Recruitment Futurescape
Wed, Sep 17th, 2008
Gary Argent - Business Operations Manager, Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR)
Jon Porter - Managing Director, TMP, Eire and UK Sean Howard - Sales Director, SHL
Leigh Lafever-Ayer, Corporate HR Manager, Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Gary Argent opened the presentations with some interesting facts:
* AGR now has some 830 members: the conference attracted 665 delegates, 100 more than the previous year. * 84% of member companies planned to maintain their graduate recruitment levels. * Candidate vacancies amongst AGR members increased by 11.7% in 2008, which while positive is slightly below the 16% increase that was predicted in their previous survey in December 2007. * Three quarters of all member companies were now optimistic about achieving their targets for graduates, as against 2007, when 1/3 of those responding were pessimistic about being able to fill vacancies.
Nevertheless, in the face of declining budgets, there is a call for greater accountability and companies need to work harder to justify their graduate recruitment programmes to Boards.
There are four main predictions for the next two years:
1. Graduate Recruitment and Development programmes will operate more closely together. However graduate expectations will rise and graduates are increasingly having to be sold an effective proposition. Attrition rates on training programmes remain a concern for 50% of AGR members, and 20% of members would like to improve retention "significantly". Work/life balance issues will increase in importance. .
2. Companies need to innovate in order to be attractive to graduates. More and more employers are visiting target groups on University Campuses, with recruitment meetings being held by the company. This is becoming increasingly expensive and it has been suggested that recruiters should join forces within their sector and promote themselves more effectively through exhibitions and conferences.
3. Best practice in graduate selection. Every year the average quality of applications is increasing. Employers are now less likely to rely on a 2:1 as a selection tool. The importance of recruiting for potential is increasing.
4. There will be more partnerships between Universities and the Private sector, with a view to developing "employability skills" alongside academic training. For example Logica are now running a sponsored degree scheme with the University of Winchester, and similar programmes are being run by Barclays and UPS with Anglia Ruskin university. Placement schemes are popular with employers (75% of AGR members offer paid internships or placements) but despite the apparent attractiveness of the programme student interest appears to be declining. Universities and employers need to work together to help promote these schemes. Ultimately, the best students will remain very much in demand and strong partnerships with universities will help employers engage with them early on in their university life, and in some cases even before they reach university. .
Jon Porter
Jon felt that the main development and challenge for employers was an increase in Digital activity. There are now more women in the 25-34 age group accessing the internet than men, with increase in the market caused being due to increased ease of activity.
1. Developments in Virtual Recruitment have been well documented. However, the challenge is to integrate the various forms of new media. 2. The use of Mobiles will increase in the sector. There is still room for growth as, for example. Only 22% of mobiles are Bluetooth enabled. 3. Gaming. This medium is used very little at present other than for games, but this is set to change with gaming advertising predicted to be £2.3 bn by 2012. The challenge is harnessing this medium for competitive advantage. 4. Social networking. In a recent poll carried out, 44% of men and 56% of women want to advertise. There has been and will continue to be an explosion of viral advertisements: in June 2006 there were 26 whereas in August 2008 this figure had risen to 70. Much of these start on YouTube.
There are, however, signs that the market is beginning to mature. As candidates increasingly have the luxury of being selective about their working environment, they are begin more selective about their applications and about which companies attract them to apply.
Sean Howard
Sean Howard has worked for SHL for 10 years and has seen monumental change in workplace practices, the trends being set to continue. The main changes observed are:
* There is more psychological testing - more than 1 million people in UK have now gone through some of testing while applying for a job. * There is more shared information, a good example is "wikipedia" * There has been an explosion in networking groups. The most successful of these in LinkedIN which is used to develop professional networks
As always the limiting factor behind groups such as LinkedIn is the limited size of the pool, and the shortage of talent
Leigh Lafever-Eyer
The new developments already described offer a real opportunity to demonstrate value in terms of recruitment spend to a sceptical Board. Techniques such as applicant tracking can enable a snapshot of recruitment performance at any one time to be taken and can make the hiring process much more visible. The main issues for Enterprise can be summarised.:
* Cost per hire. The internet has the effect of reducing cost per hire, but referrals via Social Networking and similar groups now account for 36% of all hires. * Employer brand. The most visible part of the company is now its website, its online offering. An organisation has to look at its expectations and deliverables - does it communicate the fit and "culture"? * Rewards packages are becoming increasingly important. Good employees need to be retained: how are they to be rewarded? * In an era of increasingly scarce management talent, other techniques are being used. One effective method of spreading information about the company is to organise Internships for students: a good experience will be reported back to friends and colleagues, thereby building the "good employer" image. * Setting professional and company goals. Never before has this been so important. While pay is clearly important, experience now shows that the challenge of the job itself has more influence on the level of satisfaction. Diversity issues have also to be considered in this context as this can influence workplace dynamics.
All speakers echoed the importance of building a brand and maintaining an image in attracting candidates and boosting recruitment of quality staff. TMP had undertaken research in HSBC and McDonalds and found that this was an important part of company marketing efforts. The personal touch had a huge impact on the level on employer value.
Despite the sophisticated use of technology, all the panel admitted that attracting people to sites was something of a challenge. At present, there is no comprehensive portal information to assist candidates searching for work in specific areas. However, LinkedIn and Facebook offer the best opportunities to link to desired sites.
