THE AAGE ‘HOW TO’ HANDBOOK 2022 Guide to managing a graduate program
Facilitator’s Guide
Copyright © 2022 The Australia Association of Graduate Employers Ltd
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Introduction This Handbook, produced by the Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE), is a guide for managing a graduate program for those new to the industry, as well as experienced graduate recruiters or graduate program managers. The Handbook can also be a great reference tool for those looking at reviewing their current processes and practices, and provides an opportunity to leverage from best industry practice with regard to attraction, selection and assessment, graduate development and onboarding, and provide insight into the best ways to achieve your program’s objectives. It is not meant to be prescriptive; rather it is intended to lay a foundation for ideas, to give direction for which questions to ask, and to provide some pointers about services which are available to assist you. If you are new to the industry, we hope that it will assist you, and provide a useful guide to the complexities of the job. Using This Publication In this Handbook we use the full form of a title the first time it is used. Thereafter we use the abbreviated form. A full glossary of abbreviations and acronyms is provided in Appendix 1. Whilst we refer to graduate recruitment and development as the primary focus of the graduate recruiter or graduate program manager, the information and best practices outlined in the Handbook can also be applied to the establishment and running of other programs such as cadetships and vacation work.
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The AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook Table of Contents Industry Stakeholders ............................................................................................................................ 7 Getting Started with a Graduate Program ............................................................................................. 15 Attraction ............................................................................................................................................ 21 Application and Selection ..................................................................................................................... 31 Making an Offer ................................................................................................................................... 39 Induction and Development ................................................................................................................. 41 Using Social Media ............................................................................................................................... 49 Developing Your Own Skills .................................................................................................................. 55 Appendix 1 – Glossary .......................................................................................................................... 59 Appendix 2 – The AAGE ........................................................................................................................ 63 Appendix 3 – Creating a Project Plan .................................................................................................... 67
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Chapter 1 Industry Stakeholders
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Industry Stakeholders To build and execute a successful graduate recruitment program it is first important to understand the context in which you will be operating. Of course your primary objective is to find and recruit the best graduates to meet the present and future needs of your organisation. However, it is important to understand that there are many other stakeholders in the graduate recruitment industry in addition to the potential graduates themselves.
Employers The number of employers in the graduate recruitment market varies from year to year and is influenced by the individual recruitment needs of organisations as well as broader labour market trends. A significant amount of recruitment is conducted by small to medium businesses without involvement in the targeted attraction and selection campaigns outlined in this guide. However, there are many other organisations that invest heavily in attraction strategies and recruitment processes and will be fierce competition to your own organisation. The employers in our market vary enormously in size, activity and methods of recruitment, and span both public and private sectors. Each organisation will have its own processes, priorities, strategies and objectives. It is important to understand the other employers operating in the market, both those that may be in your industry as well as those from complimentary or even different industry groups, as they may all be targeting a similar group of graduates and thus will be your competition on campus. Despite this fierce competition, it is important to remember that you and your organisation will share many of the same challenges as your competitors. We recommend that you build relationships with those in similar roles to your own, as it will prove vital in your role and to the success of your program. You can connect with employers in your industry through industry bodies such as the AAGE or through networking groups organised within your industry.
Students In 2019, over 138,000 domestic students graduated from Australian universities with an undergraduate degree. These graduates are studying an increasingly diverse range of disciplines as universities offer more AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 9
and more options to attract students to their campuses. Other factors to consider are the decreasing enrolments in some subjects and the under-representation of one or other gender in other subjects (e.g. males in teaching, and females in engineering). There has also been an increase in students studying by distance so your potential graduates may be studying in a completely different location to the university in which they are enrolled. Given this background, the task of promoting your organisation to your target market becomes even more challenging. There are a number of sources of information available to give you more information about student numbers or students’ views: •
The AAGE’s Annual Graduate Survey, Candidate Survey and Intern Survey
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The AAGE’s UniStats Report
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The AAGE’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency statistics on graduate program gender statistics
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The Australian Government’s Department of Education
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University careers services
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The Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) website.
Student societies are also a great way to promote your graduate program. Student societies often hold events and workshops providing employers with the opportunity to promote their program to a targeted audience as well as online marketing.
Careers Services For many students, the careers service within their university is a major source of information about employers and careers. Career services go under a variety of names and structures. Some are combined with schools liaison / course advice, or with the university’s alumni program or with general counselling facilities. They range in size from a single person to services with ten or more staff. Many will have dedicated Employer Liaisons whose role it is to manage the interaction with employers and facilitate their presence on campus. Many will also have dedicated Careers Advisors who role is to counsel students about future career options. Careers services, therefore, are an important target for employers and the impression an employer makes on careers advisors can be crucial. The most important aspect of a graduate recruiter's relationship with careers services is keeping them advised of organisational plans and policies, particularly if changes that could affect recruitment opportunities are being planned. Likewise, if you want ideas about how to reach out to students, a careers advisor can be an invaluable source of wisdom as well as acting as a link between your organisation and the students. Visit them or ask them to visit your organisation or meet them at one of the AAGE’s regular events throughout the year. Broadening your networks and nurturing the relationships with career advisors will provide your organisation with greater exposure and will enable you to access and recruit some of the top talent at universities.
Academic/Faculty Representatives Whilst career advisors are important in your role as a graduate recruiter, a more targeted approach to reach students is to develop relationships with university academics and faculty members. They are often open to speaking with company representatives and even more interested in building relationships with industry professionals. It can be worthwhile utilising senior members of the organisation to leverage their academic relationships to provide industry knowledge and thought leadership.
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Service Providers There are an increasing number of service providers in the graduate recruitment market who can deliver some or all of your graduate recruitment processes or programs. In some cases these suppliers will provide a tailored service designed with you to meet your recruitment needs, for example advertising agencies and assessment providers. Other suppliers will have a general service they offer to a wide range of organisations that may only be able to be customised in a small way, for example career directories, and applicant management systems (commonly referred to as Applicant Tracking Systems – ATS) and even development programs. Examples of service providers in the graduate recruitment market are: •
Advertising agencies and employer branding consultancies, some of which specialise in graduate marketing campaigns
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Applicant Tracking System providers
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Other technology providers
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Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
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Psychometric assessment
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Graduate Development and Training providers
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Market research companies
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Career directories or other recruitment publications
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Careers fair logistics providers
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Specialised background checking and reference checking agencies.
Industry Bodies The last group of players in the graduate recruitment market are industry bodies that represent or provide assistance to one or more of the stakeholders above. The main industry bodies are: •
Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE) http://www.aage.com.au/
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National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS) http://www.nagcas.org.au
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National Union of Students (NUS) http://unistudent.com.au/main/
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Engineers Australia http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/
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CPA (Certified Practising Accountants) http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/
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Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand (CAANZ) http://www.charteredaccountantsanz.com
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Australian Computer Society Foundation (ACS Foundation) http://www.acsfoundation.com.au
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Universities Australia http://universitiesaustralia.edu.au/
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Department of Education https://www.education.gov.au
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Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA) http://www.finsia.com/
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The Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA) http://www.afma.com.au/
N.B. Full information on the AAGE can be found in Appendix 2. Each of these industry bodies seeks to provide information and networking opportunities for their members as well as commenting on, and helping to set, the strategic direction of their industry.
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Graduate recruiters can utilise their resources and contacts to assist them in building and executing their graduate recruitment plans and getting feedback or benchmarking information on such activities. Building a network of industry bodies will make your job as a graduate recruiter much easier as well as provide you with exposure to their members in an often neutral and supportive environment. There are also national associations similar to the AAGE in a range of countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States that can provide you with information on the graduate recruitment processes in their local market.
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Chapter 2 Getting Started with a Graduate Program
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Getting Started with a Graduate Program The Graduate Program Team One of the primary roles of a graduate program team is to secure the best graduates for your organisation. However, how you do this will be dependent on a variety of factors, both internal and external, including the organisation of your Human Resources department, the role of graduate recruitment in the strategic direction of your organisation, and the relationships you develop with stakeholders. Certain organisations are able to coordinate all graduate recruitment activities – attraction, selection, training and development, within one department. This is easiest for organisations that recruit large numbers into one particular field as well as small organisations with only one human resources manager. By contrast, many large companies are organised into areas by function; for example, branding, recruitment, learning and development; all of which work independently but have their activities coordinated by a centre of excellence or centralised human resources team. In such structures, graduate recruitment responsibilities are often separated unless the overall graduate intake is relatively small. One team may develop the sourcing strategy and run the external liaison activities with higher education institutions and service providers, while another team will carry out final selection, training and development of graduates. Does it make any difference? Yes, it does. If your team is responsible for the end-to-end recruitment, onboarding and development process for your graduate intake, you are able to have a structured approach and set of practices for your entire graduate intake. This can be challenging because our expertise as recruiters is stretched and we can sometimes become marketing gurus and learning and development specialists as well as project managers and facilitators! However, if the structure within your organisation is a decentralised, you may encounter some challenges that are sometimes a natural consequence of having multiple teams within the graduate recruitment process. One of the biggest challenges is that of consistency; selling a message about your organisation on campus to students which is consistent with the experience of students during the recruitment process and beyond throughout their graduate program. Whilst there are challenges with both structures, this is often outside of your control. The key to success is managing and consulting with your internal stakeholders and ensuring you have their buy in. Furthermore, having a thorough program plan with a vision and a clear direction no matter where you fit in within the process.
