The value of hiring graduates in 2021
With the arrival of COVID-19, graduate recruitment took a bit of a backseat – the number of new hires dropped by as much as 12% in 2020 as organisations paused recruitment to see what would happen. However, for many companies the workload has not decreased and in certain sectors, such as healthcare and technology, it has grown dramatically. Despite the current uncertainty, hiring graduates remains crucial to growing and developing your business.
Here are five reasons why you should hire graduates in 2021:
1. Attract the top talent
As there are fewer companies hiring in the current climate, you have access to a broad range of top graduate talent. Capitalising on this now gives you a head start on your competition by securing the very best people out there.
Having outstanding talent come through your organisation now also means that, in time, you will be able to promote internally from a pool of people who know the business well. This avoids having to recruit and embed external hires, saving valuable time and making you an attractive employer for career progression. Bringing the best entry-level talent into your company adds long-term value over the years.
2. Graduates are digitally minded
Most recent graduates will be so-called ‘Digital Natives’, having grown up with technology their entire lives. This means they may have a different relationship with technology than your existing workforce, not only understanding trends in social media and products but also having an attitude that embraces digital innovation. This can be an invaluable asset, particularly for industries such as marketing or technology.
3. Graduates are a blank canvas
A major advantage of hiring graduates fresh out of university is that you will have the opportunity to mould their skillset to match your business’ needs from the get-go. They won’t have developed bad work habits and you have a high degree of control in how you train them, and which technical knowledge and soft skills you want to be developed.
4. Graduates bring enthusiasm and drive
Graduates starting in the world of work are keen to learn; they not only bring this enthusiasm with them to the workplace, but they are also ready and eager to pick up new skills. This can be especially useful for start-ups or scale-ups where you may have started to develop specific product or technical teams and want to build those out accordingly. Graduates are not only keen to learn, but generally ambitious, driven and will seize every development opportunity given to them. Taking advantage of this by having the entry-level talent reflect your company’s values means your graduates can act as ‘culture carriers’ throughout your business.
5. Graduates diversify your workforce
Diversity is an ever-increasing priority for many companies, who are looking for workforces more representative of the communities they work in. Recruiting graduates is a great way of bringing people into your company from a range of backgrounds, gender, ethnicity, social mobility, and other characteristics. This contributes to building a more inclusive work environment.
Although graduate talent adds huge value to organisations of all sizes, it can be difficult to know where to start. Sanctuary Graduates are the experts in graduate recruitment and diversity and can help you in many different ways. You can find out more about how we can help by watching this short video here: https://youtu.be/gaxvCf6lMMs
