Improve your Graduate Recruitment Process
Improve your Graduate Recruitment Process
If you’re struggling to attract and hire graduate applicants, then there’s a chance your recruitment process could benefit from a few changes.
Here are 7 steps you can take to improve your recruitment process.
1) Add more detail to your job postings
The job posting is the initial selling point of the entire recruitment process. In order to attract the best candidates you should explain the position well. Give applicants a reason to feel excited about the job role, perhaps including
The day-to-day activities of the role or what projects they can expect to participate on
Detail on what the graduate community and company culture is like
Anything which will make the applicants will feel more engaged and connected to the company.
Keep the requirements section succinct to retain attention but with enough detail to ensure you attract the most qualified candidates.
2) Use video content to encourage students to “opt-in”
Graduates are faced with 100s of graduate opportunities, with many employers competing for oxygen. You have only a moment to grab their attention and only a little longer to retain it. Short video content (max 90 seconds is our recommendation) which gives an insight into what life would be like at the company for the graduate, complete with application detail and tips, will yield a higher volume of relevant applications.
3) Emphasize the candidates career progression, development & training
This generation of graduate recruits in particular think less about what they offer you as an employee, but are concerned more with what the employer can do for them. They are looking for an employer who is willing to help them develop their career, who is willing to invest in their training and who lays out clear progression for them. Make sure that you are clear about this, emphasising it at all possible stages of the recruitment process including:
- In the job post
- In the interview/s
- During the on boarding
4) Good candidate experience
This has never been more important than in today’s job market. The best candidates, particularly from STEM degree backgrounds, will frequently have multiple offers, which are often quite similar. Which one does the graduate accept? Often it is the employer who gave them the best experience in the application process, the employer who wanted them most, who hugged them the hardest and the employer who had the slickest application process. It is a candidate’s market at the moment, and feelings and emotions play a big role in the decision making of this generation of graduates.
5) Be proactive in your responses to candidates
With candidate experience in mind, make responding to your candidates a priority, ideally getting back to them within 48 hours. This will make candidates feel engaged and positive and much less likely to turn your offer down further along the talent acquisition process.
If there’s been a delay in the recruitment process, make sure you take the time to get in touch with your candidates and let them know of the situation, this will continue to make your candidates feel valued and positive. In the age of mass application, students deem no news to be bad news, so if the candidate is still ‘live’, tell them!
6) Ask the hiring managers to help with the recruitment
When recruiting for a position, think about whom the new recruit will interact with most on a daily basis. It is these people who will understand what is required from the candidate and what kinds of skills are needed to carry out the role. Provided you can get the buy-in of the hiring manager, their involvement will lighten your workload, while improving candidate experience. We have countless examples of students accepting a job from an employer due to the bond struck up between the hiring manager and the candidate during interview.
7) Keep the process fair and consistent with all applicants
Place each graduate through the same scenarios and ask them the same questions, particularly questions related to job roles, keeping the process the same for each candidate you interview. It’s easy to be biased, say if a candidate has studied at a particular university or previously worked with a particular organisation, but remember to keep a fair playing field. Create your own checklist or scorecard to ensure you cover all bases with all candidates.
