“Employers are having to pander to the employment needs of this group to stay competitive,” said Blair. “This is a popularity contest, and it’s very competitive.”

Social media and Web 2.0 are vital to attract this audience and to recruiters getting their message across. “It’s not who you know anymore, it’s who knows you,” added Blair.

Blair suggested a number of ways that recruiters could attract ’Gen Y’ more effectively:
- upskill your recruitment team so they are up to date with Web 2.0
- experiment with different social media
- ensure the content is relevant, consistent and tailored to your organisation
- don’t police content, and don’t delete negative comments