Graduate Recruitment

The challenge of recruiting the best graduates

The cost of consistently failing to recruit and retain top talent is huge.  Many important business issues are employee related and the US Department of Labour estimates that 30% of business failures are due to poor hiring decisions. 

But with 95% of applicants exaggerating to get a job, those employers who rely exclusively on academic history, CVs and interviews will experience ongoing challenges in their search for top graduate talent.

In addition, many hiring decisions are made in haste; perhaps not surprising when you consider that, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters, each job vacancy brings in an average of 30 applications and often much higher.  Busy recruiters handling high volumes of graduate applications need to be able to identify the best talent fast.

To find out how to get results from your graduate recruitment process, read our white paper which provides practical tips and guidance:

Download ‘Optimising Graduate Recruitment' (243 KB)

Move graduate recruitment online

SHL has led the way moving graduate assessment and recruitment online, designing integrated approaches to attract and select candidates efficiently, while maintaining the employer brand.

As organisations face pressures to secure the best graduate recruits efficiently and cost effectively, the Internet is quickly becoming an essential part of a strong graduate recruitment programme.

There are various ways that employers can use the Internet to optimise graduate recruitment:

• Simplify and clarify your online presence to boost brand image
• Reduce the cost of traditional marketing materials and broaden your search by moving the majority of the graduate recruitment process online
• Select online tests and questionnaires that help identify candidate quality rather than just using tools to manage application volume
• Use online tools to evaluate and measure graduates on critical ‘hard-to-measure’ attributes.

SHL’s consultants are experts in the area of online testing and work with many organisations to provide integrated solutions that can seamlessly fit with their graduate recruitment processes and applicant tracking systems.

Contact us about our recruitment tools and how we can assist you

Fast and secure ability testing

Ability testing is the single most effective method of predicting job success.  An SHL survey of 25,000 graduate recruits found that employers must avoid making assumptions based on what is on a CV.  For example, the findings revealed that students belonging to sports groups at universities showed weaknesses in supporting and co-operating, which directly contradicts the supposition that they would be perfect for teamwork.  Employers must dig deeper than a CV and presentation at interviews to determine how well a candidate will fit a job.

Objective graduate assessment assists employers seeking attributes that are difficult to measure.  And taking this online means candidates can be reached and assessed wherever they are in the world, not just efficiently but also cost effectively.

What our clients say…

National Australia Bank (NAB) uses SHL’s online ability testing tool Verify to speed up the graduate recruitment process without compromising on quality.  According to the Bank’s National Graduate Manager:

"For NAB, online tests are absolutely crucial to ensure we quickly identify and secure the best candidates before our competitors.”
 
Read the full National Australia Bank case study here

Leading telecommunications operator, Orange, has also benefited from SHL assessment tools.  According to its Talent Scheme Manager:

“The success of Orange’s graduate recruitment scheme has shown the added value of assessment.”

Read the full Orange case study

SHL Verify is a breakthrough approach for unsupervised online ability testing, as it:

• Assesses verbal, numerical and inductive reasoning ability, online and unsupervised
• Protects against the risks of cheating and security breaches
• Defends the integrity of online testing by partnering with independent security and data forensics experts
• Utilises randomised test technology to ensure a fair and accurate process
• Enables better decisions with superior test properties
• Scientifically verifies the integrity of the unsupervised test
• Reduces the time spent on assessment for both employers and candidates.

Find out how SHL Verify can deliver fast, secure graduate assessment

Dealing with high volumes of candidates

In addition to Verify, SHL has a variety of graduate assessment tools to help employers dealing with high volumes of graduate recruitment applications.

SHL Quicksift is a competency-based questionnaire applied in the initial online screening stage to sift out candidates.  It poses many benefits to organisations:

• Highly cost effective
• Saves you time and money by short listing large numbers of applications
• Candidates who go forward are more likely to perform better in the job.

Discover how Quicksift can help improve your graduate recruitment

Providing a range of customised scenario-based questions, SHL’s Talent Screener gives candidates a realistic preview of the role for which they have applied and the company culture.  The product has brought benefits to Orange:

“Talent Screener enabled the recruitment team to give candidates more of an insight about what was expected from the graduate scheme for which they had applied and allowed us to quickly determine candidates’ suitability earlier in the process.”
 
Read about SHL’s graduate assessment tool, Talent Screener

SHL’s Occupational Personality Questionnaire assesses a broad array of competencies needed in graduate and management roles. It is proven for use online and substantially reduces the length of graduate assessment processes. 

SHL’s assessment tools are tailored to each client according to their specific needs and business challenges. 

Why not talk to us to find out which SHL assessment tools will bring you optimum benefit in your recruitment

Retaining the best graduates

Building employee loyalty begins at the first stages of a graduate recruitment programme.  Employer brand identity is increasingly important when competing for talented people who have numerous employment options.  A graduate assessment process that does not waste candidates’ time and delivers a fair, robust approach to selection reflects well on the organisation.

Psychometric assessments also deliver knowledge on a graduate’s key motivators, strengths and weaknesses that can be used to guide individual career paths.  This information is critical to tailoring training and development at each career step and is vital to the retention of top talent.