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
