The Generic Graduate Recruitment Process
In recent years, there have been dramatic changes to the Australian and New Zealand graduate recruitment industry. Not only has the nature of a typical graduate employer organisation changed, but also the roles that graduates take within these organisations.
Additionally there have been changes to the responsibilities of the staff who manage the recruitment (and in some cases, development) of graduates, and frequently employees who were recently graduates themselves are being asked to look after newer graduates. This leads to the introduction of new ideas and approaches, and it is a positive trend for the new recruitment manager to be in tune with the recruits. The disadvantage is that within any organisation, these recently employed graduates may lack years of recruitment expertise.
How an organisation recruits is an entirely individual initiative. No two organisations are alike, so the best way to achieve recruitment goals will differ too.
Shifts in the Student Population
The number of students attending university has grown markedly in the past decade or so and this increase in numbers has encouraged non-traditional entrants, however classified. More people attend university after the traditional age of 18 and more students are undertaking postgraduate courses. Students also complete qualifications at varying times throughout the year, hence there is tremendous variety, as ‘more students’ also means ‘different students’. Furthermore, the changes in student financing means that many students leave university with a debt. This puts increased pressure on students to find a job - perhaps any job.
Tertiary Sector Changes
There are 47 universities in Australia and New Zealand, and each one must competes for students and government funding. A university education does not come cheaply to students, and neither does its provision. University administrators no longer see the provision of a Careers Service as an act of faith; budgets are examined critically and careers staff are carefully managed. Many services have had to reduce the number of careers advisers, even though student numbers are rising. Some advisers are becoming facilitators of career management skills within departments; as a recruiter, your first point of contact may be with an information officer, not with a careers adviser.
Diverse Employers, Diverse Jobs
You will know the pressure on individuals within organisations as well as anyone. Graduate recruits are expected to contribute earlier and to a greater degree, while recruitment budgets are tight and expectations have increased. After a dip in recruitment numbers in the early 90s, requirements are again relatively high among the traditional recruiters. There is more competition for graduates, and there are more competitors.
The traditional large recruiters are now in competition with SMEs – Small to Medium-sized Enterprises. Within SMEs and larger employers, it is increasingly common for recruitment to be a year-round activity: graduates are recruited as vacancies arise. Hence, graduate recruitment does not necessarily happen only once a year.
Competition can be fierce for top candidates, and often the speed with which the market is approached is important. Employers need to examine what they want from graduates, as well as what they can offer them. Different organisations present different opportunities, and these differences can provide strengths to the recruitment process.
Changing Technology
How organisations operate is to a degree shaped by the available technology. Computer systems for managing communication and selecting candidates from electronic data are improving, but the biggest changes are in the field of advertising vacancies. High-tech advertising solutions are now common - the internet being the principal method. It’s essential to keep abreast of what's happening, and to choose the technological solutions that are appropriate to your organisation and your recruitment process.
Major Organisations in the Australian and New Zealand Graduate Recruitment Scene
It is of course possible to run a graduate recruitment campaign being only minimally involved with the various professional bodies. However, the Australian and New Zealand graduate recruitment scene is relatively compact and many of the players – employers, university Careers Services, agencies and suppliers – are well known to each other. From a networking and learning point of view, it can be highly beneficial to understand who these stakeholders are, and how they relate to each other. If you haven’t already done so you will soon come across references to these 'acronymic bodies', including the Australian Association of Graduate Employers
(AAGE), the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services
(NAGCAS), the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee
(AVCC), the Australian Human Resources Institute
(AHRI), the Department of Education, Science and Training
(DEST) and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
(DEWR).
Why Run a Recruitment Campaign?
Before getting too deeply involved with the ‘hows’ of graduate recruitment, it’s worth sitting back from the detail and considering why we do it. There may be a history of graduate recruitment in your organisation, and it can easily be self-perpetuating. That alone isn't a good reason for continuing to do it. Spending a little time with senior managers addressing recruitment issues will put the whole issue in context, and perhaps indicate that making some change to the objectives of the process would be sensible.
In general, the reasons for graduate recruitment fall into three groups:
- to provide the organisation’s future managers
- to provoke change, import new ideas and provide variety
- to do a job (perhaps requiring a higher level of skills than before).
You will probably find the reasons that your organisation recruits fall into one or all of these categories. It may be that having a clearer idea of why you do it alters the way you go about the recruitment process, and probably whom you seek to recruit. It is easy to imagine that all organisations set out to recruit the best graduates. The reality is that the best for one organisation may not be the best for another; it all depends on your specific requirements. There is no single definition of the best graduate, so really it is a matter of selecting appropriate graduates. Similarly, there is not one best graduate recruitment process, but a graduate recruitment process that is appropriate for your organisation.
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