The Role of Graduate Recruiter As a graduate recruiter, you play a key role in selecting the best graduates for your employer and building the brand and reputation of the graduate program within your organisation. The graduates we recruit today build a pipeline for the future needs of the organisation so it is imperative we get it right. We work in a dynamic and ever changing environment in uncertain economic times with a shortage of skilled professionals in the labour market. The tertiary sector is also facing challenges of its own with both the cost and demand for university places increasing which has led to an increase in full fee paying students including international students. We have seen an increase in undergraduate programs such as cadetships and internships as well as other early identification programs and sponsorship initiatives. All these factors have resulted in an increased focus on, and competition for, graduates within many organisations. In response, graduate recruiters are being asked to develop more innovative and sophisticated approaches to securing graduates for our organisation, transforming our role from recruiter to recruitment strategists. The world of graduate recruitment is challenging to say the least, but also immensely rewarding. AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 15
Getting ‘Buy In’ From Stakeholders Getting the ‘buy in’ from key stakeholders in your organisation will be critical to your success as a graduate recruiter and the success of the program. Firstly, you will need to ensure that you understand how your organisation’s strategic objectives relate to its requirements for graduate recruitment. Some of the questions you could consider are: •
Why does your organisation recruit graduates? Are they your future leaders or recruited to meet immediate needs of the business?
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What are the challenges that your organisation is facing within the human resources area?
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How have graduates performed in the past? What are your organisation’s future requirements for graduates?
Talk to people at all levels within your organisation to better gain an insight into their views on graduate recruitment and graduates. This will assist you in developing an understanding the role the recruitment of graduates will play in the workforce plan of the organisation and therefore assist you in developing an appropriate strategy and plan to meet this need. It is also useful to supplement this information with an understanding of the statistics and data that may have been collected on your organisations’ graduate activities such as applications per vacancy, source of information on your program, the universities where your successful applicants studied and so on. Secondly, you will need to keep those stakeholders informed on trends and developments in higher education and the graduate recruitment market that may have an effect on its ability to recruit. Be brave and innovative; find new ways to attract and select graduates to overcome some of the challenges faced by your organisation and don’t be afraid to take these bold approaches to your leaders and stakeholders (just make sure you have done your research first!) At the end of a campaign, don’t be shy and make sure you celebrate your achievements; a great way to do this and gain recognition for all your hard work is with an end of year report detailing the campaign and the results achieved (and highlight any awards your organisation may have received is always well received).
Creating a Graduate Program Once you have your organisation’s support to recruit and develop graduates you need to create a process and program to execute this strategy. Depending on the organisation you can approach the creation of this program in one of three ways: 1.
Requirements Based Identify the varied requirements of your organisation i.e. What roles do you have available and what ‘skill set’ or type of graduate are you looking to recruit? Take into consideration factors such as employee movements, attrition and growth aspirations with your organisation’s workforce plan. A sourcing strategy can then be developed by identifying future key roles and capabilities for which you can design a bespoke and targeted attraction and selection process.
2.
Generalist For some organisations, the recruitment of graduates is simply seen as a ‘good thing to do’, either to build the brand of the organisation or its organisational capabilities by having a presence on campus and recruiting capable, thought-provoking future managers and leaders. In this case, the sourcing and selection strategy may be determined at an organisation-wide level and the requirements of AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 16
individual roles are a secondary consideration, often because recruits may be rotated through different business units. In this instance, does your organisation have a clear set of desirable hiring attributes (competencies, aptitudes, cultural values) that predict success? It would also be critical to determine which roles these graduates are being pipelined for after they complete their rotations and ensuring your recruitment and selection process is designed to meet these future needs. 3.
Business as Usual For many organisations, particularly small or medium size businesses, the methods used in recruiting graduates do not vary significantly to their approach to filling other vacancies. The attraction and selection of graduates will be carried out in the same way as recruitment for more experienced hires and thus a new or alternate approach is not needed. However, it is important to remember that the attraction strategy for graduate candidates differs greatly to experienced professionals, as does the assessment and selection process since graduates tend not to have extensive work experience and are generally hired based on aptitude, attitude and potential.
Where you have identified a need for graduates and developed a sourcing and selection strategy based on this need (groups 1 and 2 above), the execution of this strategy will almost certainly include participation in on-campus recruitment. Employers of all types and sizes participate in on-campus recruitment programs. However it is the larger employers with regular intakes of graduates who make up the bulk of these programs. Whatever the recruitment intakes, a high level of student awareness and a strong pool of applications will still be critical. Your organisation’s brand will receive great exposure on campus but it is also important to note that a badly run campus campaign can have a negative impact on an employer’s brand and reputation. Another important consideration is to be clear on the true purpose of your graduate program. If it is to develop future leaders, then this will shape the value proposition with which you go to market, your selection process, and how you structure the program. If it is to fill ‘entry-level’ roles, then similarly this will shape a different approach to market and selection process. This is essential so you can effectively measure what your graduate program is delivering to the organisation, but also because graduate candidates are very savvy. When you go to market for and deliver your program, it needs to meet their expectations. So there is little point promoting a leadership program if your real need is technical skill. Be clear on this before you begin, and revisit your proposition regularly. Given the increasing war for talent (static or diminishing numbers of graduates compounded by an increasing number of graduate vacancies), how will you attract candidates? The type of recruitment process you create will be dependent on organisational needs and the feedback of stakeholders, as well as on the resources available to you. There are a number of approaches to manage the graduate recruitment process including: 1.
Whole Process Managed ‘In-House’ One approach is to manage the entire recruitment and development process ‘in-house’ i.e. using your organisation’s own staff for every aspect of the process. No one can know an organisation as well as its own people, so using your own staff to attract, assess and develop graduates brings significant advantages. Managing the attraction and recruitment processes internally also means that you are in control of the process and the candidate care, leaving a positive impression on the potential recruits. To be successful in this approach, you will require dedicated resources with a range of expertise including brand and marketing, recruitment and selection, and learning and development.
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2.
Process Managed ‘In-House‘ With Use of External Specialist Providers Some organisations do not have the resources or expertise to deliver the entire process. In such situations, the employer may engage external suppliers to manage some elements of the process. These suppliers may provide services such as online marketing, design of an attraction campaign, design and delivery of assessment and selection tools, or development and delivery of a training program.
3.
Outsourcing the Whole Process Some organisations do not have the expertise or resources to manage any aspect of the graduate recruitment and development process. In such situations, the entire process may be outsourced to a specialist supplier. For example, a third party supplier may be engaged to conduct the entire attraction and assessment process, with the employer having little or no involvement until the final short list of candidates has been determined.
If you have followed the steps outlined above, you have identified a need for graduates, and thought about how you can create the best attraction and selection process based on that need, as well as the resources you would need to execute the process. Now, can you afford it?
Budget Determining the budget for your graduate recruitment campaign and subsequent graduate program, is an important early step in your planning, as it will influence other decisions you make about promotional activities, selection processes and the onboarding and development of your graduates. The budget you have may be a part of the wider Human Resources budget and require you to supply an outline of your spend so as to secure funding each year. Alternatively, it may be determined on a fee for service basis where you charge your internal clients for securing them a graduate. However your budget is determined, understanding the funding you have available to you in advance ensures you can plan resources and activities appropriately and, sometimes equally importantly, understand what you cannot deliver within the budget set down. Some of the important factors to consider in your graduate program budget include: •
The preparation and delivery of marketing collateral such as brochures, flyers, online presence, campus presentation templates, promotional ‘give aways’ and multimedia
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attending or hosting promotional events such as career fairs, presentations, site visits or competitions
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sponsorship of courses or student societies
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vendors or suppliers such as job boards
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travel to and from campus activities
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systems and services, such as an applicant tracking system or online testing
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preparation and delivery of Assessment Centres and any costs associated with this activity
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engagement activities between ‘offer’ and your graduates arriving into the business
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travel and associated costs with induction activities
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training programs
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graduate salaries
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the salaries of your graduate program team, including graduate recruiters, temporary or administrative support, training facilitators etc.
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The 2022 AAGE Employer Survey found that a typical annual spend on a graduate marketing and attraction was around $70,000. Hence, you should ensure that you review your budget on a yearly basis and compare this against a range of market benchmarks. N.B. A sample recruitment budget can be found in Appendix 3.
