The Wall Street Journal recently had a story about a publishing company in Nova Scotia in which its sales staff, all under age 35, disdained the use of phone calls in favor of emailing prospective customers. Seems like these young workers considered phone calls an “interruption.”….most of them apparently conducted both their business and personal communications primarily through texting or email.
When it became apparent to upper management that this approach didn’t cut it in the field of sales, where personal rather than impersonal rapport matters, the company hired a “phone use consultant” ((I never knew such a specialty existed) to spend two days a week introducing the sales team to the merits of actual one-on-one phone conversations. Apparently it was a daunting task…..the issue of phone aversion was so pronounced that one young sales team member had to be taught what a dial tone was and that desktop phones don’t require one to press “send.”
This got me thinking about how Millennials deal with the employment interview process, a subject I address in my interview skills workshops. If people in this age group are averse to conversing by phone, do they also avoid face-to-face meetings with candidates for employment if they’re in managerial roles? Sure, Skype and video conferencing are useful in the preliminary evaluation of potential candidates but nothing is more important to making good hiring decisions than an in-person meeting. The literal definition of interview-”to see between”-implies a mutual exchange, a conversation. Is someone who is accustomed to conducting interpersonal relations online going to be comfortable meeting and evaluating someone in the flesh? The full measure of a candidate can only be determined via a full “3D” assessment….body language, voice inflection, eye contact are as important factors as the skills and experience the candidate claims to possess.
For most hiring managers, good interview skills are acquired through trial and error….for a lucky few, they come naturally. Will the Millennial generation recognize the importance of in-person contact with candidates for employment or will they choose to meet them electronically, then press “send” to extend an offer?
