One of the biggest challenges facing college graduates is finding the right type of job afterward. However, many employers actively recruit new graduates because they know they’ll be a great asset to the company. These employers often work closely with colleges to hire the best and brightest students since they’ll add value to their bottom-line. For example, BlackBerry (RIM) has worked closely with Waterloo University in Canada to recruit potential graduates right after they finish university. These students have been screened beforehand so they can join the company right away. It’s important to understand these students show exceptional skills in their field of study.
With that said, there are still a lot of challenges for employers when looking for the brightest people to join their organization right out of college. I did some research and found five major challenges that I’ll discuss below.
Heavy Competition
There is enormous competition between companies when looking for the best people to join their team. Many employers will likely target the same colleges making it harder for a single company to recruit the brightest graduates. In order for these companies to improve their chances, they’ll offer higher pay and packages to get an edge on their competition. With competition being so high, there’s always the threat of these new hires being taken away after one year. For example, if a specific company doesn’t hire them the first time around, it doesn’t mean they won’t try and hire them a year later.
Keeping the Talent
New graduates know when they get hired by a company that their success will be capped because they’ll often have to sign lengthy contracts. The contract will also limit their mobility within the company. In the end, their growth and profit margins are limited going forward. New graduates recognize this so are working to gain experience and quickly leave right after to pursue a higher position. In the end, companies are faced with the challenge of replacing employees after they’ve invested so much time and money into their progress.
To keep new graduates with the company longer, they’ve started to –
- Promise development over the years
- Hire them under their own company name for tax benefits
- Offer higher than normal salaries
- Pay for master and MBA programs
- Pay for housing, flights, and travel costs
Cracking Under Pressure
Since college graduates are hired right after graduation, they have a lot of pressure on them to perform. They have been brought in because of their exceptional skills and companies are hoping they’ll increase profits, diversify products, etc. But, this pressure causes them to crack and they don’t perform the way they were expected to. The company is left with an under-performing employee because they are contractually not allowed to terminate a contract. To try and make things better, they put the employee through a training program which will cost the company millions of dollars.
To prevent this issue, more companies are working with universities to offer co-op programs to screen future employees beforehand making sure they can work in a fast-paced environment.
Loyalty
Many companies think hiring the best right out of university has enormous benefits. This is true a majority of times, however, some companies still have problems with employee loyalty. Hiring too quickly can force you to overlook character, which is very important in the employment process. For example, what happens if the graduate joining your team is NOT a loyal person? What happens if they are dishonest or can’t be trusted with confidential information?
These are all questions which should be answered before bringing someone on board, however, the pressure of quickly hiring the best sometimes forces companies to overlook this component.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard attracting the best to your company especially with so much competition. You’re bidding to win a graduate to join your team.
It can be a huge asset hiring young fresh vibrant people in your organization. However, at the same time you are getting inexperienced graduates who may not perform well in a fast-paced environment. If you’re a company planning on hiring new graduates direct from college, then do your research and prepare yourself accordingly.
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