Page 35 - FINAT Yearbook 2019

your mind. Topics and issues that are stuck in your mind are openly discussed in an open and positive atmosphere, so you can take real solutions and personal development back to the office. That is the YPN.
The group was established as the Young Managers Group (YMC) in 2008 to meet an increasing demand from up-and- coming managers from small to medium-sized, and often family-run enterprises, who desire to gain a wider experience within their normal working environment necessary to become the leaders of tomorrow, and at the same time, expand their knowledge of self-adhesive labels. By providing educational and vocational opportunities and by organizing forums, plant visits, management training and even work experience exchange visits the members were given the information they needed. With the times changing, mostly due to globalization and digitalization, making it easier to connect, the goals of the group slightly changed. The 10-year‘ anniversary was the perfect occasion to relaunch the group. The group is praised for the interactive business scenarios, the openness of everybody, the topics, and the atmosphere.
HOW TO FIND TALENTED YOUNG PROFESSIONALS?
According to young professionals, transparency and clear progression are very important to attract young talent. Be proud of your achievements and inspire people by communicating your successes and exciting elements. Something that is often forgotten, is the attractiveness of the hardware and software that is used within the company. A simple example is fax machine orders. You cannot attract
young talent with 70s tech. Motivation also comes through modern processes and hardware/software use. Don’t be afraid to ask your young employees here for new ideas. Working closely with schools could also help you understand talent and opportunity to integrate this into your business. Make sure to identify skills and ‘sell’ a position in your business aligned with these skills.
During the YPN track 3 ‘Connecting with our target audience’ of the 2019 European Label Forum in Copenhagen, Koos Wurzer of Danone mentioned the importance of employer value proposition. This defines the qualities you’d most like to be associated with as an employer and provides clear reasons to join and to stay at your company. He also presented the candidate journey which shows the critical touch points a talent has with potential employers.
Your online communication is very important in this journey, as your careers section onsite is the most valuable source of information for applicants. It turns out that 36% of applicants decide against applying with a bad online experience and 25% drop off for an extensive online application process. Therefore, some basic criteria to think about when publishing a vacancy are mobile first, decent search for jobs, optimize for Google, a simple application form, and a vacancy detail page. Talking about online, even more important is how your company is presented. Make sure to have clear online company profiles on the channels you are active. In some countries, Glassdoor is a very important research tool for applicants, so it would not hurt to put some company reviews from your employees on there.
Figure 2: The candidate journey as presented by Koos Wurzer of Danone at the 2019 European Label Forum 2019 in Copenhagen
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