Attracting graduates to your business: Why create a graduate talent pool?

Fresh graduate recruits tend to ask lots of questions when joining a new company, bringing a new perspective to the table. 

This is the beauty of hiring recent graduates – they can help to reassess dated approaches in your company.

They can find improvements for your company that you may never have considered before.

It’s important to remain current in today’s business climate, which is something a fresh graduate will already know how to do. 

Graduate hires are also very willing to learn.

As they are new to the world of business, joining a company offers the chance to gain as many skills as possible.

So, lack of enthusiasm will never be an issue. 

Make sure to ask your graduates for feedback on their onboarding experience.

This way, you can continue to improve the process with future hires.

A positive onboarding experience is incredibly important in gaining employee trust and retaining graduate hires.

It’s not always important whether the degree a graduate has studied at university applies directly to your company or not.

The fact that a candidate has a degree under their belt means they come well prepared to the workplace with a vast range of transferable skills. 

The majority of university degrees involve enhancing important skills that can be applied later down the line in the world of work. 

These transferable skills can include research, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills.

These are all valuable abilities that a fresh graduate recruit can transfer directly into the role as soon as they begin working within your company. 

The more graduates you hire when expanding the graduate talent pool, the more transferable skills these candidates will collectively be able to bring to the table.

Having spent a few years transitioning from the workload at school to university, graduates will already be well versed in adapting to a different pace of work. 

Graduate hires learn very quickly.

The ability to take on numerous individual tasks and frequently switch between different responsibilities is invaluable. 

By expanding your graduate talent pool through building a graduate talent programme, you will create a team that is enthusiastic and willing to learn and adapt.

This will help to improve your business method in ways your company may not have tried before. 

Establishing a graduate talent pool has countless short-term benefits that will come into effect almost immediately upon taking on graduate recruits.

Recent graduates have likely grown up alongside the development of technology, so using tech and social media platforms will be second nature to them. 

Social media specifically is hugely important for companies in today’s digital landscape.

On the whole, graduates are more likely to actively use social media platforms in their personal life.

They will be exposed to brands more regularly across more channels. 

As a result, graduates can use this insight to contribute to an effective social media strategy and build a presence within the digital landscape.

This will see countless benefits in the long-term, including higher client exposure and brand awareness.

In recent years, the conversation surrounding mental health has become a huge priority, whether in the workplace or daily life. 

Younger generations have utilised social media to bring this topic to the forefront, highlighting its importance from a fresh, open-minded perspective.

As a result, graduates are much more likely to prioritise mental wellbeing in the workplace. 

92% of graduating students say employers should offer mental health benefits, with 36% saying they would apply first to companies that offer mental health benefits. 

As a result, recruitment for graduates will have a positive impact on your company culture as it will help bring this open-minded attitude into your workplace. 

Employing graduates can therefore help your business establish stronger mental health awareness and wellbeing resources, such as the option for flexible working.

Hiring first-level managers externally is often very difficult.

Even if their management skills are strong and they have years of experience, they lack knowledge about your team and your corporate culture.

Entry-level recruits allow you to, in time, promote those top-performing employees to critical, supervisory roles.

To recruit graduates into your company means you have not only great ambassadors for your business, but also a brilliant advert to the next generation of talent.

Graduates can grow through your business, and progress into leaders who really understand your company values and culture.

One of the best ways to go about hiring new grads is to keep a graduate talent pool.

As recruiters, we can help with creating a talent pool for your company by answering the question ‘what is talent pool management’, teaching you why talent pool is important, and helping to establish a useful database of fresh graduate candidates.

If you want to know how to hire graduates, you need to be where graduates are.

In some sense, this demands a clear presence in print and in-person marketing, like on public transport and at careers fairs.

Huge numbers of graduates visit careers fairs at their universities, with many unsure what direction their career will take after university.

This is the perfect window to make your brand known: the process of attracting and employing graduates begins before they’ve even graduated!

Equally important, though, is a good social media presence. This is at the heart of attracting graduates to your business.

Instagram and TikTok content and ads are both fundamental to getting younger generations aware of your business, and the opportunities you may have for them.

And, our recent graduate survey data showed that 88% of grads research a company’s reputation before they apply. A portion of this research will certainly be done on social media, so make sure your accounts are up-to-scratch!

As we’ve discussed, graduates are constantly willing to learn, and always look at progression as a key factor in their early career.

It may seem obvious to advise that you make the job appealing; but sometimes, it is hard to know how to make the right job appeal to the right type of person.

If you’re wondering how to hire fresh graduates, you need to ensure your company is offering solid and actionable development plans.

Graduates are at the start of their career, and want to be assured they’re not entering a stagnant role.

You can make development plans clear on your website, on job descriptions, in interviews, and crucially while onboarding graduates.

The quickest and most effective way to attract and hire new graduates is to outsource to a graduate recruitment company.

Hiring a graduate is a difficult process.

Competition is tough, and often it can feel hard enough attracting talent to your company, let alone securing the right hire.

Recruitment companies have plenty of experience attracting and sourcing graduates, creating talent pools, talent pipelines, and working from talent databases.

They can handle the talent pool management for you, and provide you with shortlists of graduate talent.

Some of these agencies are also adept in employer branding, and can help you strengthen your company’s online reputation!

Using an external recruiter also means you can dedicate your time to other internal business matters.

Why do it yourself, when you can rely on experts in attracting graduates?