How to run a graduate recruitment campaign
A graduate recruitment campaign attracts and recruits degree-level qualified individuals into your organisation. Campaigns may be run once a year according to the academic year, or they may be run all year round. In the case of the former, it is usual for employers to receive and process applications from students prior to graduation, and offer employment beginning shortly after the student receives their qualification.
Why is it important?
The graduate population offers key talents and skills to take your organisation into the future.
They have proven intellectual ability and having spent many years in education, they are eager to engage with the real world and prove their worth. Graduates can bring a new and refreshing outlook to your organisation, as well as the promise of effective leadership in the future.
Getting the recruitment campaign right is crucial, because:
- Organisations must recruit graduates who match their business needs and will contribute as soon as possible
- There is a war for talent. If you don't catch tomorrow's industry guru, your competitor will
- With growing numbers of qualified applicants and increasingly diverse career paths, it is easy to miss talented individuals by using traditional and inflexible methods.
"No two years of graduate recruitment will be the same," says Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters. "The market changes, graduates change and your needs as an employer change."
Overall strategy
Understand what you can offer your graduate recruits and what you need from them. Establish whether the recruits are intended for future senior management positions, or to fulfil an immediate need, with the possibility of moving to other organisations or even industries at a later date. Graduates value an honest approach throughout the recruitment process. Rather than adopting 'salesman' tactics, tell them precisely what working for your company will entail.
Methods of communication
Graduates can defer the start of their career for a number of reasons - travel, the need to pay off debts, further education, for example. This means the pool of talent will include individuals who graduated a few years ago. Organisations will therefore need to cast their recruiting nets over a wide area.
Graduate fairs
These are still held within some universities, giving direct access to undergraduates.
Larger recruitment fairs are held within major towns and cities, attracting graduates from the past few years along with this year's crop.
When attending such events, be sure to supply hand-outs, contact information and the opportunity for interaction. If possible, send a past graduate recruit to talk directly and honestly to the applicants, giving them a real impression of working life in your organisation.
This is a far more effective and valuable method than presentations or question and answer sessions with a representative from the personnel or recruitment function.
Advertising in magazines and newspapers
This is still effective, but you should be aware that graduates are more likely to read the national press than specific industry publications.
The internet
This plays an increasingly important role in graduate recruitment as job board sites are becoming a popular way to manage graduate careers. The internet enables recruiters to access talented individuals who may currently be overseas, or may already be employed and only able to search for jobs in the evenings or at weekends.
Your organisation's website should provide recruitment information for graduates. They can fill out online application forms, giving you the possibility of automatically screening this material for the qualifications and skills you require.
Internet sites are very good for providing in depth information for interested graduates. The more information you can give to recruits, the more opportunity they have to make an informed decision about their application. Graduates can self-select for vacancies having judged whether your organisation is suitable for them.
Assessment centres
These are extremely useful for determining the best recruits for your organisation. While the application form and interview will give you an idea of the candidate, you will only see their true potential by setting them work related challenges. Specially designed role-plays, group exercises and structured interviews will give you crucial information regarding your applicant's interpersonal and business skills.
Keep talking
Whichever way graduates contact your organisation, make sure you interact with them and keep them informed about the progress of their application.
- If you have deadlines for application forms, make sure they are clear.
- Tell your graduate applicants when they will hear from you, and inform them if that date changes.
- Make sure online applicants receive valuable interaction. It is tempting
to send an automated acknowledgement for CVs received by e-mail. However,
graduate applicants should understand precisely what is happening to their
application at all times.
