Developing Your New Graduate Recruit
If your new graduates are the first ones your organisation has taken on for a number of years, a great deal of time will be spent planning their induction and early development. If your organisation recruits every year you will still have to make some plans. Some graduate recruiters are responsible only for the parts of the process that we have already discussed, and when the graduates start, they are handed over to a ‘graduate developer’ or a line manager. Recruitment and development are often two parts of the same process, and it can be effective for the recruits and the recruiter if the same people manage them.
The importance of a good start for the recruits cannot be over-emphasised. The benefits of a well-planned and executed induction are:
- faster contribution
- higher retention
- a positive attitude towards the organisation
- reinforcement of the reason for joining
- reduced insecurity caused by the transition
- understanding performance standards
- minimised disruption to the rest of the workforce.
The key components of an effective introduction are an induction course, a discussion about the incumbent’s long-term personal development and salary management and progression.
The first few weeks that the new graduate spends with your organisation can be critical to the way they perceive their long-term future with you. This is a stressful time for them and their lives are undergoing a number of significant changes. Any help you can provide over this period is welcomed, and a positive first few weeks can lay the groundwork for a fruitful long-term relationship. Unfortunately, the opposite is also the case, and any negative perceptions that a new graduate gains during the first few weeks can outweigh positive experiences later on.
In addition to any formal induction course organised for your new graduate recruits, it is worth spending some time familiarising them with their new surroundings and colleagues.
There will be a host of new arrangements and details that they need to be acquainted with to feel comfortable. They may have moved house to come to work in your organisation, and helping them find a new home; perhaps even providing an interim stay in a hotel is always appreciated.
In some organisations, a short-term mentor (or ‘buddy’) is assigned to each graduate recruit to help them through this period. This can be an informal relationship possibly only lasting for a couple of weeks, but at least the graduate recruit has someone they can turn to for help on immediate matters. This is also a good time to re-present to the new recruit, in a formal way, a complete picture of the terms and conditions of their employment.
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