Author: Lisa Pickup at People Possibilities

When to use this guide
• If you are launching a graduate programme for the first time with a view to establishing a pipeline of junior talent
• If your organisation has previously recruited graduates on an ad hoc basis but now wants to formalise its recruitment strategy
• If your current graduate recruiting efforts are not delivering the right results

10 steps to implementing a successful graduate strategy

1.  Clearly identify the business need for graduates

Is your objective to establish a talent pipeline of future managers and leaders for the long term or to fulfil shorter term resourcing needs at a junior level? Unless there is a real commitment to growing your own talent and providing well thought-through career paths for graduate recruits then a graduate programme may prove an expensive way of filling junior positions. It is always important to ask the question “do we need a graduate to do this job?”

2.  Ensure senior level business sponsorship and long term investment

Graduate recruitment is a long term investment and maintaining a market presence and keeping the hiring pipeline open during downturns in the business cycle is critical. Even if hiring numbers are low during these periods, continued activity sends a strong message both internally and externally about the importance the organisation places on graduate recruitment. Identifying individual graduate sponsors or committees from participating business areas and establishing school teams of alumni to lead the relations with particular campuses can also be very helpful in engaging the support of the business.

3. Clearly define your proposition for graduates

Spend time up front thinking through all aspects of your graduate offering and importantly what will differentiate you from the competition. Which business areas will and will not be participating in the programme? What types of opportunities will be available? What will be the length and structure of the programme? What skills and qualifications will be required for entry? What training and development will be provided? How will graduates be managed, assessed and compensated whilst on the programme?  What will happen to them at the end? These are the questions that graduates will want answering during the recruitment process. 

4.  Establish a detailed budgeting and cost management process

Start by preparing a detailed budget plan of all anticipated costs for sign off by the relevant business sponsors - graduate programmes can be expensive and this will aid  transparency. Always include some contingency to take account of changes such as hiring numbers or application volumes. It is also important to agree up front who will own the graduate population and how costs will be tracked and managed.  Establishing a clear allocation model for graduate headcount and costs within the business will also help avoid future problems, particularly when budgets are tight.

5. Draw up a project plan and engage the relevant business support

At the beginning for the recruitment cycle, take the time to draw up a project plan of the various activities throughout the year. Build in plenty of lead time for the development of marketing materials and make sure event planning is done well in advance. The people they meet during their recruitment process will often be the deciding factor for graduates when joining an organisation. Therefore putting together a calendar of activities and securing business commitment to supporting these activities will be critical to the smooth running of the programme.

6. Decide how your programme will be managed

Think carefully about the internal and external resource which will be needed to manage the programme. Dependant upon the volume of recruits, you may need to establish an internal team to manage this activity. Alternatively the plethora of outsourcing options now available for this activity from graduate marketing right through to testing and assessment may be a more appropriate option for your organisation. Investment in an on-line application system is now almost a pre-requisite for any successful graduate hiring strategy and will minimise administration.

7. Decide how to reach your target audience

Before committing to an expensive marketing campaign – do your research and make sure you understand who you are competing with and what they are doing. Identify your target universities and the most effective ways to reach your target audience. Focus on marketing messages, campus activities and materials which help to attract appropriate numbers of highly qualified candidates, rather than large volumes of unsuitable applications – which will in turn create an administration and screening burden.

8.  Design a robust selection process

Design your selection process around the profile of a successful graduate within your organisation. Spending some time interviewing key business stakeholders to understand what skills and competencies they believe make graduates successful within your organisation can be a useful way to define this profile. All stages of your selection process including application forms, interviews, psychometric tests and assessment centres should then be focused on measuring these competencies. It is also important to ensure that any managers involved in the process are appropriately briefed and trained.

9.  Plan the graduate’s experience from offer to the end of the programme

As offers may be made up to a year in advance of joining, it is important to maintain regular contact throughout this period - possibly by organising pre-induction events to bring new recruits together. You will need to decide what to cover during the induction and initial training period as well as how development programmes will be structured – for example, will these include rotations or direct entry to a particular team? Mentoring and buddy schemes can provide important support networks for graduates during the critical first few months and may also be something to think about. Giving thought to how graduates on the programme will be monitored, evaluated and compensated is also critical. These are areas which can create noise within both graduate populations and the business unless clearly agreed and communicated up front.

10.  Collate robust management information and evaluate your success

Finally the graduate programme will undoubtedly represent a significant investment for your organisation and it is important to think through how you will evaluate its success.

When using on-line systems, management information can often be easily collated but reporting requirements need to be carefully defined at the outset – only the data you have collected can be analysed. Key reports which you may want to think about could include:

Applicant Data – including university, ethnicity, sex, degree discipline, languages – helpful in evaluating both the diversity of the attracted applicant pool and also the success of your targeting strategy at key universities
Selection Statistics – including success, rejection and conversion rates at each stage of the selection process – useful in evaluating the effectiveness and fairness of your process.
Performance Management Data – collating information on the performance of graduates once in the business and correlating this with data on performance during the selection process can also be helpful in evaluating the success of your selection activity.
Turnover Statistics – compiling on-going data about retention rates for graduates within your organisation can also be very important in evaluating the return on your organisation’s investment in graduate activity.

Signs of a successful graduate strategy
• Strong business support for graduate recruitment and development activity and graduates seen as adding significant value to the business
• Strong graduate retention rates from the programme and graduates consistently performing at a high level
• Organisation receives favourable rating as a graduate employer of choice in external graduate benchmarking surveys such as High Fliers Survey (UK) and Universum
• Graduates progressing rapidly within the organisation and acting as a feeder population for the organisation’s talent pools.

This guide was prepared by Lisa Pickup, Director of People Possibilities, an independent HR and Change Consultancy specialising in the areas of strategic resourcing, change management and organisational development.  For further information contact Lisa at lisa@peoplepossibilities.co.uk

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