It’s that time of year again – hundreds of thousands of students are finishing their university courses and preparing to enter the UK job market.
Equally, many employers across the country are looking to attract graduates with their latest vacancies. While some companies may have been recruiting for graduate roles for months already, others are just starting to advertise their vacancies in the hope of attracting their next graduate team member.
With such a large number of graduates entering the job market, you might assume that filling your role will be simple. However, competition is fierce and some graduates are costing up to £15,000 to hire, according to an article from Onrec.
How can you make graduate recruitment easier while keeping your hiring costs down? Read Webrecruit’s top tips to find out:
1. Position the role appropriately in your job advert
A great job advert is a must no matter what role you’re recruiting for (read more in ‘How Do You Make Your Job Advert Stand Out From the Crowd’). However, when hiring a new graduate team member, there are certain areas that you need to be focusing on in particular.
It’s important to remember that graduates are unlikely to have any real commercial experience, unless they’ve completed a year in industry as part of their degree or a summer work placement. As such, asking for two years of experience on top of a degree is going to put off a lot of your audience. Try to limit your essential criteria to a degree and a few key skills to really open your role up to the graduate market.
Additionally, you should make it clear from the job title you use that you’re trying to attract graduates, for example ‘Graduate Marketing Executive’ or ‘Marketing Executive – Graduate Opportunity’. Remember, the job title, salary and location are usually the only details that pull through on a list of vacancies on an online job board.
2. Visit universities to make yourself known to local students
If your business regularly finds itself on the hunt for talented graduates, it’s worth contacting your local universities and colleges to speak with final year students on relevant courses.
This is a great way of making connections and forming a future talent pool, allowing you to keep in contact and send them details of any graduate roles when they do become available.
3. Use a broad range of job boards and other advertising sources
To increase your chance of attracting graduates, you should also consider advertising your vacancies on national job boards and specialist graduate sites.
While it’s important to connect with local students and advertise on local job boards, it’s also vital to cast a wider net, allowing you to reach everyone. After all, don’t forget about students studying elsewhere who might be returning to their hometown.
4. Include a ‘Graduate Recruitment’ section on your company’s careers site
If you already have a careers page on your website (or dedicated careers micro-site), consider including a section specifically for graduates.
This will allow you to tailor your messaging towards graduates, particularly focusing on the training and future progression opportunities available. You can also include an option for graduates to register their details with you, allowing you to build a future talent pool.
5. Social media campaigns
Online job boards are great but you shouldn’t rely on graduates actively searching for jobs. Your company’s social media accounts are the ideal place to grab the attention of final year students who are likely to be keeping their eyes on the graduate recruitment market.
Your company social media pages are also the perfect place to showcase what it’s actually like to work for your business – try sharing photos of your office and testimonials from current employees.
Attracting graduates doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive; you just need to be proactive in sourcing talent and building a strong employer brand.
If you have several graduate vacancies within your business or you regularly recruit graduates on an annual basis, it’s important to build up this pipeline of talent, particularly in areas where there are skills shortages, such as engineering, IT and scientific positions.
Keep your mind focused on the long-term, as well as the short-term, as an open vacancy in your business can be costly and time consuming.
Want to find out more about how our recruitment solutions can help you to attract graduates? Request a call today.
