Case Study 1 – Attracting young talent in an SME
This case study describes the story of an SME located in the Liberec region, Czech Republic and its human resource management challenges. It is a company with a 20-year tradition in the recycling of refrigerators and other electrical and electronic waste. Right now, the SME is facing a lack of new, young talented people. Thus, the challenge is to start engaging young people, especially generation Z. To that end, this case study is trying to provide a short guide on how to start using social media for communicating with this generation, in particular Instagram, which the SME currently is not using.
The chosen company is a family-owned business based in in the Liberec region, Czech Republic. It is an SME with a 20-year tradition in the recycling of refrigerators and other electrical and electronic devices and composite waste. The SME was established in 1994. In 2004, it achieved Investors in People certification in the field of development of human resources and began cooperating with the nearby prison. The company’s goal is the maximum usage of recovered materials and waste. Its values include team cooperation, quality and flexibility, reliability, enthusiasm, helpfulness, and ethics. The company’s motto is “together for better planet.”
HR processes in the company The HR department in this SME consists of two officers – an HR manager and her colleague. Both of them work part-time and their main HRM responsibilities are described below. Recruitment and selection. The SME hires potential employees from external sources as well as from internal. They use mainly these tools in the recruitment process: • job internet portals • career profile on their website • municipality • supporting current employees for internal recruitment • references from existing employees • noticeboard inside the company’s building.
Proposed HR tools
Nowadays, companies are facing a lack of talented candidates. Consequently, the SME wants to start co-operating with high schools, to attract interns and apprentices who can become potential employees. But how can they attract these young people, known as Generation Z? Unsurprisingly, young people use modern media more than any other age group. Generation Z uses the internet, smartphones and other clever gadgets all the time. So, if a company wants to work with young people in high schools, it should support its effort by using social media. In itself it will not do much, but can be effective together with other efforts, such as student visits to the company; presentations by company representatives at schools, showing students the company’s values and culture; or organizing awards and competitions. Simply put, just be in touch with them, be connected. One of the favourite social networks for Gen Z is undoubtedly Instagram. Together with YouTube and Snapchat, it is in the top three social media sites for Gen Z (Anderson & Jiang, 2018).
As YouTube is rather demanding, because an SME would have to shoot regular videos and Snapchat seems an inappropriate tool for building an employer brand, this case study focuses on using Instagram (IG). The Step-by-Step Guide for IG is available in Appendix. Using social media can have a positive impact on a company’s growth. However, keep in mind there are also some drawbacks when it comes to using social media. Instagram’s pros and cons. A close look at using Instagram shows some advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include: • a picture is worth a thousand words, • Instagram is growing very quickly, • the proportion of the young generation segment is growing every year, • hashtags make it easy to connect with people, • location tagging is available, • responses happen in real time. The disadvantages are: • the constant need of visual content, • many users are not business minded.