GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

ergo - Number 86 March 2002

Tips For Graduate Recruiters

Graduate recruitment is a challenging job, with many tasks to co-ordinate: campus visits, brochures, advertising, applications, interviewing, shortlisting and induction. And when it’s all over, it’s time to evaluate and start planning the next campaign. Here are some tips to help you through:

Budget

One of the most important elements of the recruitment process, and one which can crystallise your thinking about what needs to take place, is the budget. Important budget items which are sometimes overlooked include entertainment costs, sponsorships, donations and prizes, careers fair and information session costs, IT and outsourced staff requirements and travel costs.

Different Media For Different Purposes

Your choice of recruitment media should be carefully considered to maximise the impact of your campaign. Often, a combination of different media can achieve the best response. Newspaper advertising is aimed at a mass audience and you are charged by text length or display size, and so it is best used for making potential applicants aware that you are recruiting. Directories of graduate employers are ideal tools for maintaining a year-round profile in the market, however, the general information contained in these directories should ideally be supplemented by online information, for easy updates. See Graduate Opportunities – www.graduateopportunities.com – for an example of how this can work.

On-Campus Profiling

On-campus advertising and/or visits are probably the most targeted form of promotion, as the audience is made up of students and graduates. However, as this is one of the most resource-intensive methods of soliciting applications, you need to develop the most efficient schedule. The careers fairs dates for Australia and New Zealand in 2002 can be found, in alphabetical or state order, in the Careers Fairs section of this site.

The Internet

While Internet advertising has not yet completely replaced more traditional media, it has numerous advantages. Depending on the site, it is usually more targeted than press advertising, however this needs to be balanced against the need for a large audience for profiling purposes. This medium has the advantage of longevity and can save you time on informational inquiries and administration (such as sending out application forms).

Process and Risk Management

Plan your graduate recruitment process so that it fits in with your available resources. It is important to ensure that you take into account internal timing issues, such as when peak business periods occur and whether staff and rooms are available. In planning, it is also essential to consider privacy and equal opportunity laws, and to ensure that all staff, both in-house and contracted, understand the ramifications of the relevant legislation.

It is also important to ensure that interviewers’ responses to candidates throughout the process are timely, and that sufficient physical storage and IT resources exist for application processing, candidate information and the protection of personal information. Set all important dates before the process is underway, and ensure that pro-forma letters are available for acknowledgements, offers, inviting to interview and declining applications.

Measuring Effectiveness

By providing a separate reference number for each advertising method, you can measure the effectiveness of different media to help you plan for the following year; for example, your newspaper ad could say ‘Please quote reference N99’ or the literature at the information session could ask for reference number ‘IS99’. Don’t forget to communicate the outcomes of the process internally, both to management and to other staff who have participated.

Semester Dates and Exam Times

If you recruit from more than one university, you need to be aware that semester dates vary between universities, and it is also worth knowing your competitors’ dates. It is important to note that advertising on-campus during the semester breaks may affect your response rates; liaise with Careers Services staff to identify the most appropriate times to place vacancy notices and visit campuses. For details of Careers Service staff and semester dates, see Campus Contacts on this site.