Organizations of all sizes including big tech companies in India are looking to hire freshers from colleges.
PwC has announced they would be hiring 10,000 engineers within five years and has already surpassed the number within 3-4 years. Wipro also made its highest net addition of 12,000 employees this June quarter.
Sourabh Govil, chief HR Officer Wipro, states the benefits of hiring freshers- “We want to build a pyramid where we focus on agile people who can be trained faster and at a lower cost. This lets us build a culture in the organization where people join early and grow within the organization,” he notes.
When giants are accepting, then dont you think isn’t it a right time work on your campus recruitment strategy plan?
Let's progress step-by-step with everything you need to know about building an effective campus recruitment strategy:
Why Does Campus Recruitment Matter?
Campus hiring is a lucrative recruitment solution because college students become motivated employees who aspire for growth and learning. They bring a fresh perspective and new-age skills. This is why organizations are keen on developing a sturdy campus recruitment strategy.
Research conducted by Mercer | Mettl highlighted that talent acquisition continues to be a challenge for 74% of organizations.
Campus hiring is vital as college graduates can be moulded into the company’s culture and visions. This is comparatively difficult with older, experienced talent.
Elements of Campus Recruitment Strategy
Planning a campus recruitment drive is no cakewalk. There are many obstacles, such as making several visits to the campus and communicating with various stakeholders.
But the good news is, if a recruitment team manoeuvres its way through all these obstacles, it can land hires that will potentially stay for longer durations and serve the company with fresh energy.
Here are a handful of effective elements you must keep in mind while creating campus recruitment strategies.
Let’s begin!
Choose Your Colleges Carefully
It is standard advice to choose the top colleges. But surprisingly, your ideal hires can come from the local institutes and schools.
It is a good idea to shortlist a few colleges depending on your budget and the majors and other qualifications you need for the vacancy before you develop your hiring strategy.
You can make a list of 5-10 colleges depending on the number of vacancies you have.
Now divide these colleges into two tiers—one is your targeted college, and the other one is your dream college.
You can move forward with the hiring strategy now that you have the list of colleges in place.
Build Connections On Campus
When designing your campus recruitment strategy, remember that you are hiring for GenZ. A strong employer brand is necessary to attract them. This is especially important for new firms and startups.
81% of Gen Z students strongly feel that establishing employer connections is important even though the employer might not yet have a current job opening. And this number is rising. It’s already 22% up from the last December!
Maintaining the exchange of ideas throughout the year will pay off during the hiring process. Internships, fest sponsorships, and other college activities are ways to connect with the campus. You can seize these opportunities to share your achievements as a firm.
You can also offer project assistance and incubation programs.
Build Employer Brand By Pre-Placement Engagement
Pre-placement engagement is another way of staying connected with campuses.
It involves organizing innovative contests like hackathons, case study competitions, etc. They not only drive engagement for your brand but also help you assess potential candidates in the early stage.
You can engage a student ambassador who can help you organize these events and call in for student participation.
Advertise Your Campus Recruitment Drive
Advertising your campus recruitment drive among students is also necessary. Gen Z is very active on social media, and you need to leverage this for holistic employer brand awareness.
53% of college students believe having a strong online brand is important! Moreover, this trend is rising as it was a mere 34% last December!
Market your drive on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Quora, etc. You can use influencers, make a short, captivating video, or a simple banner with a caption.
Whatever you choose, keep your brand messaging short and crisp. It should reflect your company values and be fit to be displayed on the careers webpage and social media handles.
If done right, it can help you attract the choicest talent pool to your organization.
Involve Technology For An Efficient Hiring Process
Employ recruitment management system like ATS to screen candidates better and schedule interviews efficiently.
While hiring for technological jobs, you can opt for simulator-based screening. These tests assess the problem-solving and coding skills of the candidates while helping you assess how the candidates will behave in real-life situations.
These simulators produce a problem for the candidate, and an auto-grading system judges the answers. This data is stored in the system for further scrutiny.
Conduct Structured Virtual Interviews That Are Effective
Structure the interviews to involve questions about the company’s present and future competencies.
Since the interview is virtual, thus explain to each interviewee the workplace environment they can expect. Also, explain your organizational values.
Lastly, ensure that you give each interviewee time to prepare for the interview, that your interview tech is working properly, finalize your questions, and give a formal invite to the interview.
Measure Your Efforts And Their Effectiveness
Once the campus recruitment drive ends and you have your hires with you, it is time to measure your success. After all, it is essential to know how effective you are.
Below are a few questions to ask yourself for the analysis.
- Q1. How many students did you hire at each university?
- Q2. How did you source them? Was it a student referral or a hackathon?
- Q3. What was the percentage of accepted offers?
- Q4. What is the new hire retention rate?
- Q5. Was the drive cost-effective?
- Q6. How much hiring target did you achieve?
- Q7. Lastly, how are the newly hired employees working?
This and more data will equip you to craft better campus recruitment strategies in the future.
Campus Recruitment Best Practices
Now that we have discussed the significant elements of campus recruitment strategies, here are some best recruitment practices to follow.
Set Achievable Goals For Your Recruitment Drive
Do not go for the overkill. Set achievable goals. But while making these goals have a clear post-event strategy in place.
For example, how the candidates will keep in contact and how the interview process will follow.
You can mail the potential candidates an invitation for the interview. You can also stay in touch with them through their social media profiles.
Keep An Upper Limit To Your Campus Drive Budget
Recruitment takes a lot of effort and financial resources, so keeping an upper limit on your recruitment budget is advisable.
A few critical budgeting calculations you must make are:
- A yearly budget for all new hires
- Break down the above budget into smaller nuggets like campus drive budget, social media hiring budget, and other costs like recruitment software, etc.
- Have a budget for miscellaneous heads like branding, training, interviews, etc.
A study by Zippia found the cost of hiring a new employee to be $4,425 on average!
Final Words
Colleges around you are filled with fresh, energetic, and motivated students. They make for the perfect fit for any organization as they have a passion for growth and learning and can mould themselves according to the company’s values.
Companies with sturdy campus recruitment strategies can easily dig into this talent pool. However, organizations need to stay relevant and adapt virtual recruitment strategies. They are not only cost-friendly but also more effective and consume lesser time.
We hope you found the blog useful for devising your campus recruitment strategies.