The 15-minute guide to recruiting graduates in a recession -- Part 1

Given today’s financial climate, we all know that this year graduate recruitment requires a different approach.

But how different?

It certainly doesn’t make sense to cut your well-oiled graduate programme off at its knees; likewise chances are you can’t continue at full throttle. You can, however, be smarter about your processes and the tools you use to recruit and adjust your methods for the times.

The bottom line is that there are fewer graduate positions than last year, and many, many more candidates. Some companies report as much as a 10-fold increase in the amount of CVs they need to evaluate.  Ironically, many graduate recruitment teams have been thinned.

How do you find the best graduates when your own resources are restrained? Do you have the ability to make sure the best ones don’t fall through the cracks and get picked up by your biggest competitor? Are you doing everything you can to be a lean, mean graduate recruiting machine?

We've put together a guide to help graduate recruitment teams get the most out of their efforts during a shaky economic climate.  Here are the first five points; and we'll publish more later. If can't wait and you'd like the whole report, you can download it now.
 
Use technology! There have been great strides in graduate recruitment technology in the past year. Systems can help with everything from sourcing and screening through to onboarding. There are many high impact, low costs options available. You owe it to yourself to check them out.

Be prepared to be inundated with applications. Fewer graduate positions and lots of redundancies mean there will be more people vying for the same positions. Be ready for an overload of applications. This may seem like a blessing, but it has its challenges. Can you properly process and handle a multitude of CVs? Are you sure you won’t damage your employer brand by leaving candidates hanging and not getting back to them? An eRecruitment system can help you manage this process and is the key to making sure no one slips through the cracks.

Tighten up your “killer questions”. The best way to control the flow of applications is to be more stringent with your upfront screening process. The unfortunate reality of a downturn is that many unqualified graduates will apply for a position in your programme. Nip this is the bud as soon as possible and make sure you pay close attention to your gross negative disqualifiers, also known as “killer questions” -- qualification questions designed to weed out unsuitable applicants.  Including even the most obvious questions – such as “Are you willing to relocate?” -- can reduce your pool of qualified candidates. Some other show stoppers are:  “Can you participate for the entire duration of our programme?” (very important if you have a three-year programme); and  “Are you entitled to work in this country?” (some foreign students may not have the required status). 

Qualify your “pre-screened” before you commit to an evaluation. Evaluations can be expensive. Once you have pre-screened your graduates, consider scheduling a quick phone conversation to catch some of the more qualitative attributes that aren’t apparent online. Do they sound personable? Are they articulate? Do you get the sense that they would be good candidate for the job? If yes, continue with a competency-based interview or send them on to an assessment centre...

Make the most of screening. Having key details at your fingertips – test scores, qualifications, etc. – can save you time when trolling through a mountain of information. CVs, though traditional, can take time to glean the key bits of information. Some of our clients report that using an eRecruitment system helps them to screen candidates much faster (in seconds instead of minutes). Other things you can screen for: Language proficiency, qualifications, why they chose the business area, degree results, willingness to relocate, skills, etc.

This post is an excerpt of the whitepaper "The 15-Minute Guide To Recruiting Graduates In A Recession".

-Susannah

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