A survey has found that students and graduates are not making the right workplace choices, while employers are struggling to find the right ‘fit’ for their businesses.
New research by magnet.me has revealed that businesses looking to recruit graduates are marketing their roles through generic messages, resulting in a deluge of irrelevant applications.
Mass advertisement of graduate roles has led to a suffocation of the hiring process as individual applications are not considered thoroughly. It has also resulted in higher hirer costs for recruiters due to time spent on unsuccessful applications, poor decision making in hiring the right people and negative impact on company’s brands due to the number of unsuccessful applicants.
Students are aware of only 27% of the opportunities available to them. Some 74% of graduates are making universal job applications as they do not have a firm grasp on what the role may entail.
Of the respondents that were hired, 68% admitted they joined a wrong employer, with 28% saying they had left their first role within 12 months.
Vincent Karremans, founder of magnet.me said: “Today’s graduate recruitment market finds itself stuck in a terrible place. Young people are struggling to wade through generic company messaging to find their way to the right job while businesses are wasting millions chasing and eventually investing in high numbers of graduates who leave within the first year.
“Looking at the research it feels as though young people and employers are on completely different planets. Both sides are essentially using an out-of-date scattergun approach that is not working. We are calling for a radical overhaul to this approach that refocuses the attention to the candidate."
Despite this trend, students are generally buoyant about securing a role, as 69% said they were confident in finding a job.
Magnet.me is calling on employers to be more selective in their searches by engaging a selected group of candidates with more personal and authentic strategies.
Karremans added: “It’s time to move beyond having generic videos of businesses on social media to more of authentic story telling approach to your business if you want the right calibre of candidates coming to you who will impact your business and its culture.”