Pizza Hut targets Generation Y for recruitment needs

The food chain formerly known as Pizza Hut will revamp its recruitment site to help attract more Generation Y candidates – those typically aged between 18 and 28.

HR director Jayne Little said many of the restaurant’s workers were aged between 18 and 22, but to carry on attracting the best young talent Pasta Hut, as it is now known in some 30 UK outlets, needs to place job adverts in a language that young people will get inspired by.

Little told Personnel Today: “For us it’s about attracting people into the business and what we have looked at doing is an updated recruitment site, talking in the language of people that come and work for us. Many of our team members are in the younger age bracket of Generation Y, but 85% of them tend to go on and become managers.”

She added: “When you look at the younger age group, they’re doing everything online – they don’t want to apply for jobs using pen and paper. There’s lots of competition around, lots of places to work – we need to express our fun culture on our recruitment site [to attract people].”

The pasta/pizza eatery will also launch an extranet site this year for existing employees linking up restaurant stores and office centres, for colleagues to communicate online with each other. “It’s about adapting communication methods,” Little said.

Jan Marshall, HR director at hotel chain Marriott London agreed it was crucial firms adapted to Generation Y but still catered for all age groups in the workforce.

She said: “There are four different generations in the workplace. Mature workers want different things to Generation Y. A final salary pension used to be the ‘be all and end all’ but under-25s say this is no reason to take a job. They are more interested in training, and work-life balance.”

However, Personnel Today research launched in collaboration with Ipsos Mori last month found that salary was by far the number one priority when it came to Generation Y people searching for and choosing a new job.

Show me the money! What Gen Y workers really want VIDEO EXCLUSIVE Following on from our Generation Y week and Personnel Today’s research dispelling some of the myths about younger workers, Louisa Peacock interviews Gen Y-ers and HR professionals about what the younger generation is looking for at work…