Demand for young professionals with a college degree is high. Even before joining the workforce, new graduates often have a foundation of technical and soft skills that today’s companies require. So, it’s time companies take advantage of it and hire the best young talent under a single roof.
According to research from Harvard Business Review, 84% of employers understand and accept the importance of campus hiring. In addition to this, almost 1/4th of CFOs claimed that their companies are doing more entry-level hiring from colleges and universities than they were doing five years ago.
With these statistics, it is evident that the job market is dependent on the young talent now more than ever. Get set to scoop up the best and brightest students straight from the campus and build resilient entry-level talent pipelines effectively!
Here Are Some Benefits of Campus Hiring!
Here are the top reasons why companies need a campus hiring strategy.
1. Bring In Fresh Talent!
Young college grads are a big source of fresh knowledge. They bring along with them new perspectives and a fresh outlook to deal with challenges a company might be facing today.
They have the ability to think out of the box and are also familiar with the latest trends.
2. Employ Quick Learners Who Are Easy To Manage!
Being able to adapt and multitask, the young breed is fast with new instructions and training than an older workforce. They are also eager to learn and willing to take challenges head-on.
Moreover, this group of people are just about to embark on their career and are more willing to listen to your instructions without exhibiting any disruptive behaviour.
3. Cost Savings!
Campus recruiting allows companies to tap into a large pool of diverse candidates at one place.
The onus of coordinating the entire recruitment process including scheduling on-campus aptitude tests and interviews is taken care by the campus. This translates to direct cost savings for the companies.
4. Improved Retention Rates!
Employees tend to feel loyal and belonging to their first employer.
According to statistics, a company in Canada enjoyed 98.6% retention rate for the 600 MBA students it recruited from a single campus over the course of 5 years.
5. Strengthen Employer Branding!
Campus recruitment helps you to engage with emerging talent and is a great chance to talk about your company and the various benefits it has to offer.
You can communicate to a large group about how it feels to be part of the workforce and the career developmental opportunities you offer. This will enable you to strengthen your brand with great engaging opportunities.
Here’s How You Can Build An Effective Campus Hiring Strategy!
In order to ensure that you reap the benefits, companies need to have the right campus recruitment strategy in place. Here are the best practices you can implement.
1. Identify Requirements And Match Them With The Target Schools!
Don’t put all eggs in one basket or spread out too thin. The first step is to identify your hiring needs including specialized skills, technology, location, functional criteria and more.
Then, you need to find the right target schools that live up to your specialized needs. For example, a company wanting to find strong IT professionals can partner up with a college that is well-known for its technology program.
2. Coordinate With The Career Centre!
Once target schools are identified, you should reach out to the concerned department at the campus and liaison with them to work out the right timelines.
Seek their help as each program has its own guidelines, events and timelines associated with the recruitment process.
3. Attract The Right Talent!
The first impression is the best, so the first step of your campus recruitment process should focus on delivering an effective pre-placement talk.
An ideal talk should cover what makes your workplace unique, the company’s work culture, the kind of projects and the opportunities it carries for the employees.
4. Incorporate Automated Aptitude Tests!
When employers hire on campus, academic skills are not the only concern.
In order to find the right fit, conduct an effective assessment that aims to test the behavioural aspect of the candidates along with the inevitable cognitive and functional skills.
5. Deliver A Great Candidate Experience!
Gen-Z candidates are well-connected online and know what a good candidate experience should be like. They will not hesitate to share their experience, be it positive or negative with peers and social networks.
So, if you work hard to provide your candidates with the best experience through standardized practices and policies, it will differentiate your company’s brand. It will have quality candidates waiting at your door.
6. Measure And Improve!
Measure every aspect of your campus recruitment strategy to know if you are on the right track.
Set goals and KPIs to measure your results to know the best schools to source talent and the best initiatives to attract the cream of best performing candidates from a large batch.
7. Utilize Internship, Co-ops and Summer Programmes!
Recruit once, but hire twice — conduct well-defined internship programmes to find the star employees to recruit after graduation.
This will enable you to assess their overall fit and also give a feel about your work culture to the candidates. A nice win-win strategy that just will not go wrong!
8. Roll Out The Offer And Onboard!
Last, but not the least, an effective campus recruitment strategy spills over into the offer and onboarding stages.
Ensure that your offers meet the benchmark expectations of the candidates. The college’s career centre can help you with this as it often compiles and publishes the compensation data for various programmes.
Is your Campus Hiring Strategy Identifying The Right Talent?
The actual pain that goes into recruiting the best talent is not unknown to the HR fraternity. Challenges are plenty including filtering the best candidates from a huge crowd, the number of campuses to cover and the predominant competition to get the best talent.
To top it all, the most frustrating challenge is that most candidates drop out after the offer has been made. This can cost the HR team a great deal including a sheer waste of time, money and efforts. However, this situation can be avoided if you follow the above strategies.
Strive hard to deliver a superlative candidate experience and a compelling offer in terms of benefits, perks and opportunities that is too hard to deny.
Ultimately, if you work hard to get the strategy right, you are sure to attract and retain the top talent. A successful campus recruitment strategy is a surefire way to curb the prevalent challenges that will enable you to meet your hiring needs.
