Gen Z and Gen Alpha grew up researching everything on their phones. They judge employers the same way they judge products: by real people's stories, proof of fairness, and a smooth buying path. To reach them, anchor your recruiting marketing in a few non‑negotiables:

• Authenticity first: elevate real employees, especially early‑career voices. Candidates respond to day‑in‑the‑life content, short interviews, and honest takes on the work and team. Handshake reports that 89% of students are interested in content featuring early‑career employees, and values alignment influences application intent.
• Salary and process transparency: show pay ranges, interview steps, timelines, and what "qualified" looks like. Transparency reduces drop‑off and builds trust.
• Mobile‑first discovery and apply: most research starts on social and career platforms. Social posts drive profile visits, so landing pages and applications must be fast, readable, and thumb‑friendly.
• Clear growth and skills paths: highlight mentorship, certifications, rotations, and internal mobility. Nine in ten undergrads say learning and development benefits are important or essential.
• Flexibility and wellbeing: explain remote/hybrid options, scheduling norms, PTO, and mental health resources. These benefits consistently rank high in importance.
• Values with receipts: do not claim impact without evidence. Show concrete examples like volunteer days, employee groups, or outcome metrics rather than slogans.

Where they look: social feeds, career platforms, employer sites, and review hubs. Keep your message consistent across all of them to avoid trust gaps.

Translate strategy into execution with a simple funnel that respects how Gen Z and Gen Alpha browse and decide:

• Create with short form in mind: lead with 6–30 second videos that answer one question at a time: "What will I work on?", "How flexible is the schedule?", "What is the pay range?" Add captions and vertical format by default.
• Design a consistent content system: run a repeatable mix each month: 1) day‑in‑the‑life from early‑career employees, 2) manager tips for interviews, 3) benefits breakdowns with visuals, 4) a growth story showing skills gained in year one, 5) values in action with real outcomes.
• Use native social + career platforms: publish natively where candidates already are. Social posts should click into a fast employer profile or job page that mirrors the same message.
• Simplify conversion: enable quick apply, calendar links for events, and SMS-friendly confirmations. Cut optional fields and let candidates save progress on mobile.
• Make salary and steps explicit: place pay ranges high on the page and list interview stages, timelines, and who decides. Candidates interpret missing details as a red flag.
• Close the loop with employee interaction: Q&A lives, AMAs with recent hires, and comment replies from recruiters. Participation signals accessibility and increases clicks to apply.

Operational checklist for teams:

• Own a content calendar with named creators inside the business, not just marketing.
• Standardize brand voice: plain language, short sentences, no jargon. Keep claims consistent across social, profiles, and jobs.
• Build templates for video captions, benefits cards, and job highlights so posting is fast and frequent.
• Audit the mobile application monthly for speed, fields, and drop‑offs.

Turn your program into a reliable engine by measuring the moments that matter and optimizing in small, frequent steps:

• Attention: hook rate on short videos (3‑second and 50% view), profile visits per post, and tap‑through rate from social to job or event pages.
• Trust: save rate, comment sentiment, and clicks on transparency elements like pay range, benefits, and interview steps.
• Consideration: event RSVPs, talent community joins, and return traffic to your employer pages within 7–14 days.
• Conversion: mobile application start and completion rate, time to complete, drop‑off by field, and qualified apply rate.
• Experience: candidate NPS or quick post‑apply pulse via SMS or email. Look for friction signals like unclear timelines or slow response times.

Optimization plays that work quickly:

• Move salary and "day‑in‑the‑life" video above the fold on job pages. Expect higher time on page and starts.
• Replace long culture copy with a 20–30 second benefits overview and a link to detailed FAQs.
• Cut non‑essential application fields. Track the impact on completion and quality for two weeks.
• Reply to top comments within 24 hours to boost reach and profile visits.
• Run A/B variants of the first 3 seconds of video hooks. Keep the winner and iterate weekly.

Report upward with a simple narrative: where candidates discovered you, what built trust, what removed friction, and how those changes improved qualified applies.