Arguably the hottest topic of the conference was the decrease in application numbers this year, with many employers falling short of their hiring targets. A decrease in the number of students, coupled with an increase in the number of employers hiring graduates has resulted in a “candidates market”.
The solution? There were many great ideas discussed, including;
Employers both large and small are starting to adopt a rolling recruitment strategy to ensure they capture students applying for jobs throughout the year. We’ve seen this trend play out on the 50+ Australian job boards we power. Previously, March was always known as “graduate season” and August “internship season”. However, students' search and application trends have changed. In the below graph, you can see that pre-covid (blue) March was still the peak for applications, followed by August.
However if we look at application trends in 2022, in August (red) students were applying for nearly as many jobs as they were in March.
How are employers responding to these changes? They are adapting their approaches by either opening EOI’s (expressions of interest) or simply recruiting throughout the year, taking a “rolling recruitment” approach by opening applications for a variety of campaigns. This means they are able to engage with various cohorts of candidates who are searching in different periods and applying for work, even if they have already accepted an offer.
Never before has the Australian graduate recruitment market seen such high decline and renege rates, with some expecting renege rates to hit 25% this year! It begs the question, why? As part of Fusions' presentation, David Cvetkovski made the point there are a number of factors that influence why candidates drop out of the recruitment process. Interestingly, results vary depending on whether or not the recruitment process is done virtually or in person.
So, how do you develop a ‘keep warm’ strategy that ensures students turn up to assessment centres and don’t drop out of the recruitment process? David from Fusion says “Employers keep warm strategies are integral to ensuring that students don’t drop out of the process. That’s why we recommend the following approaches to our clients:”
A trend that was discussed at length was the changing wants and needs of Gen Z. Prosple recently shined a light on these changes in student behaviour, collating the past 5 years of AAGE candidate survey data which shone a light on the ever-changing student priorities. So, what matters most to students?
You can read more about these trends and insights in this blog.
We all know it’s a struggle for employers to attract and hire enough graduates and interns. In fact, it's the main concern amongst employers when it comes to recruiting graduates.
Spending more on student attraction is definitely one strategy. In fact, it’s likely essential as multiple and year-round campus campaigns become the norm.
But how do you fund it if there’s no budget? Peter from GradSift says that it’s time for employers to make a strategic call. “Attraction is where it’s needed, so reallocate funding away from assessments and selection.”
Here are Peter’s top three tips on how employers could approach this:
In a candidate short market, recruitment needs to be an easy and streamlined process for applicants. For employers, a streamlined process will reduce assessment and temporary labour costs, save HR time and should see more applicants make it through to hires.
Again, it was amazing connecting with everyone in person once again. For those that weren’t able to make the conference, we hope the above is helpful!
We are also offering a limited number of strategy sessions in which we help you set up your 2023 grad recruitment strategy for success with the backing of internal stats and insights. To book your spot get in touch with [email protected].