of BPS World.

“in a similar way to the ‘traveller’s own photos’ on Trip Advisor. There is an honesty about what people share online that often isn’t reflected in the way a company presents its employer brand.”

What’s clear is that on both sides of the equation, employer, and employee, reputation matters, and respect is earned, through positive social media vibes, and not just given.

It may strike the more senior amongst us as odd – since when has the world of work been a place where we can pick and choose – where we can demand that our expectations be met on all counts, or we walk away, even before we have done the induction?

Since now, it seems, and it throws up all kinds of interesting possibilities. Try Before You Buy HR Campaigns, perhaps, or an employee giving their boss a weekly appraisal.

“Dude, when you lost your sh*t about the decimal place error – that. Was. Not. Cool.”

Well, it’s refreshing to see that in the modern work environment, talent knows its value. And in order to play chicken with an employer, you have to know you have options, which in the world of startups, for example, where skills are transferable, knowledge is power, and age really is just a number, is always the case.

Mind you, the flipside? One or two work no-shows, a couple of off days, a photo posted by a jealous team member of you chilling by the water cooler – again – and you may be forced to delete your Facebook account.

And you’ll have to decide if Snapchat bunny ears really is the image you want to project to your latest interviewer. For what it’s worth, we think it definitely is!

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