Negotiating with Suppliers For many employers, a large proportion of their budget will go to paying suppliers of graduate recruitment services such as marketing, assessment and technology. The services provided are expensive and their appropriate use can be integral to the successful execution of a graduate recruitment campaign and therefore you should carry out a thorough review before making a decision to use them. You should: •
Meet a number of service providers or conduct a tender process to determine which service and provider best fits your purpose. Make sure you have set criteria by which you will assess each supplier and provide them with feedback based on this criteria.
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Ask existing customers for their opinion of the proposed supplier and the value of the service provided (obtain referees).
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Look at examples of the supplier's work.
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Decide whether you are able to work with the people involved. For example, meet the person who will be your account manager.
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Find out whether the service provider has a viable organisation able to produce the service you are paying for. For example, if there are setbacks in the process, do they have additional resources so that your deadlines will be met?
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Ensure any technological based services (testing, applicant tracking) can be integrated together to assist you manage volume campaigns effectively.
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Make your choice and then check the supplier's performance rigorously and don’t be afraid to provide them with constructive feedback.
Becoming a Subject Matter Expert Managing stakeholders and budgets, negotiating with suppliers, delivering campus programs and keeping abreast of our industry – there is a real need to become subject matter experts! To cement your role within the organisation as an authority on the increasingly competitive graduate recruitment market is an ongoing challenge but an important one if you are to ensure your processes and program are robust and best practice. There are several sources of information that can assist you in your quest to be a subject matter expert in the field of graduate recruitment. AAGE The AAGE provides a range of information, including: •
An annual Employer Survey, which benchmarks employers and provides data on trends in the graduate recruitment industry including number of vacancies, graduate starting salaries, marketing spend and selection processes used.
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An annual Candidate Survey, which collects information and opinions from students who have been offered a graduate position with an AAGE member organisation.
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An annual Graduate Survey, which collects information and opinions from graduates who have been in employment with an AAGE member organisation for 12 months.
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An annual Intern Survey, which gathers information and opinions from students who have undertaken an internship/vacation placement/clerkship with an AAGE member organisation.
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An annual UniStats Report, which analyses the number of domestic and international students who have commenced or completed an undergraduate degree. This data is broken down by degree subject, gender and university.
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An annual Workplace Gender Equality Agency Report, which analyses the number of male and female graduates joining graduate programs in the private sector. This data is broken down by industry and by individual employer.
These surveys and reports can be useful in benchmarking your organisation and to share with stakeholders when issues around graduate recruitment in your organisation are reviewed or contested. Further information about the AAGE is available in Appendix 2. Department of Education The Federal Department of Education provides additional information on enrolment and completion figures for students and degree majors studied in Australia. Refer to their website https://www.education.gov.au/ NAGCAS The National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS) coordinates and provides information about key university initiatives including careers fair dates. Refer to their website https://www.nagcas.org.au/ Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provides a range of statistics on the labour market and higher education. Refer to their website http://www.abs.gov.au/ Universities Australia Universities Australia provides semester dates for all Australian universities. Refer to their website https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/
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Chapter 3 Attraction
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Attraction Once you have decided to recruit graduates into your organisation, the next step is to attract graduates from your identified target audience. Marketing and branding is yet another area in which graduate program managers and the team need some knowledge in order to meet their graduate recruitment requirements. There are two key components of attraction: •
Building your employment brand
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Promoting the opportunities offered by your organisation.
Many organisations will employ an advertising agency to assist with developing a campaign strategy and marketing materials; however, some are able to leverage their internal capability.
Building an Employment Brand Many organisations already have an employment brand. This brand may be the same or similar to their product or other branding, and synonymous with candidates as belonging to a particular organisation. “Employment branding is a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees, potential employees, and related stakeholders with regards to a particular firm. The strategy can be tuned to drive recruitment, retention, and productivity management efforts. It works by consistently putting forth an image surrounding management and business practices that make your organization an attractive, ‘good place to work’.” (Source: ER Daily, ‘The 8 Elements of a Successful Employment Brand’ by Dr John Sullivan, 23 February 2004)
By positioning yourself as an employer of choice and clearly articulating your offering to candidates, this should result in better quality applications for your graduate program recruitment. What factors should you consider when evaluating or creating an Employment Brand (often also referred to as an Employee Value Proposition, or EVP)? 1.
How well do you understand your target audience? • Who are they? What are their defining characteristics? What are their competencies, values, skills/academic backgrounds, aspirations? • What are their key drivers and needs?
2.
• When, where and how do they start looking for graduate opportunities? When are they not looking, but receptive? What is the competitive marketplace you’re playing in? • Who are your direct (industry) and indirect competitors? • How are your competitors perceived? In what ways are they more or less desirable to your target audience?
3.
• How do your competitors activate their brand? When do they go on campus? What activities do they participate in? What activation channels (physical, online) do they use? What feedback (anecdotal) or competitive intelligence have you gathered? What is your current Employee Value Proposition (EVP)? • How are you perceived by your target audience? • How would you like to be perceived on matters that interest your target audience?
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o o
What are your organisation’s core values? What are the main benefits to working at your organisation?
o
What are the compelling examples of these benefits at your organisation that will resonate and appeal to your target audience? How do these different qualities interact to give your organisation its uniqueness and differentiate it from other, competing employers?
o
• Which brand perceptions are: o Negative and accurate? Can you address these internally then re-brand yourself? o Negative and inaccurate? How should you tackle these misperceptions? o Positive and accurate? What can you leverage and use as the core of your EVP, as long as it is relevant to the needs and aspirations of your target audience? EVPs can reflect the current state of your organisation. Alternatively, an EVP can be aspirational in nature; a reflection of where an organisation wishes to be if it has started a process of transformation, a situation increasingly common to many companies in today’s world. Importantly, your employment brand or EVP should never suggest or promise attributes that aren’t true of the organisation if it wants to both attract and retain engaged and committed employees in the mid- to long term.
Marketing Materials There are a range of options available to recruiters to deliver your employment brand and provide information to candidates. These include your company website, online advertisements, brochures and handouts, digital and physical banners, emails and ‘freebies’. You could also utilise existing annual reports or product literature from your organisation to provide general information for candidates. However, as these are produced for purposes other than graduate recruitment, you should ensure that material is engaging before it is distributed. When preparing recruitment marketing materials, other people in your organisation may need to be consulted e.g. the marketing department or a brand manager. You may find that your organisation has strict brand guidelines which dictate what you can (and cannot) do with respect to promoting your organisation. When developing recruitment marketing materials, here are some points to consider: •
What message are you trying to convey? Is it about organisational culture, employment opportunities, training and development, the recruitment process, or a combination of all of these? Once you have determined the message and information you wish to convey you can determine the medium (e.g. brochure, video, website etc.). How many touch points and mediums should you use?
•
How frequently will you need to produce a new version of your recruitment materials? Is the content (e.g. annual profit performance, product offerings, graduate salaries etc.) likely to become out-ofdate? Try to keep content generic to allow for re-use.
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Who will produce the materials? Do you have in-house facilities for design, copywriting, photography, printing, and dispatch? If not, you will need to engage an outside specialist, and prepare a thorough brief, defining scope, budget and deadlines.
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Who is going to be profiled in your marketing campaign? For example, do you need a quote from your CEO, an appearance by recent graduates in a recruitment video or a case study for your website?
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In the case of printed materials, how many copies will you need? This will depend on what you are using the material for (e.g. mail outs, careers fairs and presentations). You should also make sure you AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 24
send extra copies to university careers services for their collection. Careers services can provide student numbers for your target audience in the case of mail outs, but there are no fixed rules about the number of copies you should have printed for other activities. It is always best to err on the side of caution and print more than you estimate you will need so as not to run out. It is valuable to keep a record of how many copies you send out (and to where) during the year as this can assist in planning the following year. •
Putting a brochure or website together always takes longer than you expect – it could extend to six months or more. For example, if you want to get your materials into circulation or posted in time for campus activities in March, you should start work on this material in September. If you are going to be changing your collateral, using a new supplier or have tight internal approval processes, you may wish to begin even earlier. And remember, you may also need to get approval from your internal legal or brand team if changing previously-approved content.
•
With the advent of the web and online application processes, the need for additional flyers or handouts has reduced. Ask yourself the question: Can this information be supplied online if we direct candidates to our website? If you are producing additional materials, ensure it complements existing materials.
•
With regards to the cost of printed materials, generally the larger the print run the lower the ‘per unit’ cost. Get quotes on different volumes and determine what best suits your needs and budget.
