Graduate Recruiters Put Quality at Risk in Turning Back the Clock

Companies are being warned not to turn back the clock on graduate recruitment by reverting to short-cut selection techniques of the 1970s. New entrants to the market are likely to deliver unsuitable candidates in moving away from assessment days back to the one-hour interview, according to Jonathan Fitchew, managing director of Pareto Law.

ìWith more graduates than ever, candidate quality is the major issue. In response, the graduate recruitment sector has become far more scientific with competency-based selection techniques and the extensive use of assessment centres in place of the simple one-to-one interview. I am alarmed to see companies trying to convince employers that they can get the same result from a fireside chat as we can from a three stage selection and a gruelling day of group exercises, psychometrics and presentations. It just doesnít square with the knowledge that has been gained over the last 20 years.î said Fitchew.



ìBy dressing up their recruitment ìliteî with hyperbole they do the industry no favours. The likely outcome will be a return to the nepotism and ëjobs for the boysí culture of the 1970s where people hire mirror images of themselves because they have nothing else to go on. I am sorry if assessment days are hard work and more expensive to run than an interview but the ultimate cost of bad recruitment decisions is far higher.î he concluded.