I spend a lot of time blogging about advice for candidates to secure a new job role, but as the job hunt is a two-way process I thought I should break down some advice for the employers to find graduate candidates as well! June is an optimum time for graduates looking for their first jobs, and competition is fierce for companies to bag the top talent; Here we break down ‘How Employers can attract top Graduate Candidates’:
Social Media
If you’re looking for graduates it’s time to head to where they hang out. I’m not talking about waiting outside their Student Unions – I’m talking SOCIAL MEDIA. Not only is this the number 1 web activity but the majority of students and recent grads are active on social channels daily, so you’d be mad not to look here for candidates! Try and connect with the Universities in your area and target their networks / followers to find the people that you are looking for. One of the first things graduates do when researching a company is check out their Social Media so make sure you also keep a strong presence with regular updates so that you can attract talent to you directly. Check out ‘Why you should definitely use Social Media to Recruit’ for more information!
Enhance your Careers Page
Take a look at your careers page on your company website – if you didn’t know anything about the company would you think it’s the kind of place you want to work? If the answer isn’t a definite yes then it’s time to enhance your careers page! This is your chance to ‘sell’ your company to the candidate as a great place to work. One way to do this is with videos / testimonials from current employees – you can give an overview of the job role itself as well as showcase your company culture. Put plenty of information on here of the perks of the job as well as what is involved in the day to day duties and make sure the page is in keeping with your branding and easy to navigate around.
Get Mobile
If you look around a University you are likely to see a recurring site – students glued to their mobile phones! This is possibly the best way to get in touch with students and recent grads in the job hunt. Can’t get hold of them on the first call? Make sure to send a text or ‘What’s app’ as well as leaving a voice-mail, as many people (me included) are guilty of ignoring these! A good trick to get hold of grads that don’t answer their phone is to text out of office hours to arrange a good time to call that evening or following morning. This will help you build a rapport with the candidate as well as streamline the process of contact.
Move Quickly
It’s all well and good sourcing and engaging with candidates, but if you don’t keep up the momentum with the interview process then you may well miss out on the top Grads! Graduates are more likely to accept the first job offer than those interviewing who are already in work so you have to create urgency in responding to applications and setting up interviews.
Use Video Interviews
Moving quickly in the interview process can be tricky – particularly when you have a student at Newcastle University that will be moving home and applying for jobs in Somerset! Video / Skype interviews are an excellent way to overcome this – and if a candidate passes the first stage they will be more inclined to travel for the face to face interview afterwards!
Incentives
Students have spent their University years lapping up cheap drinks offers and getting discount in their favourite shops. The success of student discount cards is testament to how well an incentive schemes work for this generation, so why not include something to help with your candidate attraction? This could be in the form of salary and bonuses or even a specific incentive for joining such as an iPad or vouchers etc. After all who doesn’t love a freebie?
Sophie Heaton (Digital Campaign Manager)