Promoting Your Brand Once you have established your employment brand and created tour graduate marketing materials, there are several ways in which you can promote your brand and the opportunities available. Relationships with University Career Services University Careers Services are a good first point of contact for graduate recruiters. Strong relationships here are crucial, not only to ensure that they are comfortable recommending your organisation as a potentially ‘good’ employer to students, but also to provide help and advice in times of difficulty. What should you do to maintain an effective relationship with careers services? •
Strategically identify which universities you will target (it doesn’t necessarily need to be them all) based on the degrees and qualities their graduates possess.
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Provide the careers service with copies of your materials, provide organisation updates, and develop a relationship where they can approach you for further information or clarification about your organisation or graduate program.
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During, or at the end of each recruitment process, provide them with an overview of how their students’ applications proceeded; how many offers you made, and how many were accepted. You could also provide feedback to the service on the performance of their students at interview or during other steps of the assessment process.
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Offer the careers service help if they need it. They may ask for assistance with careers events and other initiatives they are undertaking.
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It is not sufficient to meet careers advisers only during an on-campus program. Make a point of meeting them at other, less busy times. You can discuss your problems and find out what other organisations are doing. (N.B. You have the opportunity to network with careers advisers at AAGE functions.)
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Provide open-day visits for groups of careers advisers, especially if you have significant program changes to announce. Make sure that your guests have the opportunity to talk informally and frankly to graduates who have recently joined your organisation. AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 25
•
Consider offering places on your own training courses to careers services personnel. They will be particularly interested in courses on interpersonal skills, or objectives setting.
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Advise careers services early of your recruitment plans for the year so they can include these in their publications and material for students.
•
Don’t make your brochures too large or irregular in shape. Many careers services have limited display units.
Note, careers services may not always be able to help you, and you may have to seek other avenues to increase student awareness of your organisation. There are ways to achieve this, such as liaising directly with faculties or students, or even collaborating with direct competitors/partners in your industry to gain additional visibility and impact. For example, both the legal profession and the accounting industry have a long history of collaboration. Relationships with Academic Departments If you are looking for contacts in specialist areas, such as engineering, computer science, pharmacy, banking or psychology, making contacts with specific academic departments within universities can be very effective. But how do you do this? •
Talk to the university careers services initially. They will advise you on the people most likely to help.
•
Enlist the help of fellow employees who graduated from a particular department. It is useful to gain support from colleagues, alumni or not, to develop these links. You are unlikely to have the expertise or the time to work on them yourself.
Next, consider what your organisation could offer in return. Here are a few ideas: •
Scholarships.
•
Academic prizes. To get maximum publicity from the prize, send photographs of the award ceremony to the campus press, or a press release to an institution’s publication. Make sure your prize is competitive with those offered by other employers.
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Ask appropriate colleagues who are willing to undertake liaison roles to offer their help with teaching, course advisory committees or project work.
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Persuade your organisation to offer research projects, training resources, vacation training or industrial placements.
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Look at all aspects of student sponsorship.
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Your organisation may be able to endow lectureships, professorial chairs, offer visiting faculty fellowships or research grants.
Relationships with Students You will need to have a well thought-out strategy for persuading students that your organisation is worth considering as an employer. If your organisation already has a strong and positive national reputation or a high public profile, this can provide inestimable value. But you should not assume that your work is done for you. People will expect high quality programs from such organisations. Perhaps your organisation does not meet these criteria, or there may be other companies and organisation in the same line of business with whom you are competing for the same graduates. You will need to work
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hard to make yourself distinctive. The following sections outline some marketing initiatives you could undertake either on-campus or off-campus. All will take time, and many will require a budget.
On-Campus Activities Careers Fairs Most major universities run their own careers fairs and others (e.g. in the ACT) may run a joint fair. You should contact each institution's careers service to find out what they are offering in this area, and an annual calendar of all university fairs is provided on the AAGE web site for its members. Careers fairs provide an excellent opportunity for employers to meet students who are in search of career information. Sometimes the students are not in their final year but are looking for information on vacation or industrial training placements. Depending on the programs your organisation offers, you should be prepared to response to a variety of queries. Careers fairs offer the following advantages: •
Advertise your vacancies.
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Meet a large number of students in one place over a relatively short timeframe.
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Raise your organisation's profile with students.
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Find out how other employers market themselves.
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Build your network of other graduate employers.
You should prepare a range of collateral to take with you to a careers fair, typically including a display stand, brochures/fliers/handouts, and freebies if you have them. To make your time on campus more manageable, you may also want to consider scissors, sticky tape, Velcro dots, tablecloths, pens, wet wipes, breath mints and water! As an alternative to campus careers fairs, the AAGE also coordinates major fairs in major capital cities, called “The Big Meet”. These provide the opportunity for employers to access thousands of students from several universities in one day, cost-effectively. Details of The Big Meet timetable and registration can be obtained from the AAGE. Presentations/Information Sessions Presentations to groups of students, aside from providing information, are intended to give the audience an impression of what your organisation is like. As a result, they are very similar to your other marketing materials – helpful when good but potentially damaging to your brand if not. To ensure a good campus presentation, first know what you are trying to achieve. Be very clear about the intentions of your message. Are you telling the students about your products, your history, your selection process or your graduate program? Certainly, some of this is valuable. But don’t forget to talk about what it’s like to work with you, what graduates are expected to do, what others have achieved, and how graduates are trained and developed. Authentic insights are what students will be looking for. When deciding who will make the presentation, a team approach has its advantages. If you have representatives from all recruiting areas, you could outline the various opportunities available and handle any questions that arise, but be aware that a large team may up too much time and reduce the ability to make your presentation informal. However, a team should include men and women, and, most importantly, recent graduates. If possible, staff should be alumni from the university you are visiting.
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The timing of presentations should be decided based on your closing date, other on- and off-campus activities, and potential clashes with other employers. Careers services will assist you in planning and publicising your information session. You could also use your own networks to promote the information session, for example through student societies. Career Workshops Some universities organise recruitment and career related workshops for their students. These workshops provide students with information, skills and support to prepare them for the graduate recruitment selection process. Workshops commonly focus on matters such as interview skills or resume writing. Employers may be asked to participate in these workshops, either as a presenter or as a case study. Similarly, you may offer such a workshop to a student society via a sponsorship arrangement. It is important to remember that whilst these workshops are useful in raising awareness of your own organisation, their primary purpose is to provide help and training for students. Hence, if you are asked to present at such a workshop, your main focus should be on delivering neutral and impartial advice, rather than promoting your own organisation, so you should set the style and delivery of the information accordingly. Sponsor a Student Society Many student societies will seek corporate sponsorship to assist them in providing information and services to their member base. Based on your target audience, you can identify possible student societies who could assist you in reaching these students. Ensure that you understand the sponsorship package you are agreeing to, and what you will receive in regards to branding and access to students as a result. Be careful to check that your brand or logo will be used appropriately, and advise the student society of any guidelines around this. In instances where you are a key sponsor and providing a large monetary investment, you may wish to mentor the committee or put other reporting controls in place to protect your investment. (N.B. The AAGE has a comprehensive list of contact details for well over 300 student societies via its SocList resource – available free of charge for AAGE Members.) Leverage Your Time When exploring activities to promote your employment brand, it is worthwhile determining how you can allow for scale and utilise multiple ‘touch points’ to maximise the effort that you put in. For instance, if you give a skills workshop on campus, is it possible to provide the slides to other universities online with an audio narrative (podcast)? Do you have the resources to video the session and share it online with nontarget universities or more universities you aren’t able to visit?
Off-Campus Activities Whilst the majority of activities to attract graduates occur on campus, you may choose to bring the students to you as a way to further promote and differentiate your organisation. Site or employer visits can be organised with the assistance of a faculty contact or student society. Alternatively, you might invite students with whom you already have some form of relationship, for example they may have registered on your website for earlier recruitment activities. Liaising with university staff and student societies can be advantageous to gain an understanding of ‘when’ to host a particular event, as they will have a good understanding on university semester dates, exam timetables, and study breaks. It is advisable to ask students to register for your event to gain an idea of numbers expected to attend and assist your planning. However, note it is not unusual for a significant percentage of registrants to fail to turn up on the day. AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 28
These site or employer visits can be used to great advantage if your workplace is different from other employers or unique to your industry. It allows a student to picture where they might work should they be successful in gaining a placement with your organisation. And the size of the visiting group may allow you to develop a more personal relationship with the candidate. All of this should have a positive impact on your application numbers and on acceptance rates. But remember to select those who will be involved in hosting the site visit carefully. Consider selecting staff from previous graduate intakes who will further establish a link with the student group. The use of case studies in this environment can be very effective as well, as you are showcasing to the students a real life example of the work done by your organisation (a ‘day in the life of’), so that they can envisage a career with you.
