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Graduate recruitment: a horror story

For sheer entertainment, it’s hard to beat the horror-story themed Norwich Union graduate careers site:

  • more choice than you can shake a zombie at (discussion of their seven business areas)
  • don’t come to a grisly end; avoid a career horror story (an explanation of what is good about joining Norwich Union)
  • share the horror (get one of the scary Norwich Union office monsters for your Facebook/Myspace page)
  • 10 tips on what not to do in a horror film – yes, we all know that you should never go into the basement alone when the ominous music is playing, but it’s good to be reminded. Not directly careers related, but who cares?
  • zombie screensavers, flying bats, scary usb snakes and staplers … and a laptop that eats the careers calendar a page at a time.

Even the text is themed: they refer to the graduate career profiles as ‘escape stories’ from ‘the good guys’, and the various locations that graduates could live in are described in terms of witch burnings, the Black Death, ghosts and murders.

And, best of all, an invitation to film your own horror movie and submit it to a competition via YouTube to win the best 25 horror films of all time. Now that’s a prize I’m sure many students would love to win.

From an apparently staid industry, this is an entertaining site that goes some way towards changing the perception of the industry – and that has to be a good thing.

One question though: it doesn’t seem to be highlighted on the main corporate Aviva site (though there is a link to the Norwich Union Careers section from the Aviva Careers section), and I think that is a missed opportunity.

PwC: getting the best out of bar work

PwC employability
PwC

I love autumn: crisp cool days, bright skies, leaves turning to gold, the start of the academic year (clean paper, sharp pencils) … and the launch of the graduate careers sites.

Yes, its that time again. Among others, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have relaunched their careers site and their blogs.

PwC, who always have interesting features on their site, seem to have restructured their graduate site a bit. Of particular note is the page dedicated to interaction, which offers podcasts, careers events alerts and live chat with a recruiter – virtually instantly, with no booking required. These are all ways to keep potential recruits informed and up to date.

Other great features include lots of detail about their offices, including local house prices, which will be of great interest to people needing to move to a new location, and entertaining short videos examining how the experience gained through the usual kind of student jobs – bar, shop, and restaurant work, charity work and even sports teams – improves employability, and, in particular, how this might translate to working with PwC.

Now, this Employability feature is unusual and I think it has a lot of value – and not only to those considering employment with PwC. It will certainly help with answering some of those tricky interview questions …

The Importance of FAQs in Recruitment

FAQs or Frequently Asked Questions are important in every business sense but perhaps especially in Recruitment.

Upon application, there are a lot of things that applicants usually ask. Some of these questions could be shrugged off as something that is not important, but for the applicant it would really be a great help.

Take for instance the acceptance of online application. Some candidates would assume that all applications could be submitted online. If there are positions that really need personal appearance at the on-set of their application, it would be better if the applicant could be informed first-hand as opposed to wasting their efforts and knowing in the end that they would be processed much easier if they are a “walk-in” applicant.

Aside from answering normally asked questions, FAQs could also serve as a way to explain the norms and culture of the company in terms of considering candidates, interviewing them and the status of the position that the applicants are interested in. Here is one good example of an FAQ from Tesco’s careers homepage:

Can I apply through this careers site for Store based or Distribution roles?

We currently conduct all local recruitment for Team Members / General Assistants through each local location. Use the Store Finder to find your nearest store or else our Distribution Centre Finder to find the contact details of your nearest Distribution centre. However all office support and management positions are advertised on and applied for through this site.

Remember that the best approach in an FAQ is a casual yet a very explanatory manner. Through this way, you are still enticing candidates to apply but at the same time still informing them about the things that they should expect when applying and the characteristics that they should have in the first place.

Attracting Graduates: New Alternatives

Blurting out boring facts about your company is really not a good way to attract applicants especially if you are hoping to focus on graduate careers. The secret for attracting them? 

Being innovative as much as possible.

