It is no misconception that the graduate recruitment market is continuing to become increasingly competitive; with even more graduate talent entering into the world of work, employers have the difficult job of rifling through the graduate pool to find the right employees for their business.
With competition getting fierce, here are some tips to help British employers find the best graduates; guaranteed to bring value to any business.
Graduate recruitment is fast changing
The employment market is quickly bouncing back from the 2008 global recession and this is especially true in sectors such as accountancy, finance, medicine and law.
While this is absolutely fantastic news for recent graduates, it means employers have to be smarter and work even harder to attract the right talented, young individuals to work in their business. To add a layer of complexity to this already tiring process is the fact that recruitment methods are fast changing – old methods of recruiting talent simply don’t work for these young, skilled professionals.
With this in mind it’s important for employers to change the face of their recruitment programme and in turn, attract and retain highly skilled and motivated graduates.
Widen your graduate search
While the internet has changed lives, it has also changed the recruitment process dramatically. In order for employers to keep up to date, they’ll have to adopt new ways of finding the right talent.
Here are some quick tips to help you do this:
- Focus on talent not geography
While it is simpler to hire those individuals looking to move to your location, it’s important to advertise your job on job boards that are available throughout the UK to ensure you get a wide mix of applicants.
- Take advantage of social media
The age group you’re currently recruiting for are also known as Millennials and this generation is constantly on social media – they live and breathe Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. If your potential employees are on these websites, you need to be on there too, showing them just how great your business is and how fun it would be to work for you.
While not all organisations have the time to put into social media, it’s worthwhile considering using a third party company to do this for you.
- Ensure you have a professional website
It’s important that you recognise that your website is the “face” of your business online, even if you do make use of social media – the first place a potential employee will look is your website. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that your website is well designed, enticing and easy to use/ navigate.
It’s also a good idea to have a “jobs” section on your site so that graduates can check out what roles you have on offer.
- Use job boards effectively
While search engines are fantastic, job boards are even better and this is where most graduates will go if they’re looking to nab that great graduate role. Be sure to place yourself on the most popular graduate job boards that target the right people in your market sector.
Achieve effective online recruitment
It’s important for any 2015 employer to know that it’s not enough to simply be online and the companies who understand this are the ones who land the very best graduates from the talent pool.
Here are some quick tips for effective online recruitment:
- Don’t forget the importance of content
Whether you create content on your website, your social media platforms or on job boards, it’s important to get the tone of voice and subject just right. This means you need to get to grips with the lifestyles and expectations of your target audience while explaining how you can provide just what they need.
Be sure to tell them about the businesses vision and mission along with any opportunities for career advancement.
- Presentation counts
Don’t forget that you are competing with others in your sector for the most talented employees and therefore your online presentation must be perfect. In this sense you should think about everything from design to photography and even videos.
- Engage with your graduate audience
This is probably the most important process to remember and also the hardest to conquer. To action this successfully you need to get to grips with your target audience and engage with them as individuals. You may use online quizzes and competitions or even photograph members of your team taking part in social media phenomena – take the ice bucket challenge for example.
Demonstrating the human side to your business – whether it’s large or small – is crucial to attracting and retaining talented graduates.
By following this advice there is no reason why you shouldn’t win the competition of attracting the very best graduates to work as part of your enterprise.