Undergraduate Programs There are a number of undergraduate, or feeder, programs that an organisation may adopt to act as an extended promotion and recruitment tool prior to graduate program recruitment. Vacation Employment/Internships/Clerkships Vacation employment gives both students and employers an opportunity to examine each other more closely. It is essentially a ‘try before you buy’ approach. Typically students are recruited for vacation work during their penultimate year of study, although this varies for different industries and disciplines. It usually involved offering paid employment over the summer or winter vacation, or both, for periods of two to twelve weeks; however, some organisations offer longer internships of 6-12 months (full time and/or part time). Vacation employment programs should include a thorough orientation and exposure to graduate level or ‘real’ work. Industry Based Learning (IBL) or Co-operative Employment Some universities deliver courses that involve a compulsory or optional period of paid work of up to one year. This employment usually takes place between the second and third year of study but the placement may be taken at other times depending on the structure of the course. Traineeships or Cadetships Traineeships and cadetships involve full time employment with part time study (or occasionally involve a combination of full time study and part time work.) Students are recruited during their final year of high school, and work for employers on gaining university entrance. Participants in these schemes are usually given time off to attend lectures and tutorials, and they are also given financial assistance with their studies.
Best Practice in Undergraduate Programs It is important to offer meaningful, challenging work to vacation, co-operative and cadetship students. As the purpose of these types of placement is usually to identify and retain talented students for the longer term, participants must be provided with: •
A thorough induction
•
Supervised work or projects
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•
Appropriate training
•
Achievable objectives
•
Realistic and constructive feedback.
An undergraduate program is also an opportunity for you to ‘sell’ your organisation to potential recruits, so make sure they have opportunities to be exposed to the organisational culture and senior management. If they are able to build a peer network and feel connected to the organisation they are more likely to accept an offer of graduate employment from the employer at the end of the program. Throughout the placement (and at the end of the placement), employers should seek feedback from participants regarding the appropriateness of the work, any mentoring and training provided, and how they were managed. Similarly, feedback should be collected from the line managers, supervisors and mentors who interacted with the students during the placement. All this feedback should be used by employers to modify their program for future intakes. Note, it is also important to provide feedback to participants throughout the placement, to help them understand their progress, strengths and development areas.
Summary The purpose of the activities described in this section is to increase the awareness of your organisation amongst students and encourage them to apply to your program. You do not have to participate in all of these activities, but the more you do the more you are likely to achieve.
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Chapter 4 Application and Assessment
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Application and Selection The application and selection process experienced by candidates is as important as your marketing materials in securing the right graduates for your organisation. It not only gives candidates a further insight into your organisation and engages them for what can be a long process, but also is critical in making a successful hiring decision. The choices you make regarding the overall selection process (number of selection stages, percentage of candidates that are short listed at each stage, resources available to you to screen applicants, timing compared to competitors etc.) will vary from one organisation to the next. Given the competition for graduates and competing demands, your aim is usually to find the candidates most suitable for you in the shortest possible timeframe with the minimum amount of effort. In general, you should aim to: •
Screen out unsuitable candidates as early as possible in the selection process (efficiency).
•
Provide candidates the chance to get to know you and the organisation (engagement).
•
Be as ‘high touch’ as possible (deepen engagement and the likelihood of them accepting any potential offer with you).
The Application Process You will need to determine how your organisation will accept applications. Although the norm for most employers is via an online application process, this may depend on the size of your organisation and the resources and technology available to you. There are a number of applicant tracking systems (ATS) and other technologies available to assist you in the management of candidates and their information. These systems can help you in providing an online application format and progressing those applications through your recruitment process. When developing an application process and accompanying forms, it is important to consider the following: •
Is information or assessment criteria relating to identified competencies (i.e. behaviours that are known to lead to outstanding performance) considered critical to the organisation’s goals?
•
Is your application process or form user-friendly? Do students have the ability to declare a disability which may require reasonable adjustment through the recruitment process (e.g. additional time for online testing)?
•
Do candidates have the ability to save a partially completed form before returning later?
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Do candidates have the ability to ‘preview’ the application form, so they can prepare their application offline?
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If expecting a high volume of applications, are you and your team appropriately set up to review, process and respond to all applications? Are there any rules, filters or categories you can set up to reduce the number of applicants requiring manual screening?
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If including free form questions on an application form, be aware of the potential length of responses. Can you set limits and force candidates to be concise and selective?
•
Can certain application questions be set up as compulsory to ensure objective, comparable data for the criteria you are judging on? Can you attribute weightings to a particular subset of responses to identify a preferential rank of candidates and the order in which you screen them? (For example, you may wish to ask if they have competing offers and be notified when this happens, so that you aren’t too slow to respond.) AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 33
•
Acknowledge the receipt of applications. Advise candidates of next steps and when they can expect to hear from you following their application submission.
When collecting candidate information you must also be aware of relevant privacy legislation and risk management practices that will govern the collection and use of information during the recruitment process. You should ensure you have addressed: •
Data security and confidentiality
•
Database capacity and backups
•
Storage of paper applications
•
Privacy issues, including policy available, collection of data and purpose, access to information e.g. interview notes.
The Selection Process Following the receipt of applications, the approach you take to assessing candidates will be based on the selection criteria and competencies you have identified within your organisation to meet your hiring needs. Generally most processes will include the assessment of applications, interviews, group assessment centres or testing, and reference checking. An outline of the various selection processes is included below. When designing your selection process, it is also worth considering the following best practice principles: •
Select candidates on clear and identified competencies, which can be demonstrated more than once during the process.
•
Ensure ‘candidate care’ is maintained, where candidates are updated on the process of their application, have the opportunity to ask questions, and are notified promptly when unsuccessful so they can pursue other roles.
•
Encourage candidates throughout the process to join your organisation for the right reasons i.e. not disparaging other employers in the process.
•
Set and communicate clear timelines for the process and stick to them.
Assessing applications In your role, you may need to personally review and make a decision about each of the applications you receive, you may have an applicant tracking system that can automatically filter and respond to applicants, or you may outsource this part of the process to a third party supplier e.g. a recruitment agency. Whichever method you choose, you must ensure that you, and any other members of your team involved in the process, understand the selection criteria and can apply it effectively and without bias. Interviewing At the outset, decisions must be made regarding the style and objectives of interviewing and whether the interviews will take place on campus or at your offices. Employers may decide between one-to-one interviews, panel interviews or group interviews. Preliminary work must be done to establish the key selection criteria, or skills and competencies required in a graduate, and to shape questions to identify the presence or absence of such criteria. Thought should be given as to how many interviews you will need to conduct to reach your target number of hires and you’ll need to allocate resources accordingly. Training should be provided for those recruiters and line managers who will be involved in the interviews, covering best practice interviewing as well as the
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core organisational messages and details of the graduate program to be communicated to candidates. You may also want to deliver unconscious bias training to ensure the process is fair and equitable. Psychometric Assessment Psychometric testing can be an important tool in making informed selection decisions, and can encompass both cognitive and personality assessment. The results provide an indication of an applicant’s abilities and preferred working style, and are best used to identify areas for further exploration during the interview process. By probing further into an applicant’s potential in a particular competency area, a more comprehensive understanding of an applicant’s suitability for a role can be attained. It should be noted however, that psychometric assessment should not be used in isolation or be the primary driver of selection decisions. For all assessments, check with your psychometric supplier that the assessment you plan to use is appropriate to your selection needs. Assessment Centres Assessment centres, where groups of graduates participate in a range of tasks under the observation of the graduate recruitment team and/or business unit hiring manager, are another common tool in the recruitment process. Activities could include role-plays, case studies, presentations, interviews and aptitude tests. Some of these activities involve assessing a group of candidates at the same time, which may enable you to also assess leadership, teamwork and communications skills. You will need to consider the overall duration of your assessment centre and whether the length of time required will discourage candidates from attending. Don’t forget that your assessment centre is also another opportunity to deepen your engagement with candidates, so could feature a senior leader meet-and-greet opportunity, meeting current graduates, company video, and question time or networking drinks at the conclusion of the day. Reference Checking Most organisations' risk management policies will dictate that one or more reference checks are completed before offering a job to a candidate. You should advise candidates during the initial interview process if reference checking is part of the process so they have time to identify referees and secure their permission to act as a reference. You will need to seek permission from the candidate to contact those referees, and referees should be made aware that the information they provide can be accessed by the candidate under privacy legislation. Video Interviewing Video interviews have been integrated into many organisations’ graduate recruitment processes over the past few years, and is now seen as a cost and resource effective screening method to engage with candidates. Generally video interviews are one-way (meaning the candidate records answers to pre-defined questions, and recruiters can view videos at any time after completion). However they can also be two-way, live interviews. Video interviews are great for candidates and recruiters alike. For candidates, it could be less stressful than a live phone interview, in allowing them to record their answers once or multiple times. For recruiters, it provides the ability to assess drive and desire and communication skills clearly. On the flipside, it is worth noting that video interviewing could open recruiters up to visual bias, so it should be something which is actively discussed in video interview training. AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 35
Background Checking In recent years some employers have started to introduce background checking to their recruitment process. Background checking has started to gain prominence because of the increasing numbers of ‘embellished’ resumes that are submitted to employers and to ensure academic qualifications of graduates are legitimate. Background checking can focus on any number of areas, including: •
identity check
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criminal record check
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eligibility to work in Australia
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academic performance (university attended, degree result obtained, subjects taken)
•
bankruptcy check.
