How to Recruit the Best College Graduates This Summer

The job market in today’s economy is tighter than ever. Companies have a growing number of entry-level job requisitions and are looking to college graduates to fill them. Prior to this competitive job market, companies favored candidates with industry work experience, but these candidates are becoming less available so companies are turning to college graduates for their fresh ideas, newborn energy, and an eagerness to make a strong positive impact.

Employers can find the best and brightest college students this graduation season by investing into recruiting aspects college graduates care most about when searching for their future employer: company branding and the application experience.

Company Branding

Your company’s brand is the number one criteria graduates take into consideration when applying to companies and accepting offers. Students want to know more about company culture, the people that work there, and the impact they can have by joining the organization.

These students are also constantly browsing social media platforms. Marketing your company’s brand through testimonials from recent college graduates on social media platforms provides insight into your organization’s people, culture, and employee work-life integration. Social sourcing allows potential candidates to see quick snapshots of the culture through marketing campaigns on social media, learn how they can grow at your company, and how past college graduates have grown since joining your organization. Additionally, it advertises all your open positions to a wide social media audience by marketing open requisitions to both internal and external candidates through video and other rich media content that generates proactive engagement. This engagement builds a pipeline of quality candidate leads for your recruiters.

Your career site, where many applicants begin their initial interaction with your brand, should be customized to reflect their interests and present them with the most relevant jobs and locations. By using customized career sites and social sourcing you promote an attractive brand and culture to graduates.

Application Process

The application experience influences the perception of the company. If the application process is lengthy and complex, then applicants form a negative perception. The best graduates do not have the time to sit and go through multiple different application pages and upload numerous documents. They expect a simple and quick application process that is transparent and informative. In addition, applicants should have the capability to complete the application on any device.

Applicants become more engaged in your application process when the steps from beginning to end are made clear to them. Using a solution that visualizes a modern applicant roadmap to show candidates when their application has been processed to scheduling interviews via shared calendar with the recruiter keeps a candidate interested in pursuing the job.

The introduction of digital assistants also enhances the candidate experience by providing answers to common questions and inquiries. These assistants engage candidates and can answer questions concerning open positions, career paths, and even help them submit an application, significantly reducing the workload of your recruiting team.

The companies succeeding in their industries know how to effectively recruit the best fit graduates for their openings. Finding the right young talent for your organization is not easy but with newly developed recruiting solutions like Oracle Recruiting Cloud companies are recruiting top graduates through intelligent company branding and a modern application process.

Learn more about Oracle’s HCM recruiting solutions today.