The workforce is shifting from skilled job seekers and candidates to inexperienced young professionals. As Baby Boomers are considering retirement, swarms of young professionals are eager to land positions — and at 85 million strong, this will require some changes to take place in the way your organization recruits, engages, and retains these younger job candidates.

I’ve spoken about the shift in the current workforce before. Instead of being an inverted pyramid, the workforce (and population) is more of an hourglass shape — which can be a struggle when trying to recruit young professionals for existing positions at your organization. Millennials are a goldmine for employers, but learning how to engage them is the key to your recruiting success.

Here are three ways adapt to the influx of these young professionals and the retirement of Baby Boomer employees:

Creating & Simplifying Job Descriptions & Requirements

Many organizations are finding that Generation Y doesn’t have sufficient skills for their existing positions. This is mostly due to the fact that these positions have evolved into highly complex, multi-function job descriptions that are nearly impossible to fill by the average person with less than ‘x’ years of experience. With the experienced Baby Boomers retiring, and Millennials with less experience and who cannot cover the skills gap entering the workforce, revising these job descriptions and requirements will be necessary to bring back positions and increase headcount to replace workers who are leaving.

Take a hard look at the positions filled by skilled workers and determine how to break these back down into entry-level positions. By doing this, it will be easier to find young talent to fill the opening.

Build Talent Communities

Your talent management plan must focus on building a strong bench for future expansion. Talent communities offer a way to retain connections with top candidates, continue engaging them, and ultimately save you time and money in the hiring process. By keeping in touch with potential employees before you need them, you reduce your time-to-hire, advertising costs, and dependency on agencies to source talent.

Develop a Mentorship and Training System

This benefits your entire organization by smoothing the transition of external hires into an organization and allowing you to promote your current workers into positions with higher responsibilities. By implementing a culture of mentorship throughout your company, it helps workers feel like valued members of the company — which benefits not only the health of your organization, but also the direction.

What do you think? What other ways will companies need to adapt to this shift in the workforce?

Tony Morrison is the Vice President of Business Development at Cachinko. Cachinko creates employer-branded career applications and helps employers leverage Facebook and other social networking platforms to find, attract, and engage their next rock star candidates. Contact him at amorrison@cachinko.com.