Today’s job market presents students with an abundance of careers and industries to choose from. In 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 10 million job openings in the United States and fewer applicants than ever before.
As an employer, creating a buzz around openings helps bring visibility, but it’s not always enough to make you stand out in a sea of students. Employers need to make a conscious effort to seek the right entry-level talent. By incorporating outreach strategies, you get a chance to foster the conversation and engage prospects.
Students in upcoming graduating classes want a more humanized experience throughout the recruitment process; they want a connection. Efficient outreach strategies can transform an initial conversation and help secure the right entry-level candidate.
Planning Stage
What Does Gen Z Want in a Job?
As the newest generation on the job market, Generation Z knows what they want in an ideal job. They don’t want to settle for roles that don’t contribute to their professional development and future earnings.
During the planning stage of your outreach, try to convey a clear message about what’s important to your company. Outreach strategies success lies in how effectively you highlight company values to potential candidates. Think about what sets your organization apart from others. Over 14% of potential candidates find that the most critical aspect of accepting a position revolves around their connection to the company’s values.
What Are My Talent Pipeline Needs?
Just like it’s important to zero in on what candidates want, evaluate what kind of talent you need. Think about what you envision your organizations’ trajectory to look like in the next 12 to 24 months.
This means examining turnover rates and succession plans. Ask yourself these questions:
- What are your long-term goals?
- Is there a need to restructure certain departments?
- Are you staying at the same location for the next five years?
- Is your company anticipating any mergers or acquisitions?
What Types of Relationships Does My Company Have with Diverse Organizations?
Future employees look for organizations that place importance on workplace diversity. Glassdoor reported that “two-thirds of job seekers said that a diverse workforce is important when choosing a company.” As an employer that’s looking to enhance outreach strategies, forming relationships with professional clubs and organizations for minority groups on campus is critical.
During the planning stage, take a closer look at the student population from where you’ll be recruiting. Think outside the box. Reach out to national organizations like the National Urban League, the Caribbean Students’ Association, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Latino Student Association, the South Asian Society, or the American Indian Science & Engineering Society. There’s a lot of untapped potential from which employers can expand their recruiting processes.
Effective Outreach Strategies
Engaging students at the beginning of their collegiate careers can help build a better relationship between future employers and candidates. As an employer, fostering a conversation early on can help build trust and continuously build brand awareness. But there’s a lot more you can do.
Implementing Virtual Recruiting Strategies
Today, 4.7 million people in the United States work remotely at least half the time. Incorporating a virtual recruiting strategy will not only help you extend your reach, but also help you stay current with this generation’s needs.
Virtual Recruiting Is:
- Cost-Effective: In-person fairs are expensive, and they consume resources you can allocate to other areas of your business. With virtual recruiting, there’s no need for a fancy booth or employees to staff it. You can schedule everything electronically, maximize the time spent with candidates, and save yourself money on airfare.
- Encourages Diversity and Inclusion: Virtual recruiting allows you to extend your reach to a broader audience, while effectively encouraging DEI. This is something that Recruit Premium subscribers value in our platform because it helps them reach and interact with different candidates under one platform. These types of features allow you to reach candidates you might not have otherwise encountered, helping you diversify your workplace.
- Communicative: One of the basic rules of recruitment is following up. Virtual recruiting makes it easier to interact with applicants before and after initial interviews. Sending personalized messages and automated invites through Recruit Premium facilitates this by helping you streamline your process under one platform.
Creating Internships and Externships
Internships and externships are a great way to extend your reach to potential candidates getting ready to join the workforce. As an employer, onboarding interns helps you get a new perspective and create a pipeline for new hires. Building a successful internship program brings benefits for both the employer and potential employees. Plus, it increases your company’s visibility and reiterates your company’s values and the importance of mentoring tomorrow’s leaders.
Social Media
LinkedIn, and other social media platforms, can aid in your outreach efforts by targeting prospective applicants. There are 120K schools listed on LinkedIn alone, with 51% of college graduates utilizing the social media platform to seek job opportunities once they have a degree. Using social media to recruit entry-level candidates is a great way to engage candidates and optimize efforts. You can learn more about outreach strategies on social media here.
Partner with Student Organizations
Research shows that companies that place a greater focus on diversity earn more revenue from innovation. Engaging on-campus organizations, especially ones that are cultural and identity-based, will bring your company visibility across colleges and universities as a leader in diversity and inclusion.
One way of doing this is by attending career fairs for minority students. You can tap into a wider pool and reach out to, not just minorities, but also women, students with disabilities, and veterans.
How Can Symplicity Recruit Help?
Think of our platform as a complimentary resource for your outreach efforts. By utilizing Recruit Premium, you can search our extensive database and build a customized career-ready candidate pool. Allowing companies filter candidates by major/area of study, degree type, graduation date, location, and more, Recruit helps make your outreach efforts a success.
Symplicity Recruit is the premier early talent recruiting platform connecting employers with our exclusive global network of academic institutions. We empower employers with the technology to find the right candidate amongst our pool of over 6 million active students in an efficient, targeted way.
To learn more about Symplicity Recruit, request more information.
