Online Recruitment is Key to grabbing great Graduates

Wed 04 November 2009, Category: online recruitment, graduate recruitment

{Source: Personnel Today} Set against the most severe recession of most people's lifetimes, the 20th annual IRS graduate recruitment survey shows that online recruitment has become more important than ever as a tool to help employers reach top talent.

Online methods, such as an employer's own website or external jobsites, remain the most common and effective ways of attracting good-quality graduate candidates, the IRS survey found. The current hiring round is a tough one for graduates, with demand waning slightly on the part of recruiters, combined with salary freezes for graduate hires. But the turbulent economic conditions do not make it an easy graduate recruiting ground for employers either – and do not necessarily make it any more straightforward to find top-quality talent.

Over the past few years, the pattern of employer demand for graduates has been on an upwards trajectory, mirroring the steady increase in the number of people graduating from university actively looking for work – around 185,000 each year. But while supply remains buoyant, employers' demand for graduates in the current economic downturn appears to be waning. According to the latest Association of Graduate Recruiters' survey, one-quarter of graduate vacancies have disappeared, and there are now an average of 48 applications for every vacancy.

IRS graduate recruitment survey: key points

• IRS's 20th annual graduate recruitment survey was conducted in September 2009, and involved 130 employers collectively employing more than 1.6 million people.
• Starting salaries were frozen between 2008 and 2009, according to the median (midpoint in the range).
• The median starting in 2009-10 is £24,000. Starting salaries are not keeping pace with increases in pay and earnings as a whole.
• Current demand for graduates has tailed off slightly but employers are optimistic of their demand increasing in the future.
• Online methods, such as an employer's own website, remain the most common and effective ways of attracting good-quality candidates.
• Assessment centres are widely seen as the best approach for selecting new graduate recruits, followed by interviews.
• More than one-third of respondents indicated that they had encountered problems with graduate recruitment over the past two to three years, with the main issue being poor-quality candidates.

The full survey results and analysis will available on xperthr.co.uk from Monday 16 November.

Most effective attraction method (1998-2009)

• 1998-99 Vacancy directories/bulletins
• 2000-01 Vacancy directories/bulletins
• 2001-02 Vacancy directories/bulletins
• 2002-03 Campus visits (eg milk round)
• 2003-04 Campus visits (eg milk round)
• 2004-05 Sponsored students
• 2005-06 National newspaper advertisements
• 2006-07 Internet site that carries more than one organisation's graduate vacancies
• 2007-08 Internet site run by/for the organisation
• 2008-09 Internet site run by/for the organisation
• 2009-10 Internet site run by/for the organisation

It’s a lengthy news release and the full details can be found on Personnel Today

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