If attracting recent university graduates to your company is part of your hiring plan, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that your mail system is working and you got the memo about how much value is being created by new talent in the workforce. The bad news is that you're competing with a lot of other companies for that recent graduate talent. How do you make yourself stand out to often younger talent without resorting to stunts and gimmicks?
You can start by reading the suggestions below on how to make your company appeal to the top-of-the-class graduates streaming into the workforce.
1. Make Yourself Visible
Today's graduate job seekers went through university during one of the grimmest eras in the job market, making them a class of people that has consumed a lot of content about where to market themselves for the job market. They have learnt that jobs come can be found all over the place, from traditional spots like a company's website to social media – like a simple mention on Twitter. And with increasingly specialized job websites emerging, they often zero in on those as more geared toward their needs. This all translates to your company needing to be visible in a meaningful way at all of the digital touch points where ambitious graduates search. Not just by posting your job but by guest-blogging, speaking at relevant industry events to make your brand's voice apparent and using social media to promote company growth as part of your regular social media communications. All of these make you look like you're doing more than posting jobs, you're engaging in relevant digital spaces. Also don't forget the power of engaging with universities – placement years, internships and careers fairs can all get you in front of these talent guys and girls pre-graduation and before a lot of your competitors do!
2. Be Authentic
Plenty of companies fall flat when they attempt to be cooler than they are to appeal to often younger demographics. You don't need to have the hippest office and the best-looking staff of go-getters to attract top talent from the latest crop of graduates. But you do have to demonstrate that you're a company with solid values that believes in its core product or service and a place where graduates can grow and develop their career. And you have to prove that you're really interested in these graduate candidates as complete people, not just a source of less expensive but highly skilled labour. Of course, having fun and unique perks can often help set you apart from your competitors too.
3. Deemphasize Age
So the majority of new graduates are going to be young, but guess what? Young people know they are young. This often comes with lack of work experience. Make an effort to showcase your appreciation for the talents and experience that your existing young talent brings to the table rather than emphasizing precisely how much they have to learn. If you build a reputation as a company that cares more about the value that employees are adding rather than the years they're accumulating on the job, you will be more likely to grab the attention of young graduates eager to prove themselves in an environment that recognizes their potential rather than their limitations. However it is important to acknowledge that not all recent graduates come straight from school age – so you need to ensure that your recruitment processes is also aligned in attracting graduates who may have had a few years out or went to university later on in life.
4. Commit to Great Communication
Today's graduates are a generation of communicators and being an employer that understands the value of communication (both ways!) will put you in good stead for this generation.. By making yourself available via multiple technologies that were once reserved for personal use, you also make yourself more relatable to this generation. Engage graduates in your hiring process – get they in for a coffee, use Skype, video interviewing or even do some working interviews. The more personal touch points you have in your hiring process the more engaged potential hires will be. A lot of companies get 100s of applications for just one post and often don't respond to applications. So graduates can get quite disheartened. So be different! Even once you have offered the role, keep in touch with that person before they start – call them up a few days before they start, invite them to company social events. You can guarantee that graduates often have loads of interviews and could still be going to them even once you have offered. If you treat them well once you have offered and engage them in your business – guess what? They are less likely to take another offer!
5. Demonstrate Long-Term Interest
Many employers read stories about how young workers are notoriously hopping from job to job and make the mistake of expressing limited or short-term interest in graduates. But the truth is that much of the jobs recovery has been in part-time or temporary work, discouraging recent graduates that want to lay down roots at a company and help it grow. Sure the rise of short term (often poorly paid) internships that don't lead to permanent jobs has had an impact on this perception. So having a clearly defined permanent role (even if it starts with an internship period) will demonstrate to graduate talent that you are willing to invest in the long term and that they will be trained and developed. Internships that don't lead anywhere or where communication is not had around where it could go, makes graduates feel expendable and guess what? Yep, they will be looking elsewhere!
A company culture and structure that demonstrates that you view new graduate hires as assets worth investing in will draw the best of them to your company.
These are just 5 things you should consider, but there are many more. So make sure you engage an expert HR Consultant to streamline this process to ensure you get the cream of the crop when it comes to new graduate talent!
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