Managing Unsuccessful Applicants It is important that you advise every applicant of the outcome of their application given they have all taken the time to apply to your organisation. The advent of auto-email notifications has meant an increase in the number of queries recruiters receive from unsuccessful applicants. Some careers advisors also recommend to students that they contact employers to find out why they were not successful in the selection process. The type of response you give candidates will depend on your organisation’s recruitment guidelines and care should be taken. Feedback should be constructive and fact based, emphasizing that a number of elements are taken into consideration when making selection decisions. Privacy legislation dictates that candidates can access information collected about them in the recruitment process and can also ask for their information to be removed so your organisation must have mechanisms in place to deal with these requests. As a guide to best practice, candidates that progress to a final interview are usually provided with feedback from the employer.
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Chapter 5 Making and Offer
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Making an Offer Once you have decided which candidates have been successful, you will typically give them a verbal offer before sending a formal offer letter. The policies of your organisation will normally dictate what information needs to be included in an offer letter. If no precedent exists, some general considerations include: •
Give as much information as possible about the details of the offer and employment.
•
Provide a job title and job description if possible. Include conditions of service and information about where the graduate will be working (including location where possible).
•
If the offer is to be conditional, clearly set out these conditions.
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Be as flexible as possible about a start date.
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Specify the starting salary as well as details of any relocation allowance or other remuneration or benefits e.g. profit share or bonus systems.
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Give candidates a deadline for a response to the offer.
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Specify the person to whom the graduate should speak for further clarification.
•
If your program includes an induction or orientation, this should be included in the offer letter.
The approach you have taken throughout the recruitment process, coupled with the steps above, will hopefully lead to acceptance of an offer. If not, confirm if the candidate has any questions, and perhaps organise for them to have a coffee or lunch with team members to congratulate them on the offer and address any remaining issues.
Post-Offer Management As offers are often extended up to twelve months in advance of the graduate joining your organisation, it is important to have a strategy in place to maintain your relationship. Post-offer management should not become onerous (as you may shift your focus to other recruitment initiatives following the graduate campaign), nor should it impose on your graduates’ final semester of university. There are a number of ways that you and your organisation can keep in touch with your new recruits: •
Acknowledge the receipt of an ‘accepted’ offer and provide contact information if this is different from the recruiter they dealt with during the recruitment process.
•
Consider Christmas and ‘good luck in your exams’ cards.
•
Start a Facebook or social media group to keep connected with them. Note, you should only consider this if you have the capacity to manage the group and upload regular posts.
•
Consider sending annual reports, newsletters or other announcements from your organisation to keep graduates advised of the successes you are enjoying or activities they can look forward to.
•
Host events for them such as a lunch or cocktail party.
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Allocate a ‘buddy’ to each of the candidates that have accepted a graduate position with you. A buddy is usually a current first year graduate, often working in the same department as the new graduate they are allocated to.
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Encourage business units to include their new graduates in any team activities.
•
Remember to provide information on where to go and what to expect on their first day.
N.B. Be mindful that as these graduates have not yet started with your organisation, they may not be protected by your insurance and other conditions of employment. Therefore, you should consider the nature of the activities to which they are invited. AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 39
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Chapter 6 Induction and Development
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Induction and Development Some graduate recruiters may have no involvement with the induction and development process of their graduate recruits. This section is addressed to those who do. Everyone accepts the importance of retention, but it is a truth more frequently ignored than observed. New graduates may leave an employer if they do not receive the training, development, experience that they were promised at the attraction stage. The increasing cost of recruiting graduates, as procedures have become more sophisticated, have also given employers cause to focus more on retention. Therefore, a commitment to induction and training programs, and their efficient implementation, improves your chances of retaining your graduates.
Induction The establishment of appropriate induction methods is important for a number of reasons. This includes the introduction of your new recruits to your organisation’s values, culture and policies in a way that recognises their unique circumstance. For example: •
Graduates may come to you with unrealistic aspirations. These may be a result of employers overselling themselves in the recruitment process. It may also be because graduates lack experience and judgement about what is possible and/or commercially realistic.
•
Graduates need to make the difficult change from working as individuals in an academic environment with its series of examination hurdles, to the work environment where more emphasis is placed on the achievement of objectives through teamwork. A significant shift in thinking is required, from a situation where everything is provided for them, to their new working life which requires them to work as part of a team and take more ownership of their own development.
•
Research shows that graduates are looking for attractive career prospects, stimulating and demanding work, appropriate training, congenial colleagues and a supportive manager. They seek opportunities to engage in quality work, they want their achievements to receive high visibility, and they look for the opportunity to make a significant contribution. Your brief is to provide advice on how they can utilise your company’s resources to facilitate their own development and tell them how you expect them to achieve these aims.
An induction should address all these issues and aspirations. Clearly, the involvement of senior management is essential to give the process credibility and to allow authoritative statements of the organisation’s policy and performance expectations, but it should not be a top down, authoritarian process. It is essential that graduates have this exposure to senior management. But it is also important to involve graduates’ peers in the process. Look to recent graduates and graduate junior managers to get involved in running induction programs. Graduates should also have an opportunity, through well-planned projects, to be able to research and learn about the organisation for themselves. They may not always present accurate information or insights, but ongoing support and discussion of project results should ensure that they come to the right conclusions.
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After an induction, graduates should: •
have a clear picture of the policies and practices of the organisation
•
a strong understanding of the organisations culture, values & purpose
•
understand what is expected of them
•
have clear expectations and understanding of their training and development schedule
•
be aware of their rotation program (if applicable)
•
start to build a network of contacts
•
understand what appropriate next steps are expected of them and any relevant actions required
•
understand where they can find out about the basics to get up and running (i.e. printer set up).
Development The development of graduates needs to be properly planned and monitored. This demands openness, frankness, and appropriate coaching and advice at various stages. It is possible, by analysis of individual cases, to distinguish certain key points in a career (for example, the attainment of professional status, partnership, supervisory or management roles, or overseas placements), and it is necessary to monitor individuals’ aspirations and achievements in relation to these key points. Employees should be counselled on their performance in their own, and their employers’ interests. A key requirement of any graduate development program – whether this is delivered for a group or is highly customised to each individual – is feedback. Ensuring each graduate receives both performance feedback and feedback on competencies required to progress is absolutely essential on a regular basis for performance and engagement. N.B. It is recommend you contact other member organisations of the AAGE to discover more about different companies’ practices in this area. You can participate in and obtain the annual AAGE Employer Survey to understand the common components of graduate programs, popularity of these with current graduates, typical spend and benchmark your own program against the market to ascertain best practice.
Designing a Graduate Development Program The overriding principles of any graduate development plan should be: •
to develop graduates rapidly by giving them early professional/technical and business responsibility, thus building a launch pad for a future career in your organisation
•
to provide a development package that is of value to individuals in its own right
•
to develop a program and content that aligns to the purpose of your program. For example, if the purpose of your program is to develop future leaders, ensure the program has a heavy leadership focus in its content and activities
•
to provide individuals with a support network and framework, to help facilitate their development and aspirations
•
to ensure the content and topics covered are also aligned with the short and long term vision/strategy of your organisation
•
to align content with your companies learning model (e.g. 70:20:10 learning principles). This way you can discern between the formal development component of the program (10%), the support and feedback component (20%), and the on-the-job skills component (70%).
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Whilst many of the necessary building blocks for development may already be in place in your organisation, they should be drawn together in a framework to ensure that your Graduate Development Program provides the best transition between the academic and business worlds. Why Is a Development Program So Important? Surveys of graduates early in their careers indicate that many feel their talents are underutilised, they are not sufficiently challenged, or they do not have the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the organisation where they are working. The results of these opinions are fairly predictable, and include low morale, productivity, negative impacts on your ability to attract future quality graduates (negative impacts on your employment brand in the student community) and ultimately, higher turnover rates. With an increased emphasis on smaller business units, many organisations should be in a good position to respond to this challenge. However, it will require the active participation of both graduates and their supervisors to ensure that every opportunity is taken to achieve a quality development program. The following checklist should help you facilitate this process. It covers a structure for a Graduate Development Program and includes elements such as first roles, tasks and targets, appraisal, training, professional qualifications, involvement in the business and next roles.
