{"id":4234,"date":"2016-11-22T10:13:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T10:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discovery-graduates.com\/?p=4234"},"modified":"2016-11-22T10:13:41","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T10:13:41","slug":"what-do-graduates-grumbles-really-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/what-do-graduates-grumbles-really-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What do graduates\u2019 grumbles really mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the latest Association of Graduate Recruiters statistics, a whopping 92%<\/strong> of employers ask candidates for feedback on their recruitment process.<\/p>\n

This reflects an increasing focus on improving the candidate experience and if the candidate\u2019s feedback is listened to, there may be some really positive changes we can make to our practices and procedures.<\/p>\n

November is a great time of year to reflect on how our recruitment experiences have been over the year and I\u2019ve highlighted three common grumbles that we hear graduate\u2019s make. What\u2019s interesting is when we look beyond the grumble and focus on what the graduate is actually saying\u2026<\/p>\n

Grumble #1 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get any feedback\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Time and again recruiters hear this and it\u2019s totally understandable that with thousands of applications coming your way, there isn\u2019t time to provide every single applicant with detailed feedback. But what does this grumble really mean? Beyond this grumble is a young graduate who simply wants to get better! Give them a break! They\u2019re not asking for feedback to pester and annoy you, they\u2019re doing it because they are genuinely interested to know how they could improve their performance and do better next time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth putting some consideration into how you can build some element of feedback giving into your process. You may start with the candidates you have offered and find a way to build feedback on their assessment center performance into their induction program.<\/p>\n

Remember that, often, these graduates are your consumers or perhaps even your future customers (if they find work with one of your customers) and 38% of candidates who had a bad experience in the hiring process are less likely to buy from, or use that company\u2019s services or products (Recruiterbox).<\/p>\n

Moral of the story, it\u2019s worth looking behind this grumble and seeing how you can build some element of feedback giving into your process.<\/p>\n

 Grumble #2<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe job isn\u2019t what I thought it was<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a common \u2018few weeks in\u2019 grumble that is often the result of incomplete communication.<\/p>\n

Sometimes this grumble is a realization that the working world involves structure, early mornings and a few sacrifices, but it\u2019s ironed out once these things are accepted! Nevertheless, we can still learn from this and explore how we can manage graduate\u2019s expectations of their role and routines better.<\/p>\n

To avoid this grumble we need to give graduates the nitty-gritty. With only 15% of employers hiring graduate intakes who have commercial awareness, it\u2019s no surprise that sometimes the job isn\u2019t quite what they thought. Graduates don\u2019t always have the knowledge to fully grasp what some of our business language means and how it translates into the day-to-day job \u2013 and who can blame them? This is quite possibly their first experience of being in a position of real responsibility in a business.<\/p>\n

Even directors can struggle to understand what certain job titles mean, so how can we expect graduates to know?<\/p>\n

What we can learn as recruiters from this is that we need to be really clear on what the job involves, right from the start. Of course we need to discuss the company\u2019s culture and values and explain what it\u2019s like to work for you, but equally important is communicating in clear, simple language, the key responsibilities of the graduate and expected tasks and projects that he\/she will focus on.<\/p>\n

Grumble #3<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t any progression\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a dangerous grumble and one that can lead to attrition.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look beyond this grumble\u2026the candidate is ultimately saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know where my next job could be in this organization\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chances are that, as the recruiter\/hiring manager, you have an idea of where this graduate could progress to, but you\u2019re perhaps not communicating that to them.<\/p>\n

Ask yourself the questions: are your managers communicating progression opportunities to their young talent? Does the graduate know the journey they need to go on to achieve that next role? Are the timelines realistic or do they need to be flexed a little? Talking through these questions can be really great starting points for uncovering how you can, quite easily, overcome this graduate grumble.<\/p>\n

I hope this has been useful in showing that a) you\u2019re not the only organization that hears these grumbles and b) they are not insurmountable! In making small changes and improving communication, we can go a long way in keeping our candidates happy. Happy candidates share their positive experiences, so it really is worth the effort.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the latest Association of Graduate Recruiters statistics, a whopping 92% of employers ask candidates for feedback on their recruitment process. This reflects an increasing focus on improving the candidate experience and if the candidate\u2019s feedback is listened to, there may be some really positive changes we can make to our practices and procedures. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[20,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-employer-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discovery-adr.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}