Hi,

I am the Recruitment Advisor for a television company with 400+ employees and have been asked to implement a Graduate Recruitment Scheme.  I don't have any experience in this area and would like some pointers.

Any help would be appreciated.

There are several steps to this:

1. Outline the actual programme the graduates will be taking part in. You need to get line manager buy in to this. Some pointers could be the grads could try working in various departments or take on an individual low level role in one with clear progression from then on.

Professional qualifications are a big selling point for this.

2. Sourcing (the fun bit) this is more simple than it sounds, make sure you have clear goals- who do you want? what skills? What degree and level of degree are required? Do you require an assessment day (this is a great opportunity to persuade your employer to get you SHL or similar aualified)? What tests and group/individual activities should you employ? This would depend on the volume of candidates required and that you are going to assess.

Make sure you put clear timescales and goals to be achieved at each stage of the recruitment process- prepare rejection and invitation letters for each stage.

Unfortunately there are no hard and fast rules for grad recruitment, however, if you answer the above questions bearing in mind your organisation, you should be fine.

This is a fantastic opportunity- well done and good luck!

Hi

in the last couple of organisations that I have been in we have ditched the grad schemmes - to hire graduates direct from university via a campus based scheme is too costly and never is considered to have a return on the investment.

the smart organisations are still hiring grads but in two ways:

either as experienced hires at the 2 year after graduation level or

by using standard job-boards or company websites to attract but they follow an experienced hire process.

this way you still maintain the talent pool without the costly infrastructure of a campus scheme.

Go back to the aim - do I want graduates who have just left uni  or do I want bright capable graduates who will stay and are making an informed choice.

O

Dear Shereen

In relation to your original post I believe the first steps of implementing a graduate recruitment scheme are to understand the type of graduate who would fit best into your programme, and what both parties can expect to gain.

It is also important to understand the resource requirements, and whether any support you require can deliver in the timescales you need, along with your potential candidate experience.

PPS Resourcing and Retention have a dedicated Graduate delivery arm, backed up by in-house IT specialists, who focus in this market.

We can help you with a range of services, including working together to understand the most suited graduates for you, developing competency frameworks to match these needs, or outsourcing all, or elements, of your recruitment process.

Please feel free to call me on 0207 429 5417 or gary.Richardson@ppsworks.com