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.

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? • What are the challenges that your organisation is facing within the human resources area? • 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

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.

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 • attending or hosting promotional events such as career fairs, presentations, site visits or competitions • sponsorship of courses or student societies • vendors or suppliers such as job boards • travel to and from campus activities • systems and services, such as an applicant tracking system or online testing • preparation and delivery of Assessment Centres and any costs associated with this activity • engagement activities between ‘offer’ and your graduates arriving into the business • travel and associated costs with induction activities • training programs • graduate salaries • the salaries of your graduate program team, including graduate recruiters, temporary or administrative support, training facilitators etc.

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. • Ask existing customers for their opinion of the proposed supplier and the value of the service provided (obtain referees). • Look at examples of the supplier's work. • Decide whether you are able to work with the people involved. For example, meet the person who will be your account manager. • 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? • Ensure any technological based services (testing, applicant tracking) can be integrated together to assist you manage volume campaigns effectively. • 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. • An annual Candidate Survey, which collects information and opinions from students who have been offered a graduate position with an AAGE member organisation. • An annual Graduate Survey, which collects information and opinions from graduates who have been in employment with an AAGE member organisation for 12 months.

• An annual Intern Survey, which gathers information and opinions from students who have undertaken an internship/vacation placement/clerkship with an AAGE member organisation. • 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. • 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/