When you are recruiting high-quality talent to fill a position in your business, what sort of applicant do you turn to first? Many recruiters immediately look for not just the most qualified candidates, but also those with the most applicable real-world experiences to the job at hand. This is because experienced and mature candidates are likely to have more direct experience of corporate environments and may have already developed strategies for overcoming the challenges they will undoubtedly face in their new role. This combination of theoretical and practical skills makes it quicker and easier for these candidates to assimilate with your team, and consequentially reach their full productivity and start creating value for your business within a shorter timeframe.
But what about graduate recruits? For the same reasons, many recruiters do not give equal credence to graduate candidates when recruiting for specialist roles and leadership positions. Sure, a graduate may have enthusiasm and the benefit of recent educational experience, but they also have limited to no experience in the workplace and may require more investment in training and hands-on support before they can become a fully contributing member of your team.
While all these arguments are valid, there are several benefits to hiring graduates that businesses should not ignore. In this article, we will introduce just four key points for your consideration:
1. Graduates Are Mouldable And Adaptable
Lack of experience is frequently seen as a drawback for many companies, but in many ways, this apparent weakness can provide a major advantage. As yours is likely to be a graduate’s first proper job in the industry, they will not bring to the table as much baggage and as many preconceptions as a more experienced applicant would, which means they can be taught more easily and shaped to your business’s culture and way of working.
On the contrary, changing the habits of more experienced candidates can be far more costly and time-consuming, and in some cases can increase the risk of conflict and misunderstandings within your team. Graduates are also often more receptive to learning new skills and can pick up new competencies more quickly in response to the opportunities that they are given. This enthusiasm makes your graduate employees keen to learn and keen to please, which expresses itself in greater adaptability, with many graduates willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to help you achieve your business goals.
2. Graduate Recruitment Is Cost-Effective
Unlike fully trained individuals with many years of experience, graduates still have a lot to learn – and this is reflected in their starting salary expectations, making graduate recruits much more affordable to hire.
Graduates can be taken on at a lower salary on the understanding that their potential is high, but that it will take time for them to develop their capabilities. Graduates will require long-term investment and development to bring them up to speed, but over their time of employment, this can often deliver a greater ROI than a more experienced applicant taken on at a higher salary with greater responsibilities from day one.
3. Graduates Bring Fresh Perspectives And New Skills To Your Company
Graduate recruitment can help inject innovative thinking and new perspectives into your organisation that older employees may not have, because of habitual thinking and established working practices. Fresh talent straight out of university will be enthusiastic and will come from a different walk of life and generation than many of your current team. This gives you the opportunity to adopt new ideas and ways of working that you may not have considered before and to challenge potentially outdated approaches and cultural and technical blind spots.
4. Graduate Recruitment Helps With Succession Planning
Many businesses are now facing an ageing workforce with high-level industry-specific skills concentrated in a small group of managers and specialists who are approaching retirement age. This creates an issue with succession planning, i.e., how these skills are to be disseminated and continued among the newest generation of leaders and service providers.
By creating a graduate recruitment programme with a clear career path and incentives for younger recruits, you can help lay the foundations for the long-term success of your business and future-proof your organisation. Actively seeking graduate talent is an internal recruitment plan for the future. With the right training and support, graduates that you hire this year have the potential to progress their careers while staying loyal to your business long-term.
Find Out More
Graduate training and early years professional development are some of the areas we focus on at GRA. To find out more about how we can help, please get in touch with one of our specialists today.
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