smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Most businesses would like to benefit from hiring new talent with fresh ideas, but the challenge is to achieve that at an acceptable cost. A good solution for small businesses is to employ a recent graduate.

At this time of year, the final university term is imminent and many graduates are considering their employment options. Most students undergo continual assessment at university so they should have a good idea of their grades when they start applying for jobs. By the time exam results are announced, many good graduates will already have accepted job offers, so if you haven’t already begun your recruitment process, now is the time to start.

Recent graduates have much to offer. They will probably be keen to do well, ambitious and willing to work hard to prove themselves. If it’s their first full-time job, they won’t have already picked up bad working habits and will not have pre-conceived ideas about what can and cannot be done. You can therefore train them your way.

Specific challenges
However, graduates should not be thought of as cheap labour and there are likely to be some specific problems associated with recruiting in the graduate field.

You will be competing with other small businesses and large corporations for the best candidates, so you should aim to come up with an appealing set of unique benefits to working in your company. As a small business, your main selling points will relate to the camaraderie of working in a small team and having an influence on the business.

Additional points to consider are:

• Make sure you offer a competitive salary. You can benchmark your graduate salary against industry standards by contacting the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
• Think about the sort of training you can provide and the opportunities for progression or promotion, as graduates tend to look for a high degree of responsibility early on. You might also be able to offer a graduate the chance to work in several different roles and departments, something they are unlikely to find at a large company
• Do not oversell the job to potential candidates – be realistic and clear about what you have to offer
• Provide information about whether the graduate working directly with founders or directors of a business, as this is a potentially exciting prospect for graduates
• You may be flooded with applications, so it’s a good idea to devise a filtering process to reduce numbers to a manageable level.

Finding a new recruit
There are several ways to make graduates aware of your vacancy:

• University careers service – there are more than 100 universities in the UK, so chose only one or two that either have courses relevant to the nature of your business or are in the local area. Make contact with the careers service at the university and give them the details of your vacancy, so they can circulate it to potential recruits.
• Career fairs – this is where you can meet future graduates in an informal setting. You will usually have to pay for space to exhibition, however, but some universities offer SME days, where you can exhibit alongside similar sized companies.
• Milk round – this offers employers the opportunity to interview candidates on campus.
• Recruitment agencies – many firms specialise in graduate recruitment. Ask the Association of Graduate Recruiters for a list of suitable agencies (visit www.agr.org.uk for more details).
• Advertising – you can advertise on university websites, national newspapers and even trade magazines for your industry. Careers services may also offer you the chance to advertise your vacancy on campus.

There are currently no comments on this article