Graduate Recruitment > Process
Attracting the Right People
When attracting graduates to your company its important to use a wide variety of strategies to ensure that you get the best possible coverage of the graduate market and the most number of appropriate applications. Common strategies include:
- Print advertising (local and/or national)
- Internet advertising
- University web-sites and email lists
- Virtual career fairs
- Career fairs
- Vacation work programmes
Graduates in 2007 are going to be technologically savvy, so the internet is going to be a good place to start, but remember – they have to see your advertisement to apply for it.
It is important that your website it updated and attractive to candidates; for some it will make the difference as to whether or not they apply for the graduate programme at all.
Common Graduate Recruitment Strategies
Online Applications
In 2002, 91% of Fortune 500 companies used corporate websites and online applications to recruit staff. The ability to collect all applicant data in one place, and to use an online application process that collects a combination of bio-data and competency based information to allow hiring managers/HR to objectively screen applications.
Bio data - Questions that ask factual biographical information that allow a company to quickly evaluate the information. These questions might include "Are you an Australian Permanent Resident?" or "This is a role which requires you to relocate; are you flexible to relocate?"
Competency Based Questions - Open ended questions where candidates can answer using free text. Hiring managers / HR can then evaluate the answers against 'ideal' competency results.
Telephone Screening
This process can take place either before or after the psychometric testing phase of the recruitment programme. It is an opportunity to use competency based questions to further assess the behaviours and attitudes of applicants and to quickly gauge the genuine interest and motivation of the applicant.
Like the online application process, telephone screening tends to focus on a combination of bio-data (verbally clarifying residency etc) and competency questions. Applicant response is rated and used in the short listing process for either psychometric testing or assessment centre.
Candidate Management
One of the most challenging parts of managing a graduate recruitment exercise is the management of both successful and unsuccessful applicants. It is vital that every applicant feels respected and informed as they flow through the application process. This means that companies need to have sound and quick response procedures to keep candidates up to date with their application.
This will ensure that unsuccessful applicants feel positive with their experience at applying for a role with the company and that potential ‘star’ applicants continue to feel passionate and hungry for an opportunity for employment.