Checklist for your Development Program The following guidelines have been developed as a checklist for those who are seeking to implement or upgrade a graduate development program. Induction Ensure that your graduates receive a comprehensive induction into your organisation. •
Graduates from your annual intake should be inducted in groups wherever possible to foster teamwork and to encourage the formation of a support network. Where this is not possible, the graduate should have opportunities to feel connected with the wider graduate community through face-to-face activities or by leveraging technology. Relationships with peers are critical to ongoing engagement.
•
Provide the graduate with an overview of the strategic objectives of your organisation, thus allowing the graduate to view their role in a broader context. Understanding their role in contributing to the wider business strategy is important, especially during the first years of employment when their duties may be transactional and reactive rather than strategic. Where appropriate, it is often useful to provide an overview of a ‘typical career path’ or an understanding of the different positions in the organisation. This of course needs to be tailored to suit your organisation structure.
•
Allow the graduate the opportunity to provide feedback on and/or participate in your recruitment process to assist with improvements in the process. There are valuable insights to be gained and they can be leveraged for future recruiting.
•
Graduates should be exposed to the culture of the organisation and, wherever possible, gain exposure to the senior members of your organisation, even prior to joining. This provides inspiration as well as understanding expected behaviour for leadership progression.
•
If your organisation does not have a formal mentoring process, establish a ‘buddy’ system to ensure that your graduates have an initial support mechanism to facilitate organisational learning. As a rule of thumb, the buddy should be at least one position senior to the graduate, so as to have some experience to draw on.
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•
The objectives and process of the Graduate Development Program should be clearly communicated. Expectations need to be clearly managed.
The First Role If your program involves a graduate rotating through various roles or business units, their first role will act as the initial building block and should be selected as a result of a matching process based on: •
the area of the business to which the graduate applied and was accepted
•
the level of academic performance achieved and the performance observed during the recruitment process
•
the views of line managers who observed the graduate during the selection process.
The relationship between the graduate and their initial supervisor is of paramount importance. The earlier in the process that the supervisor and graduate meet, share the job description, and formulate a joint agreed action plan and short to long term career goals or objectives, the better the chance of creating a productive graduate. The Job Description The job description should clearly define the area of responsibility for which the graduate will be accountable. Within the boundaries of the job, the graduate should be made aware of the two levels of contribution: •
The first relates to the achievement of definitive tasks on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
•
The second relates to the development of changes that will either improve the way these definitive tasks are achieved or the need to introduce something completely new to the business. In this regard, the graduate should be made to feel comfortable in bringing creativity to the business unit.
Formal Performance Appraisal, Feedback and Help A formal appraisal system, conducted at regular intervals, needs to be established. •
At the start of each appraisal period, the graduate should be provided with a set of objectives to be met.
•
Having set a series of overall objectives, a shorter-term action plan should be developed to assist regular feedback between supervisor and graduate. The frequency of short-term target setting should reduce as the graduate becomes more familiar with the job and its requirements.
•
Ensure supervisors don’t wait for a formal review to discuss performance; feedback should be provided openly and regularly through 1:1 discussions. This ensures the graduate can develop and adapt more swiftly.
•
Graduates should be encouraged to ask questions. If your organisation does not have a mentoring system, the graduate network and/or other colleagues need to be encouraged to assist with guidance in addition to that provided by the supervisor. If that person is independent to the graduate’s manager/supervisor, they can help them to navigate ‘managing up’ and also help resolve any potential or actual issues with their manager.
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Training Formal training should be supported throughout the graduate’s career. Many AAGE members operate on the 70:20:10 learning principle, where 70% of learning is structured on-the-job activities, 20% is exposure to the wider business, and 10% is formal learning (though more formal learning may be essential in some industries). •
Wherever possible, training should be individually tailored to the specific circumstances of the graduate, and the graduate should be encouraged to own their own development and progression rather than foster a dependent mentality.
•
Graduates should be encouraged to have direct input into the training they receive and to provide feedback on the quality and content of courses attended.
•
Supervisors and graduates should de-brief following any training session to understand what the graduate learnt and what they want to work on as a result of the session.
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Your support regarding further external professional training and study (MBA, Masters, CA Program etc.) needs to be clearly explained to graduates with regards to financial support, study leave etc.
Involvement in the Business Broader business exposure outside the graduate job is an ideal way to reinforce organisational learning and supplement the level of challenge available to graduates in their first few years with your organisation. Assigning a graduate to a project team outside their direct area of employment will facilitate this process. Next Roles •
Graduate could be rotated through a number of roles in their first three to four years or be given different responsibilities within the same area.
•
Graduates should be made clearly aware of the need to achieve pre-determined objectives in the current role, as evidenced by the formal appraisal process.
•
The graduate should be developing broad experience in your organisation during the first few years and have some input into their next role(s).
The overriding focus should be to allow the graduate to obtain the experience required to succeed in more senior roles in the future. To the extent that it is possible for 12 to 24 months in the organisation, a broad career template should be discussed with the graduate that will enable both the graduate and organisation to have a common and shared view of the medium term development path that is likely to be followed and eventually help them transition to a more senior role.
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Chapter 7 Using Social Media
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Using Social Media Social media is an established component of many employers’ interactions with graduates, whether from an attraction, engagement or onboarding perspective. This section provides some suggestions for using social media as part of your overall program. The benefits of such include cost reduction in attraction strategies, increasing your employment brand presence online and with passive candidates, providing your organisation a voice where conversations are already happening about you online, and engaging and connecting candidates and graduates to build loyal talent communities. If you choose to use social media, ensure you monitor your pages regularly, be available, and answer all questions in a reasonable period of time, otherwise you could disengage potential graduates and damage your employer brand.
As an Attraction Strategy Many employers are no longer concerned about the risk of establishing a Facebook fan page, Twitter account or YouTube Channel to promote their employment brand. The risk now is NOT having a social media presence, and not having a voice or contribution towards what graduates are ALREADY saying about you. The first step to introducing social media elements to your graduate marketing campaign is to be clear on your overall objective. Are you actively recruiting for a special candidate niche? Are you looking to improve your employment branding? Are you seeking to engage with passive talent for the future? Like any piece of marketing material you don’t produce it ‘just because it’s cool’. Having a clear objective will help you ascertain which platforms to use for what purpose, what content will be required, and whether you can adequately resource this. Contrary to opinion, it is not necessarily time consuming to manage pages on social media platforms if you do this tactically and let the community somewhat manage itself. Examples of successful graduate strategies can be seen amongst the winners of the AAGE Graduate Recruitment Industry Awards (“the AGRIAs”). You can also research further by talking to other employers and by looking at their social media presence. Initiatives might include: •
creating a YouTube video about your program that could ‘go viral’ and attract new candidates to your brand
•
building a Facebook Fan Page to provide insight into your organisational culture by profiling employees on it and having current graduates run the community
•
a LinkedIn group for your current employees to refer potential graduates to you
•
a Twitter handle to share company insights or highlight graduate events.
As an Engagement Tool There are many benefits to be gained from using social media platforms to engage both candidates and graduates. Social media lends itself to networking, which increases relational bonds within the organisation. For candidates, this might mean establishing a Twitter feed that allows your followers the opportunity to experience a snapshot of the company culture through company insights and events, or keep your applicants updated on overall selection process progress. For employees, establishing a Yammer group might foster sharing, collaboration and connection. Again, having a clear business purpose and strategy for introducing these platforms is essential.
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Building a Business Case Many organisations require a business case to enable access to these platforms in the workplace, or for the brand to be represented online by the graduate project team. This might require liaising with several internal departments for sign off and approval, including Legal, IT and Corporate Marketing. It is essential when building a business case to cover risk mitigation from a discipline perspective (harassment and bullying, accessing prohibited content) but many of these things are likely covered by existing policies. The business case might include a Social Media Policy to cover these governing practices and some guiding principles on how communications (particularly negative ones posted externally) will be managed and by whom. The key to success in engaging the business in social media strategies is: •
involving your stakeholders early and taking them on the journey with you
•
establishing clear guidelines to manage platforms, and level of engagement with external audiences
•
maintaining security of your platforms
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having a clear strategic need and vision that is regularly re-visited and updated in accordance with new social media platforms and updated company strategy/direction.
Implementation Tips Some basic rules of thumb for managing your social media platforms include: •
Spread the word about your social channels; building them into your brochures, micro sites, email templates in your ATS etc. and cross-referencing between the channels.
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Share and re-tweet quality content of others, and thanking those that do the same for you (a basic principle of social media is engaging with others’ content). For example, this might include sharing a Harvard Review blog on your Facebook page for graduates interested in leadership.
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Follow (on Twitter) and Like (on Facebook) other relevant users and pages.
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Use applications with viral potential e.g. polls, videos, competitions, blogs etc.
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Embed a blog or some other form of regularly updated social content on your careers site, which will ensure higher Google search ranking results
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Post content at times of day when your audience is online. If posting content is onerous, you could use a scheduling tool like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to do this for you.
