CAMPUS RECRUITING IS BROKEN:

IS BROKEN:

2

CAMPUS RECRUITS WANT ONE THING

(BESIDES A JOB)

Campus recruiting is unlike any other talent acquisition activity. The

target audience is college and graduate students — and these people

are antsy. The talent emerging from colleges is part of a generation that

communicates digitally, at a frenetic pace. In fact, being connected to

information virtually 24/7 is all they’ve ever known. And when they can’t

find what they’re looking for quickly, they move on.

Consider that millennials, the generation currently graduating from college,

are 64 percent more likely to buy something if they can get same-day

delivery, a study by Coldwell Banker shows.

Or that 83 percent of this generation sleeps with their mobile device nearby (about

15 percent higher than Generation X and 33 percent

higher than baby boomers), according to Pew Research.

Another study by the American Press Institute revealed that 51 percent

of millennials are either mostly or always connected online, with only 10 percent saying they are either rarely

or never online.

With the race for talent intensifying, campus recruiters are feeling pressure to increase velocity and win the hearts and minds of qualified candidates sooner. That means pouring more time and energy into campus programs. As if all that pressure on campus recruiters is not enough, they’re also vying

for candidates from a generation that is less focused on work as a top priority, less concerned about salaries when considering a job, less likely to stay in a job for more than two years, and more focused on training and advancement than previous generations of college graduates.

Most campus recruiters lose qualified candidates (including ones they have been tracking for months, or even years) because their campus recruiting processes lack the velocity and connectedness this audience has come to expect. When you consider that about 1 in 4 jobs are filled by interns or recent college graduates,

campus recruiting has to connect better with emerging talent, or organizations will risk losing out on a critically important resource.

Why does all that matter?

1 in 4 jobs are filled by interns or recent college graduates

4

CAMPUS RECRUITERS ARE

OVERWHELMED

Building a pipeline of college talent for internships and entry-level positions

takes a tremendous amount of work. Finding and landing quality emerging

talent requires building campus relationships and attending information

sessions, events, and career fairs — not to mention all the planning that

goes into preparing for this kind of high-touch outreach.

Campus recruiters in the U.S. visit an average of 31 college career fairs a year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Altogether, campus recruiters attend more than 150 live events a year. All of those face-to-face encounters yield mountains of resumes. NACE estimates that every job posting filled by campus recruiters generates an average of 250 resumes, which all need to be vetted, entered into some type of tracking system, assessed, and managed. Of course, when program managers and alumni school teams come calling for top candidates, interviews then need to be coordinated for the pool of qualified candidates found over the past months and years.

The process is often delayed while campus recruiters work with myriad alumni school team members within a company (compared with the typical scenario of just one hiring manager for the rest of talent acquisition) to get feedback on candidates.

In the U.K., the lag is about three weeks longer. In many cases, the process can actually be months or longer when you consider the lead time for those first interviews that occur in a fall semester for positions that start after spring semester begins.

NACE data shows that in the U.S., the average time from job posting to hiring is 74 days.

The real challenge throughout this lengthy process is keeping candidates engaged. Candidates who become frustrated by a slow process or one that lacks transparency or updated information, take jobs at other

A study by Talent Board found that about half of all candidates simply want verbal communication prior to an offer being extended. When campus recruiters are planning for and attending so many on-site PwC, which hires hundreds of college graduates a year, gets about 40,000 online applications for entry-level positions (filled by recent college graduates) in the U.K. alone. PwC vets those applicants using psychometric assessments, numerical and logical reasoning tests, and personality questionnaires. From those, they conduct about 11,500 first-round interviews. That group is whittled down to 3,000 final-round interviews with a partner and results in about 1,700 to 1,800 offers.

