With the vacancy to candidate ratio being at an unprecedented 1:1, firms need to seek new pools of talent to fish in. This is on top of the challenges already being faced by People & Talent teams, from tackling an ageing workforce, addressing future skills, and hitting ED&I targets, alongside an increasing pressure on internal time and resource. As a result, a growing number of firms are either turning to Early Talent hires or expanding their existing graduate and apprentice hiring numbers.
With the summer months bringing hundreds of thousands of graduates into a very tight candidate market, the class of ‘22 has a unique advantage. So, how can employers deliver a competitive strategy that engages, hires and retains the best and most diverse candidates?
In the current employment market, it’s no longer just about hiring talent but enabling incoming talent to thrive within the organisation – and therefore stay. To avoid painful rehiring costs, businesses need to raise their game now more than ever.
How can businesses build and deliver a strategy that works?
- Talent pooling. The current lack of candidates is not going away – firms need to nurture their candidates and build a pool of talent they can tap into when they need. To achieve this when it comes to graduates and apprentices, early engagement is key. Businesses must ‘educate’ candidates about their roles, the recruitment process, and the wider business, and enable job hunters to learn how to secure the right job for them.
- End-to-end engagement. Firms must find ways to personalise the process for each candidate, ensuring they learn as they progress through the hiring process – whether they are successful or not. Importantly, businesses need to enhance their brand for their target candidate audience, so they are reaching and engaging with the right young people. With declines, reneges and counter-offers accelerating, it’s also key that firms dedicate equal time and effort post-offer as they do across the application journey. This can include upskilling and investing in candidates’ learning before they start, and enabling incoming talent to engage with existing employees they can identify with.
- The power of peer-to-peer. Once new starters land in the business, firms need to ensure their new employees can easily build their networks and develop in their career. This is where access to mentor(s) or ‘buddies’ can be hugely beneficial – those in a purposeful mentoring relationship are 5x more likely to be promoted (and mentors are 6x more likely!).
And how to deliver this at scale with the resource challenges hiring teams face?
Through leveraging technology as a force for good, businesses can not only support their candidates but also their internal processes through a streamlined and effective strategy. As many candidates are now ‘digital natives’, they will expect to see employers using smart technology that centres around their needs across the hiring journey. Purposeful technology that enables candidates to truly connect with the business before, during and after they join will set a firm’s brand above the rest. This includes driving human connection and peer-to-peer insight between candidates and employees, so incoming talent know what it’s really like to work at the business, gain visibility of career progression pathways and connect with role models they can identify with.
How can hiring teams build the business case for Early Talent and implementing candidate-focused technology?
- Align the Early Talent strategy to overarching organisational strategies, including growth targets, future skills, the ED&I agenda and an ageing workforce. Use existing success stories from previous Early Talent hires to build the case!
- Evidence how implementing technology will improve conversion rates, reducing declines and reneges, and set new starters up for success. This can also include delivering faster speed to value, improved Glassdoor ratings, and crucially, free up existing resource.
Some other examples for how to effectively engage and hire Early Talent include:
- Dedicated online candidate platform
- Access to Mentors/Buddies
- Online candidate community forums
- Virtual workshops and events for ‘offer holders’ and for candidates, with schools, colleges and universities
- Application and interview support and upskilling
- Virtual work experience