•
Ensure content is not all informational and focused on the organisation’s wants and needs. Share advice, LISTEN, respect others contributions and entice people in. Social media engagement with students is about creating an opportunity to access information in a way that produces a desire for the audience to visit again and again, rather than just once.
Monitoring Effectiveness There are several suppliers that provide social media monitoring programs including Buzz Numbers and Meltwater. For a subscription fee, you can monitor what is being said about your brand on many platforms (by you and others), where conversations are most active, and the general sentiment of posts (positive or negative). These tools are useful in providing measurement of your employment brand presence. For a more targeted measurement of hires made through social media, there are several things you can do. These include ensuring your ATS captures the source of applicant, measuring the source of click-throughs to your careers site through Google Analytics, asking suppliers to provide reporting where they leverage AAGE ‘How To’ Handbook | 52
social media for advertising, confirming with hires where they first heard about you, and making sure you can see and manage your interactions with candidates simply, using a dashboard like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.
Common Platforms Common platforms used for social media by employers currently include: •
•
•
YouTube
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•
Whirlpool
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Yammer
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•
Snapchat
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TikTok
Remember, it is worth investigating not only which platforms you strategically might leverage, but on which ones candidates and graduates are already talking about you!
Find out more Some useful sites to read about social media include: •
Socialmediatoday.com
•
Mashable.com
•
Roi.com.au
•
Socialmedianews.com.au
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Chapter 8 Developing Your Own Skills
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Developing Your Own Skills Once you have successfully executed your first graduate recruitment cycle, it is useful to consider how you can continue to develop your skill set and add value to the program year on year. There are three key ways in which you can do this: industry networking, developing complementary skills, and further education.
Industry Networking Industry networking is facilitated by bodies such as the AAGE and gives graduate recruiters the opportunity to learn from their peers and continually improve graduate recruitment practices in their organisation. Whether it is visiting other employer stalls at career fairs or attending the yearly AAGE conference, the graduate recruitment sector is unique in its willingness to foster relationships amongst recruiters and to share organisational information in the belief that a better outcome can be achieved for graduates and employers. So take advantage of this collegiate approach!
Complementary Skills Now that you have read the materials in this Handbook you are aware of the varied tasks that fall within the responsibility of a graduate recruiter or graduate program manager and the diversity of skills called upon to plan and execute a graduate program. There are a number of complementary skills that can enhance your performance in the role. These include: •
accounting and budgeting
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presentation skills
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marketing and copywriting skills
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negotiation skills
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facilitation and training skills
•
brand and social media skills.
A variety of short courses are available in these areas, some of which might be available within your own organisation.
Further Education The third option to develop your skill set is through further education. Those that work in the graduate recruitment and development often come from a variety of backgrounds and there is no particular course or level of education that is required in the profession. Depending on your current skill set there are a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses available in human resource management and psychology which may enhance your skill set and career prospects in the field.
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Appendices
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Appendix 1 – Glossary AAGE
Australian Association of Graduate Employers Refer to Appendix 2 for more detail
AHRI
Australian Human Resources Institute Professional body covering human resources professionals
ATS
Applicant Tracking System (also known as Applicant Management System) Typically an online system that receives processes and administers electronic job applications
CAANZ
Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand Industry body representing accountants with the CA designation
CPA Australia
Certified Practising Accountants Industry body representing accountants with the CPA designation
NAGCAS
National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services The association that represents university careers advisors
NUS
National Union of Students National body representing students
Universities Australia
National body representing all Australian universities, based in Canberra
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Appendix 2 – The AAGE The Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE) is the peak industry body representing organisations that recruit and develop Australian graduates. Our current membership comprises over 400 organisations, including a variety of large and small employers across a wide range of industries in both the private and public sectors. The AAGE is an independent, not-for-profit body that has been in existence since 1988. It does not receive government funding; rather its activities are entirely supported by members. The Association is led by a committee of volunteer members who donate their spare time to help manage and sustain our member offering. The AAGE is therefore the only representative body in the Australian graduate recruitment market that is run by employers for employers. We believe that this structure gives the AAGE a unique ability to provide our members with valuable and relevant services.
Vision To be the trusted source of graduate talent acquisition and development information and expertise.
Strategic Priorities The Vision is achieved by focusing on three key strategic priorities: 1.
Services to members • Providing local, national and global insights that are relevant to members to support best practice graduate talent acquisition and development. • Providing information and services that are highly valued by members across a variety of industries and geographical locations.
2.
Advocacy and best practice • Sharing market-leading practices through events, meetings and conferences relating to our industry locally, nationally and globally. • Collaborating with the higher education sector, industry partners and international associations. • Identifying and accessing opportunities to increase the profile of the AAGE and the industry.
3.
Relationships • Provide members with regular opportunities to connect with employers, universities, industry partners, student societies and candidates. • Promote and foster a culture of collaboration across the industry.
Benefits The AAGE provides a range of benefits to its members: •
Relationships - The AAGE provides members with regular opportunities to connect with employers, universities, suppliers, industry associations, student societies and candidates.
•
Insights – The AAGE collects and distributes a unique range of information and intelligence that helps members reach informed decisions.
•
Excellence - The AAGE identifies, recognises and communicates excellence in our industry.
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Membership Membership is corporate; it is the type of organisation and the individual's role that qualifies the level of membership offered. Current representation is widespread, and includes members from industry and commerce, government and all the professions. Key Member Representatives are typically managers responsible for graduate recruitment. Member Representatives are eligible to receive a number of benefits offered by the AAGE. To join, or view a list of current AAGE member organisations visit www.aage.com.au. Or telephone our office for more details on 03 9352 5062. Full Members Full memberships are only open to organisations that employ managers responsible for graduate recruitment, and perhaps training and development of graduates. Member Representatives should be in a position to represent their organisation's views on graduate recruitment and development. Associate Members Associate Members include organisations that provide services in the graduate recruitment and development area (such as publishers, IT consultants and recruitment consultants) and other professional institutes. Associate (not-for-profit) Members University careers advisors, professional associations such as NAGCAS and other not-for-profit groups qualify for Associate (not-for-profit) Membership. Members of NAGCAS are eligible for a special 'full service' membership.
AAGE Organisation The Association’s activities are managed by a Board of Directors. All Directors are volunteers and all are elected by members. Supporting the Board is another group of volunteers called the AAGE Committee. The Committee includes representatives from different industry sectors, geographical regions and from large and small employers.
Membership Benefits AAGE Member Representatives receive many benefits including the following: Annual Conference The annual AAGE Conference focuses on the professional development of our members and addresses key graduate recruitment and development issues, the latest industry innovations, and how to retain and develop graduates. Workshops AAGE workshops are usually held six times a year in most capital cities: Adelaide, Brisbane. Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Attendance at these events is complimentary for Member Representatives. Chosen themes are a direct response to current industry trends and issues, but regardless of theme or format, the focus remains on knowledge sharing and networking.
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Regular feedback from members highlights the invaluable opportunity of expanding one's network and sharing experiences with others in the graduate recruitment industry. Practitioner Master Classes Each year the AAGE runs a full day Practitioner Master Class which focuses on the practicalities of creating and running a graduate recruitment and development program. This Master Class is the classroom equivalent of the ‘AAGE How To Handbook’ publication that you are currently reading. The AAGE UniStats Report This annual report provides data on commencement and completion statistics for domestic, international and indigenous undergraduates in Australia, analysed by university and degree subject. E-Newsletter We keep you up to date with AAGE news through our regular e-newsletter, Graduate Employer. The AAGE Employer Survey This annual survey collects data from around 100 employers on their graduate recruitment processes. This information is then analysed and summarised to provide a variety of key benchmarks and trends relating to the graduate recruitment market. The AAGE Candidate Survey This annual survey collects data from around 3,000 students about to join AAGE member organisations as part of a graduate program. The AAGE Graduate Survey This annual survey collects data from around 2,000 graduates who have been working for an AAGE member organisation for around 12 months. The AAGE Intern Survey This annual survey collects data from around 500 students who have taken part in an internship, vacation placement or clerkship program. Australian Graduate Recruitment Industry Awards (AGRIAs) The AGRIAs are the annual AAGE awards for excellence spanning several categories including: •
Best Graduate Employer
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Best Internship Program
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Best Careers Service
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Best Supplier
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Best Graduate Development Program
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Most Popular Graduate Recruitment Video
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Most Popular Integrated Marketing Campaign
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Most Popular Graduate Recruiter
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•
Most Popular Exhibitor
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Will Spensley Memorial Award for Innovation
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Contribution to the Graduate Recruitment Industry
We encourage all members to enter the Awards, as it is a wonderful opportunity to showcase your organisation as an industry leader and gain solid recognition for your winning strategies. More information via www.agrias.com.au
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Appendix 3 – Creating a Project Plan Sample Project Plan
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Sample Budget Template
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