Instead of just enumerating information, how about presenting it with a twist? Creating videos or blogs about your company could work, especially if you are promoting the culture of the company and how the culture would be able to nourish the growth that these future employees want to achieve in their career life.

One good example of this comes from AstraZeneca. This firm does not just give a brief introduction about the company! It gives an over-all experience for applicants. The tour goes from the different career opportunities which you could join in and also the perks (company gym and bar) that you could also experience once you join the company. This virtual tour could really entice interested parties because they could visualize themselves working for your company. I personally consider this as the best “marketing value” for both the company and future candidates.

Aside from that, testimonials are also a great way to promote your companies. If you are targeting graduate careers, you could ask someone from the same educational institution to write an honest-to-goodness testimonial about their experience in the company. The testimonial could include any of the following topics: 

  • personal recruitment experience
  • present working situation
  • stability and perks of the company
  • future career and personal growth

Through this strategy, applicants could actually have that “connection” because these people that gave their own testimonial have the same background as theirs. This could give out a sense that they could actually relate to these people, and in the future they could also be like them.

Combining these two methods is a very good idea but companies should make sure that they maintain the standard and the real purpose of these strategies. Implementing a new twist in terms of attracting candidates could make a difference in a company’s sourcing goal but making sure that it still follows the mission and vision of the company should always be the main priority.

Referrals: The New Word-of-Mouth

One sourcing strategy which companies should focus on is their referral program. Often, applicants find out about a job opening by word-of-mouth: news spreads, and more and more people are talking about the company or the job vacancy. This is effective, especially if you think about the company’s reputation.

This has evolved into “referrals” which means particular individuals or groups intentionally and knowingly telling or asking people to apply for that company or job. There are a lot of ways that the referral strategy has evolved. Here are some examples:

  • Refer a Friend, Win a Prize – As the title suggests, referring friends and acquaintances for different job openings could actually earn you a reward of some sort. This is really effective especially for companies who are in constant “mass hiring” like the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.
  • Social Networking sites – Of course, online jobsites have an impact on recruitment for companies but social networking is slowly making its way to the top. One example of such is Techtribe which is a very big hit in India. I wouldn’t be very surprised if Myspace or Facebook could be one of the tools used for finding suitable candidates.

I personally consider referrals the “most honest” way that applicants could learn about the company because their sources are also the employees who have been working there and have experienced the work and culture of the company on a first-hand basis. In fact, big companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, IBM and Intel Corporation  recognize the importance of referrals as their primary sourcing bin and give generous rewards to their employees.

Of course, the benefits or rewards for this recruitment strategy could be in cash or in other non-monetary means. This is a great chance for the HR Department to brainstorm and remember, referring needs more than just rewards — it should be an over-all package.

Applying Through Company Websites

Sourcing strategies for companies should always be innovative and also up to date in order to ensure that these strategies would really work. Sometimes, companies don’t realize that the things that they already have could be enhanced which could help in them in sourcing efforts.

Hewlett Packard

A company website could actually be a very good way to attract applicants especially if they are really interested in applying to the vacant positions that are advertised. What are the elements of a good website? Well, these things should always be present in a company website:

  • Company Profile
  • Job Openings
  • Career Growth
  • How to Apply

These factors could actually attract applicants and making sure that you have the instructions on how they could apply could really speed up their application process! A good sample website could be HP’s website that specifically has a page which pertains to information that interested applicants could use when applying. Having space for applicants to send their resume or questions/queries shows that the company is indeed reaching out to interested people and are implementing ways on how these people could reach them.

Writing formally could work in two ways: the applicants could be attracted or they could be turned-off because of the formality involved. Just remember that the image of the company is affected in this one so it is better to be consistent meaning that if the company is conservative, a formal approach would be okay while a very young and hip company could actually use an informal approach.

Being visible online is a good sourcing strategy and you have to make sure that you maximize it in a positive way.