40,000

11,500

1,700–1,800

3,000

Assessments, tests, and questionnaires for each applicant

6

RATING THE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

College students are frustrated by a lack of communication throughout the

process and the amount of time it takes to receive an offer after their initial

application. A study by Robert Walters, a recruitment consulting firm, found

that 74 percent of job applicants will consider the length of the recruitment

process before making a decision on whether to accept a job. The data also

shows that 84 percent of job applicants consider how quickly a company

responds as a factor in evaluating employment opportunities.

So what kind of impressions are brands making on highly sought-after, emerging talent? The need to attract, engage, and retain young talent is critical to the success of organizations as they replace an aging workforce and bring in new skills. But online applications can be tedious, vague, and unengaging. Applicants are not connecting with brands in the hiring process and companies aren’t doing a good job of selling themselves or leaving a very good impression (whether the candidate is hired or not).

And, in many cases, candidates can’t find the jobs they want. They might see an advertisement on campus about job opportunities but are then unable to find the role on the company’s website. And once they’re in the online system, the user experience is not very friendly.

Whether it’s time delays, poor

communication with applicants, or a bad online user experience, campus recruiters and employers risk losing qualified

candidates. As campus recruits are left in the dark, they consider other offers. Remember, these applicants are constantly online and expect interactions and information. In the absence of communication throughout the hiring process, they’ll seek it out with other employers. Losing out on a qualified recruit could mean months, if not years, of work have gone to waste and the search for other qualified candidates must start over — but now with a picked-over talent pool.

A Talent Board study found that only 45 percent of job applicants positively rate companies’ efforts to attract talent.

THERE’S A BETTER WAY TO RECRUIT

CAMPUS TALENT

There is one simple way companies can enhance the candidate experience:

better communication. That means frequent updates that keep applicants

informed and let them know where they stand and that the company is

serious about considering them.

Recruiting technology has been an effective way to automate mundane and

time-consuming processes, though automation has not replaced all paper-intensive or spreadsheet-based tracking practices.

Campus recruiters still find themselves alternating between a generic recruiting technology system and spreadsheets.

Why? Because the protracted nature of courting student talent has made the campus recruiting process quite different from the process needed to identify, assess, and hire other full-time employees. But a dedicated campus technology that meets the needs of campus recruiters is more likely to free up time that could be spent increasing engagement with candidates by eliminating the need to juggle spreadsheets and an ATS. At the same time, campus recruiting technology that better matches

With more time, campus recruiters can create warm, authentic interactions with top candidates. A more meaningful interaction with candidates should also include others involved in the recruiting process, such as representatives from business units, alumni school teams, or functional leaders within an organization. Open and transparent communication — such as updating them on the status of their application or sharing results from a candidate assessment — can Alleviating the administrative burdens of campus recruiters is key to helping them personalize the process and interact more frequently with highly sought-after, qualified candidates.

8

WCN CAMPUS HAS SOLVED

THE RUBRIC

Good technology achieves automation, reducing those administrative

burdens. But great technology is built to automate and innovate how

people work. Few organizations have figured out how to leverage recruiting

technology in a way that connects with campus recruits in a meaningful way.

WCN Campus is continuously perfecting an authentic process to help campus recruiters engage student and graduate applicants throughout the entire process. Meaningful

and timely communication is certainly at the forefront of our solution and is also a significant part of our end-to-end process that is designed to create an engaging experience.

Our platform is more engaging, creating meaningful interactions that leave a positive impression on a candidate. Communication is more frequent and targeted, keeping the candidate informed, creating a feeling of transparency. The system facilitates internal and external communication, providing a simple, more interactive environment between candidates and everyone involved in the recruiting process. Companies create a better brand experience (even if the candidate is not hired), leaving a positive impression on candidates who may apply again in the future.

Today’s emerging talent is accustomed to a 24/7

connected world. Technology for recruiting

college and graduate students has to match that

expectation if companies are going to successfully

land qualified applicants in an increasingly

competitive race for emerging talent.

wcncampus.com

[email protected] NEW YORK

200 Park Ave, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10166. Phone: +1 212 686 7733 Fax: +1 646 453 7320