Dive Brief:

• Members of Generation Z believe a personal social media presence is important to their professional brand — but they still don't want to hear from recruiters through those channels, respondents to a Tallo survey said.
• The results, released Dec. 10, revealed that Gen Z (defined as individuals born after 1996) favors traditional platforms like email (87%) or professional social platforms, such as LinkedIn (63%).
• "Generation Z places significant emphasis on how they portray themselves to the world, as their self-expression is now a form of social currency, and that includes the way they think about future career opportunities," Casey Welch, CEO of Tallo, said in a press release. "By better understanding how and where Generation Z is building — and distinguishing — their personal and professional brands, companies and colleges can more easily connect with them to fuel the future of work."

Dive Insight:

While experts caution talent professionals against age-based stereotyping, it's worth noting that candidates' perceptions of recruiting processes matter.

A good candidate experience — one that involves strong communication, clear expectations and honest feedback —  is worth the effort, research shows. Employers and job seekers don't always see eye-to-eye on other factors, but sourcing efforts appears to be a good starting place. Similar to Tallo's findings, a recent Randstad Sourceright study found that while talent leaders said they go to Facebook before LinkedIn to connect with job seekers, candidates tend to prefer to connect elsewhere, including LinkedIn.

And a failure to recognize candidate preferences can have a damaging effect. Nearly half of job seekers in a recent PwC survey said they have turned down an offer because of a bad candidate experience — and even more said they'd discourage others from applying for a job with a company with which they had a poor experience.