Back To School!
Time to Plan New Grad Recruitment Strategies?

by The Human Capital Institute

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend and present at a workshop for campus recruiters in Toronto. For the core conference there were 39 paid attendees, and for the keynote speaker on day two of the conference, well over 120 people were in attendance.

Why is this interesting? Campus recruiting as a specialty, even in large organizations, has taken a beating these past three years. Since mid-2000, if your expertise was in finding entry-level talent and filling internships, you’ve probably had a hard time finding a buyer for your talents.

Even though the unemployment rate for 4-year college graduates in the U.S. remained low (about 3%) throughout the recession, new grads faced a tough job market. In 2003, only 8% of college grads had secured full-time employment before they graduated. By then, most organizations had severely reduced their campus recruiting programs, including less attendance at local college career fairs, lapsed relationships with campus career centers, fewer internships and less use of campus-specific job boards like JobTRAK (now MonsterTRAK).

2004 is looking better for new grads (as evidenced by the interest in the workshop). Among the Class of 2004, 18% had found full-time employment by March. By all measures, 2005 is looking even better: Data from two large student surveys conducted this year among North American college and university students each convey a confidence in finding work upon graduation that has not been seen in several years.

While the U.S. Department of Labor continues to file discouraging payroll reports, the news from recruiters (corporate and contract) and from recruiting technology suppliers, anecdotally at least, is all good. In both cases, business appears to be double or more what it was this time last year. Likewise, though the recovery is fragile and job growth minimal, substantially more grads expect to find work and, apparently, are in fact finding it upon graduation. It’s a safe bet to assume that by April 2005, the market for good grads in many fields will be hot.

For small and mid-sized companies, new grads have always been a means of acquiring new ideas and energy at a bargain price. The disadvantage smaller firms face, especially in eras of heavy competition for the best grads, is access to resources for recruiting, and employer brand recognition.

For firms with fewer resources and less cachet in the eyes of students, fall is the best time to begin recruiting next year’s crop of grads. The following are tips to get ahead of the pack:

• Build Relationships. With the Internet offering dozens of ways to reach students directly and from the comfort of you own office, it is tempting to save time by skipping the effort of building personal contacts. However, polls still show that students rely on professors and their career centers for guidance in their search for work. Visit the career centers in your local colleges early in the year, tell them your plans, share information about opportunities in your organization and ask for their help. Also, getting to know some of the professors in programs that your graduates are likely to come from is a worthwhile investment of your time.
  
  
• If you have the capacity to offer internships, do so. The first piece of advice graduates give to those that follow them is to participate in internships because of the advantage this type of experience provides in finding full-time work, and because it gives students the knowledge of what it is like to work in a particular organization, occupation and industry. For employers, internships must be planned well, be meaningful and pay within a wage range normally set by the college. Project-based work properly matched to the students' interests and abilities is best suited for internships which are normally about 10-16 weeks but can run up to one year.
  
  
• Build a campus component on your corporate career site and use job boards that are specific to students and recent graduates. Even if your planned hiring is minimal, it helps to offer some specific information for new grads and students who visit your site. This should include descriptions of and the ability to apply online to the position(s) themselves, along with information on corporate culture, what it’s like to work in your organization, and any benefits that might be particularly appealing to new grads. The next generation of workers has been polled extensively, and skills development, flexible working conditions and quality of co-workers consistently rank in the top five.

This is by no means an exhaustive list; however, these initiatives are likely to reap the greatest returns for time-pressed small and mid-sized organizations.