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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

Why aren’t better candidates applying to your graduate jobs?

TheBigChoice reveals what makes a job opportunity appealing to students

You’ve got the graduate position that you need to fill and getting eyes on the advertisement has been easy enough. Yet none of your ideal candidates have been lining up to apply. What do you do in that situation?

It’s true that when it comes to career choices and job hunting, today’s graduates operate entirely differently from their predecessors. So, if you’ve been slogging the same tired recruitment marketing strategy for the last few years without any sort of adaption, it’s time to buck up your ideas.

Student recruitment expert, TheBigChoice, has broken down how you can recruit the best youth talent and solidify your employment marketing strategy in three simple steps.

Step 1. Appeal to their interests

When we partnered with Campus Media to hold a focus group with university students earlier in the year, we asked them what they wanted from their first employer. Rather than stating that they wanted a high-flying salary and a competitive bonus scheme, the top ranking answers all had a focus around progression, job satisfaction and a healthy, feel-good state of mind.

Watch the full focus group video here:

Step 2. Understand your market’s decision-making process with regards to their career

The majority of students will have already determined what career they want to pursue by the time they’ve reached their A-levels. The second most prepared age group is GCSE students. In fact, according to our research, only 3% of generation Z decide what career path they want to follow after they’ve graduated:

FREE INFOGRAPHIC: Download insights into student career and education choices

It may feel very forward thinking, but it’s vital you are advertising your company as an employer to these younger age groups alongside this year’s upcoming graduates. This is going to make your talent pipeline grow significantly and in turn, increase the quality of applicant you see in the future.

Bear in mind that those who are still in education are less exposed to the working world. Focus on educating them about the industry itself as well as your business. You may want to provide employee case studies and testimonials too.

3. Keep them engaged

Regardless of whether you’re approaching this year’s graduates or school aged students, keep your company name at the forefront of your talent pipeline throughout their student lifecycle. Do this through regular updates about your business, its work culture and its employment opportunities.

TheBigChoice enables employers to function in a similar way that social media networks allow. Employers can set up an account to post regular updates about their business and educate the website’s 650,000 strong youth audience about their industry and brand. Students have the ability to follow employers so that they can be notified every time that account posts fresh content. Students can also apply to exciting job opportunities through the website.

Join the hundreds of employers who are already benefitting from this targeted approach to their recruitment marketing. Get in touch with us to set up a free employer account on TheBigChoice today or immediately create a free account today by clicking here.

+44 (0)20 7840 2982 | hello@thebigchoice.com | www.thebigchoice.com