Gaining fresh perspectives, bridging skill shortages, nurturing future leaders – the advantages of early career recruitment are clear. But it isn’t something that should be left to chance. It’s essential to tailor your recruitment approach to attract and retain up-and-coming professionals – from creating an inclusive, supportive work environment, to highlighting growth and development pathways.
Let’s dive into some key considerations for engaging early career talent.
1. Strengthen your employer brand
Recruiters are well-versed in the value of developing a robust employer brand strategy to attract top talent. But you may like to take your overarching strategy one step further for early career hiring – such as tailoring dedicated landing pages for this group on your career site. It can showcase employee stories about how early career professionals have achieved success in your organization, and highlight the benefits they want most, such as internal mobility, training opportunities, and flexibility. Promote these in your graduate job advertisements and social media content to attract prospective talent.
2. Develop a successful graduate program
Graduate programs can require buy-in from your business, and can be time and resource-intensive to develop; but they can be incredibly rewarding and play an important part in your long-term talent strategy.
If you have the resources to implement a well-structured graduate program, it’s a great way to integrate key skills into your organization. And, in turn, invest in their skill development by allowing them to explore different teams and areas of interest. With a structured program plan in place, you can run annual recruitment campaigns to build awareness and attract graduates.
3. Manage AI-generated applications
With the growing popularity of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, it’s no surprise talent teams are seeing an increase in candidates, particularly early career professionals, using AI to write their job applications. This may seem like an extra layer of complexity to manage, but it doesn’t have to be.
Organizations can set expectations by including information in job advertisements to advise candidates about how they’re permitted to use AI – what’s acceptable during the application process, and what isn’t.
When screening candidates, you may quickly spot those who rely on AI, but incorporating assessments into your process can reveal certain skills, traits and capabilities they possess.
4. Incorporate assessments and behavioral interviews
Using assessments like aptitude, skills, personality, and situational tests early in the hiring process can help screen early career or graduate candidates. These tests evaluate cognitive abilities, relevant skills, cultural fit, and decision-making, giving a well-rounded view of a candidate’s potential, even without extensive experience.
Behavioral interview questions are a great way for candidate’s to demonstrate soft skills. Tailor questions to identify real-world skills, such as teamwork, collaboration, and decision-making. You can also consider incorporating conversation starting points based on company values and culture, to see if you’re aligned.
5. Develop a retention strategy for
Gen Z
Engaging early career talent may give you the advantage of retaining them longer term. But with tremendous job mobility and values shifting about work expectations, Gen Z has gained a reputation for being difficult to retain. Recent research reveals 83% of this cohort consider themselves to be job hoppers, and 75% would leave a job even if they didn’t have another one waiting.
What are the best ways to improve retention? Facilitate their drive to learn and develop new skills, engage new technology, prioritize mental and physical wellbeing, and support their time management to give them more control over work-life balance. The following recommendations can also work to support your retention strategy for Gen Z.
6. Promote a culture of diversity, inclusion, and collaboration
Many organizations strive to build positive, inclusive, collaborative workplace cultures – but, as most of us understand, it takes consistent, deliberate effort. There are a few steps you can take to nurture this organically, such as by offering formal and informal opportunities for teamwork, collaboration, and reward and recognition, with a focus on values-driven contributions.
Considering how much Gen Z values transparency and authenticity, these principles can be embraced by leaders sharing their thoughts, like organizational challenges and goals, to support team members to learn from one another and strive towards shared achievements.
Ensure your organization frames generational diversity as a positive element of work. Retaining talent with diverse experiences, opinions, and skills gives people the chance to learn from others, and view this as a good thing for their experience. Providing opportunities for people to speak up, share ideas, be heard, and contribute to projects is a great way to build an inclusive, diverse company culture.
7. Highlight growth and development opportunities
Like many professionals across industries, Gen Z workers are concerned about staying competitive, keeping their skills up to date, and preparing for the future of work.
When it comes to early career engagement, it’s important for leaders to demonstrate clear pathways for growth, development, promotion, and ways to build new skills for the future. This could be by offering progression through things such as leadership opportunities, or non-hierarchical opportunities, such as provisions to experience new projects, different teams, or different roles through internal mobility.
8. Stand out from competitors with creative recruitment events
Recruitment events are a powerful way to attract talent, cultivate your employer brand, and build and nurture engaged talent pools for the future. Whether you run virtual or in-person events, be sure to plan and promote them in advance, choose an engaging format, and continue to communicate with promising candidates post-event.
Consider partnering with local universities, establishing a presence at university career fairs, obtaining speaking spots, or hosting stalls with branded merchandise and sign-up opportunities.
With virtual recruitment events rising in popularity, live chat events and Q&As are a great way to differentiate your employer brand. Connect early career professionals with team members, such as past graduates, to enable them to learn about their experience.
9. Overcome the disconnect between generations in the workplace
For the majority organizations, multi-generational workplaces are the reality. So how can we address key issues, such as bias?
As a recruiter, you may be used to addressing bias through initiatives such as promoting equal candidate opportunities and embracing generational diversity for growth. But it’s important to ensure there is conversation, training, and information in place to address bias against Gen Z from managers and others in the business. It’s an invaluable step towards creating an environment where all generations can find common ground, work together, and strive towards common goals.
If your organization has a hybrid workforce, although it is an attractive benefit, it can also make it harder for your Gen Z cohort to interact and build relationships with senior team members. To bridge inter-generational gaps, consider creative solutions for relationship building, such as mentorships, or goal-orientated working groups.
10. Facilitate connection with remote workers
Taking the previous considerations one step further, organizations with remote or hybrid work environments may like to work more actively to engage early career team members working remotely. This could mean:
- taking extra steps using your primary communications tools – to share updates, maintain visibility, and encourage conversation.
- prioritizing face time with their managers – through one-to-one meetings and virtual coffee catch ups.
- scheduling hybrid working – encouraging remote workers to join in-person workplace sessions at regular intervals, where possible, to strengthen connections.
Most importantly, ensure remote workers’ voices aren’t lost. When they do speak up, suggest ideas, share their progress, or ask questions, be sure to listen and give encouraging feedback.
In summary, early career recruitment and engagement is a key pillar of an effective talent strategy and delivers a range of long-term benefits – from injecting new energy and skills into your workforce, to increasing diversity and shaping the next generation of leaders. Prepare your organization for the future with these recommendations to support your early career recruitment strategy.
If you’d like to learn how Clinch Recruitment Marketing suite can help you attract, engage and nurture early career talent, request a demo today!
