The Impact of the Economic Downturn on the Graduate Recruitment Market in 2009
Mon, Apr 20th, 2009
Gary Argent presented some conclusions from research undertaken by AGR.
Recruitment has suffered a 5.4% decrease in 2009 over the equivalent period in 2009. This decline dwarfs decrease rates for other activities,
This decrease is reflected by a 5.0 % decrease in the graduate recruitment market, and, interestingly by a huge 7.9% increase in retention rates.
A massive 53.2% have indicated that they are spending more time focussing on the graduate recruitment market as a result of changes in recruitment levels, indicating the growing importance of graduate recruitment in the recruitment market as a whole.
Despite growing numbers of graduates, employers are becoming increasingly concerned about their ability to fill vacancies, registering a higher concern about graduates meeting the needs of organisations.
High percentages of employer respondents expressed the following concerns:
Not the right skills (53.6%)
Graduates perceptions of the industry (50%)
Challenges in specific regions (45.2%)
Not the right qualifications (42.9%)
Late change in business strategy (41.7%
Limited resources to market graduate vacancies (32.1%)
Despite the expected increase in shortfall, graduate starting salaries are not expected to increase, indicating that much of the increase in previous years was driven by the financial sector.
In summary, it is encouraging that employers are increasingly positive about the financial benefits of hiring graduates since it leads to long-term cost savings and a long-term strategy.
Hannah Longden presented the benefit of her experience from within the Financial Services Authority. There were three key risks and challenges as a result of recent changes in graduate recruitment:
- Volumes of applications have soared, making selection more challenging
- Many graduates did not possess the core skills needed
- There are many misperceptions on the part of inexperienced students from the point of view of applying for graduate jobs
Other challenging issues included the wide variation in candidate experience, ascertaining motivation and the organisation's ability to retain candidates once hired.
FSA had benefited from reviewing policy in the light of feedback from hired graduates:
- Short term re-structure of Assessment centre process
- Long term review of assessment tools
- Managing better the expectations of candidates
- Encouraging better networking at assessment centres
- On-Boarding
There is now a much higher emphasis on motivation and business acumen in the assessment process, than on pure academic achievement. This is in line with the longer term business needs of the organisation.
Mendas concluded some interesting research by indicating that most organisations felt that employees must be comfortable adapting to changing job demands, the implication being that graduates must be comfortable in a culture of change. This means that managers should spend more time with graduates, something which currently is happening only to a limited extent
As an employer, FSA is making every effort to engage with key organisations in the provision of graduates. For example, careers services at the AGR careers day, students themselves and internal stakeholders.
In conclusion, it is important for an organisation to decide strategy, communicate effectively and manage expectations.
