Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

GraduatesRecruitment & retention

The graduate: how to make the most of your graduate intake

by Personnel Today 20 Sep 2005
by Personnel Today 20 Sep 2005

It’s that time of the year again when thousands of graduates step into the world of full-time work. The experience of the first few days in a job can scar an impressionable graduate for life and make them start looking for an early exit.

As an employer you will have invested heavily in finding the brightest graduates with the right skills and a perfect disposition to fit in with the rest of your organisation. So it’s a tragedy that some of them will be left in a corner with some mind-numbing task to do, equipped with a Windows 95 PC and no access to e-mail for a month.

It’s your first day too

When a new graduate comes on board he or she is looking around the organisation and forming an impression. Although the graduate may be on probation for the first six months, you, as an employer, are also very much under review. This is a time when the graduate is prone to all sorts of doubts and anxieties so make sure the courtship process, which began with recruitment, extends well into their first year.

Get the basics right

Make sure that someone is assigned to putting in place all those things that make life possible in business. Get their business cards ready on the day they join and ensure their e-mail address is set up; you know they are coming so there’s no excuse! Take care where you locate the graduate in the office. Don’t stick them in a corner near the loos and make sure their PC is reasonably up to date with access to e-mail, the corporate intranet and the internet.

Induction: beyond the fire drill

The induction process is critical. Over and above the legal requirements, such as pointing out fire exits, this is your chance to reinforce the graduate’s reasons for joining your firm in the first place. Make sure you select someone who is dedicated to the task and make sure the person you select is an employee who has bought into your company culture and will reinforce it at every opportunity.

Development plan

Over the first few weeks and months graduates will want to know that there is a development plan for them. Regular appraisals will help remind them that their development is an important part of their agenda and key to the success of the business.

Keep it fun

Don’t forget, these are young people. Today’s graduates are not the drones of yesteryear, they expect and indeed demand a work-life balance.

Where does the employer fit into this? Well we can start by injecting a bit off life into their work. In a sales environment, which naturally involves a degree of rejection it’s important to keep the energy levels up. As well as team nights out we have a whole range of whacky ideas such as “strip cold calling”- every time you get a knock back on the phone you have to take off an item of clothing.

Look after the non-work employee

If you can help new graduates out with those mundane but stressful problems of settling in to a new area they will appreciate your sensitivity. We try and help graduates find accommodation and even try and hook them up with local sports clubs or societies to help them integrate faster.

The long-term view

Always remember, graduates aren’t going to be at the bottom of the ladder forever. The grads of today will be company directors of tomorrow. So if your company neglects your new graduate recruits, not only will there be a financial loss but those same graduates will go to work elsewhere, probably in the same line of business.

Instead of expanding your business network for the future, your lack of interest may well result in a negative force ruining your reputation and ultimately forfeiting your productivity.

Jonathan Fitchew is joint managing director of graduate recruitment firm Pareto Law and winner of the Sunday Times best small company to work for 2005

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
SMEs continue to ignore business continuity issues
next post
Equal pay questionnaires

You may also like

One in five employers planning ‘no jab no...

19 May 2022

Nurses leaving due to pressure and workplace culture

18 May 2022

Number of working people with disability up 1.3...

17 May 2022

Wages fall 1.2% behind inflation as cost of...

17 May 2022

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022

EasyJet joins battle for cabin crew with £1,000...

16 May 2022

How to build a compelling talent attraction strategy...

12 May 2022

Young people’s skills don’t match employer needs, finds...

11 May 2022

Only 5% of job ad wording fully gender...

9 May 2022

EasyJet tackles staff shortages with seat tactic

9 May 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+