To compete effectively with your competitors for the cream of each year’s student cohort, you need a talent attraction strategy that lets you stand out from the crowd. Companies in the upper reaches of the Times Top 100 Graduate Recruiters List have two characteristics which, taken together, act as powerful keys to success. These are strategy and creativity.
Taking a strategic view involves being clear-sighted about what you can realistically achieve and taking the steps necessary to get there; assessing each activity in terms of return on investment. Being creative means being unafraid to break convention, try out new tactics and engage with your graduate audience in new ways.
A high quality recruitment video is a key part of a recruitment attraction strategy. As a specialist video company, we are well placed to help you leverage the power of video marketing when it comes to formulating your talent attraction strategies for the coming year. Beyond this, try implementing the following strategies to boost your recruiting power.
Ensure Buy-In From Your Organisation
It is so important that you have all the departments of your company on board and sharing ownership of your recruitment messages. You should seek input from different stakeholders prior to the launch of your strategy, and then keep the momentum going while your applications are open. Keep the wider organisation informed by posting information on your company’s internal intranet and encourage personal referrals.
Create A Compelling Graduate Value Proposition
In marketing, a value proposition explains how a product solves a prospect’s problems, explains the advantages you offer over your competitors, and presents the benefits the prospect can expect by becoming a customer. With talent attraction the principle is the same. Your strategy needs to explain how enrolling in your graduate programme will help your candidates fulfil their aspirations, and how your company complements their worldview.
The value proposition sets out the opportunities in your company and what duties are involved. Financial remuneration and in-work benefits play a part in this, but in most strategies these are secondary to career progression and a sense that the graduate is making a difference in the world. From this process will come a set of graduate recruitment messages, which should be made to align with your marketing position and brand identity. A graduate recruitment video is a fantastic way to encapsulate your value proposition quickly and effectively.
Write A Candidate Attraction Strategy
Create a formal, multi-year graduate recruitment strategy linked to a clear budget and guided by previous ROI. Track expenditure and returns from previous activities, such as online advertising, to hone your strategy down to only the most effective activities.
Target The Right Graduates
Not all graduates will be suitable for your company. Create a profile of your ideal candidate by degree subject, university, strengths, interests and personal characteristics, and focus your marketing towards this target audience. Precision recruitment marketing is more effective than a shotgun approach.
Utilise Social Media
Today’s graduates are prolific users of social media and mobile devices. To succeed, full use must be made of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other outlets. Videos can be broadly disseminated through social media, as can application forms and other recruitment materials. This can sync well with your efforts on campus and at careers fairs. Using paid social media advertising can get your messages in front of specific audiences too – for instance if you need to increase your diversity profile by recruiting more women and minority candidates. Use regular social media updates to maintain urgency after applications open.
How To Use Video To Become A More Successful Graduate Recruiter
Graduate recruitment videos give a talent attraction strategy teeth by helping you quickly put your messages across to the right audience. To find out more about the potential of graduate videos, please download our Ultimate Guide to Graduate Recruitment Videos. The e-book is free and is full of information gleaned from our many years working in the student and graduate industry. Click here to get your copy.