There are plenty of benefits to hiring recent college grads. Most are enthusiastic, moldable, tech-savvy, social media fluent, and, frankly, more affordable than experienced hires. Their adeptness with technology and lower price point are especially appealing to hiring managers who have been forced to transition to remote work while cutting company expenses. However, the pandemic has also made it tough for companies to recruit this demographic, as most traditional job fairs have been canceled since universities moved to remote instruction. In addition, it can be tough to onboard and train recent grads virtually, and it takes a leap of faith to trust that they will perform well remotely without any track record in the workplace.
Here’s how your company can successfully recruit recent college grads remotely:
Advertise Through Their Schools
A great way to recruit college graduates is to reach out to their individual universities. Colleges near your corporate offices are a good place to start. These students are more likely to have heard about your company and more likely to be able to commute there once your organization goes back to the office. Many colleges have online job boards where you can post ads. You can even ask individual college departments or campus clubs to email job listings or ask student newspapers to advertise on their website. Given the current job market, these students are highly likely to apply if notified of position openings.
Rethink Your Job Requirements
When hiring recent graduates, it’s important to consider their aptitude over their experience. Most college seniors are too young to have amassed many jobs on their resume. Reassess your job requirements until you are only asking for skills that are truly essential. Looking for transferable skills is a great way to identify candidates who have the potential to be a great fit for a position, regardless of their background. Pre-employment testing can also help you find college grads with exceptional cognitive abilities or social skills who could be excellent fits for your open roles with a little extra training. Attention to detail, enthusiasm, work ethic, and tech skills are a few more traits to look out for when interviewing or testing candidates.
Attend Virtual Recruitment Fairs
While most in-person recruitment fairs have been canceled, many universities are still hosting them virtually. Reach out to colleges to see if you can snag an online “booth” at one of these events or provide a speaker for a remote career panel event. If you can’t find a university that is hosting a career fair, you can even host your own and advertise it on your social media sites. Finally, try reaching out to sites like RippleMatch or CollegeCode that specialize in connecting college students to entry-level jobs and internships.
Reach Out on Social Media
Millennials and Gen-Z are notorious for their use of technology. Hence, a great way to reach this demographic is through their medium of choice: social media. More than half of college graduates use LinkedIn, over 7 in 10 use Snapchat, and 75% use Instagram. In addition, over 50% of YouTube users are students, 40% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 29, and a quarter of TikTok’s users are between 18 and 24 years old. Your marketing team can create advertisement pop-ups, informative YouTube videos, links to job descriptions or career pages, articles targeted at this demographic, or other promotional content to reach college students through these virtual platforms.
Use Employee Referrals
Lastly, if you’re looking for freshly graduated talent, reach out to people within your company for leads. It is possible that your employees are currently mentoring college students or otherwise acquainted with soon-to-be college grads who would be stellar fits for your company.
College graduates are an excellent demographic to hire, regardless of the current economic outlook. They are often hard-working, affordable, and eager to accept a role. With the right remote recruitment strategies and an eye for transferable skills, your company can lend a hand to these students and gain what could be your future star employees.
