Graduates: SMEs hot on job satisfaction but not on pay
May 18 2011
Graduates see small businesses as better for encouraging creativity
Three quarters of graduates rate small businesses above corporates for job satisfaction, work ethic, and encouraging creativity.
But 91 per cent think larger corporations pay better, 79 per cent believe they offer better job security and 74 per cent find that they offer better career progression than small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to a survey of 200 UK graduates by specialist SME graduate recruiter Give A Grad A Go.
Encouraging creativity was the biggest advantage for small businesses, according to the study, with SMEs also scoring higher (62 per cent) than corporates on work-life balance.
Give A Grad A Go founder Cary Curtis says, ‘SMEs make up the backbone of British industry and will need to take advantage of the abundance of highly skilled graduates leaving university looking for work.
‘Graduates that approach us are often unaware of the fantastic career opportunities that exist in SME organisations and certainly have no idea how to take advantage of them. The result is that smaller employers tend to struggle to source the best grads.’
More than half (54 per cent) of graduates think public sector pay is either ‘low’ or ‘very low’, contrasting recent findings from centre-right think tank, Policy Exchange, which revealed public sector workers earning over 30 per cent more than their private sector equivalents.
Curtis encourages all SMEs to treat graduates on work placements as real employees and offer a wage with any position. 'The highest tuition fees on record mean many graduates can’t afford to work for free, and those that do are often demotivated due a lack of remuneration. Paid placements offer an affordable way to secure talented candidates and get the most out of them,' he says.
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