Campus recruitment is one of the oldest hiring strategies that companies use to hire new people into the organisation.  

Campus recruitment allows brands to hire talent that can bring new-age thought processes into the company. The ultimate aim is to hire people who can add to the company’s growth. 

Acquiring new talent is a challenging task as many things need to align to get to the finish line of hiring. 

While the old school process was to have colleges approach companies to consider their students as potential candidates - the actual scenario has changed drastically. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, INK PPT utilised the strategies mentioned here to launch ITC’s one-of-a-kind virtual recruitment campaign. The initial difficulties of engaging with students completely virtually were overcome through a robust social media campaign as well as a number of online masterclasses with industry experts. The digital recruiting presentation was well-received by ITC as well as the students engaged in the career fair. 

Why Do Brands Recruit From Campuses?

To Engage With New Talent 

Campus recruitment allows brands to engage with new talent directly. For example, entry-level jobs are often hard to fill up in organisations since they need someone with some knowledge of their processes. And fresh graduates often do not have that experience. However, most colleges nowadays provide their students with an opportunity to intern with top companies while they are still pursuing their degrees. 

Internships allow students to get a hands-on understanding of how an organisation works. Many brands use this chance to organise competitions to provide opportunities for students. The participants can use their experiences during internships to fill up their otherwise bare resumes. Pre-placement talks during the campus recruitment process are also an essential step in educating students about a company’s work culture and goals. This is an opportunity for organisations to introduce their company profile and evaluate how the employer brand is performing. In the end, you want to make sure that the college students leave with an impression that your organisation is the place to be - where they can get a headstart in launching their successful career.   

Higher Population Of Youth

In India, the number of people below the age of 35 years is around 66% of the world's population. This gives an advantage to organisations while hiring, as there are an enviable number of people looking for quality employment opportunities. While job boards and consultancies will give you options to choose from a more experienced candidate pool, campuses are where you can get raw talent that can be guided to fit into your actual requirements. 

Today’s youth is concerned about more than just an upward trajectory for their career. In addition to their oun professional goals, the younger generation is aware of the need for sustainability for their future. As an organisation, you need to ensure that you clearly spell out or display your mission and vision. Your mission objective needs to align the overall future goals of the students. 

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Re-inventing The Employer Brand

Campus recruitment gives organisations the chance for creating a solid employer brand. Creating recruiting presentations for campus hiring is not a one-and-done deal. You need to keep updating your brand every year to reach a new audience. The ideas you used one year cannot be used the same way the next year. There needs to be something different and more engaging to attract and retain the attention of college students. 

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Utilise New Techniques

It is not enough to get a list of candidates and just conduct a few interviews before hiring. It is essential to engage with emerging talent from the moment they step into a campus. You can use this as an opportunity to develop raw aptitude in students and hone it into an adept skillset. For example, IT companies have recently started organising hackathons. According to a recent study, around 40% of participants in hackathons are hired within six months of the event. Depending on your industry, you can organize activities that can encourage students to take an initiative to contribute new thoughts and solutions.

Improving Employee Attrition Rates

Engaging with potential employees throughout their learning years brings with it the potential for prolonged loyalty. Words of appreciation, a welcoming attitude, work culture, and many other factors influence attrition rates among employees.

The tactics used by this recruiter have a 98% retention rate and can be utilised even today. The strategy includes involvement with the candidate all through the recruitment process - even after they are hired and till they start their jobs officially. So, as an employer, you need to identify ways to ensure your university hires stick with you for a long time. An efficient way to do this would be by making the recruitment process as smooth as possible. Make sure that at every stage of recruitment you ensure that the doubts and questions of the recruit is identified and resolved. This will go towards building goodwill towards the employer and start off the career on a positive note. 

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Quicker To Adapt To New Technologies 

The current generation has grown up with technology. They are more aware of technological advancements and how they can be used to make their work more efficient. 

Since college students are eager to start their careers, they would pay more attention to the words and suggestions of their experienced superiors. This could help them incorporate existing processes and enhance them with technology to be more efficient. 

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Youth Have Better Multi-tasking Abilities

Multi-tasking as a skill is more apparent in the current generation than ever before. Students can grasp multiple topics and use the knowledge for better operational success. Multi-tasking allows the youth to come up with innovative solutions that have not been thought of before. Students approaching graduation are often looking at impressing their future employers and learning new things can give them a bonus in their interviews. 

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How Do Brands Recruit From Campuses?

Employer branding is about actively creating a positive image of the company by highlighting your best features. Over the years, brands have started recognising the need for creating a presence on college campuses. On the whole, there is not much difference in the older  recruitment process and the new-age modern hiring process. However, digital transformation has changed how organisations should approach campus recruitment. Here ois how you cab get started on establishing an employer brand to attract campus students. 

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Highlight The Mission And Vision Of Your Company

Present your short-term and long-term visions for the organisation. The current generation is not just chasing after a paying job. They are searching for something that gives their life purpose. They are more aware of how present decisions could adversely impact the future. 

Having a clear mission and vision can help you choose the right candidates that are aligned with your organisational goals. Creating an employer brand can help you engage with a potential pool of employees that want to change the world. 

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Be Active On Social Media

Everything and everyone is online now. Being active on social media can help you engage with your potential hires directly. Social media can be used to highlight the work culture, work ethics, high achievers' profiles, real stories from real people, and so much more. Here is an example - ITC is a big organisation with many brands under its roof. The social media presence for each brand is something anyone can take inspiration from. Each brand under the banner has a separate social media presence to interact and influence their audience.

Monitor Employee Reviews

You also need to be active on sites like Glassdoor and AmbitionBox. Former and current employees offer their reviews and opinions on several topics while working with an organisation. Brands need to keep an eye on the reviews posted here to see if they can improve on any recurrent complaints or even simply know the overall employee attitude towards the company. LinkedIn is also an excellent way for brands to extend their employer brand. You can use the portal to build direct connections with potential employees.  

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Understanding Your Audience

Understanding your target audience can help you create a solid employer branding strategy - like Procter & Gamble. They have built an employer brand by using a simple 3-step technique - Understanding your target audience, presenting all the benefits (monetary or otherwise), and reiterating the company message in every conversation with potential employees. 

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Learn and Earn Opportunities

Generate enthusiasm among your college audience by allowing them to learn and gain experience. Mahindra & Mahindra used a platform called Farmkshetra while hiring from a pool of B.Tech students. The campus-level event was aimed at providing graduate students with a chance to work on a few real-time actual issues that the company was facing.

Another idea is to create a mock game show similar to Shark Tank. You can ask students to come up with investor pitches, or create case studies that have a direct impact on organisational operations. If possible you can collaborate with multiple brands to encourage students to come up with innovative and profitable business ideas. The brands can then compete to hire the best ideas. This could excite the students to think strategically about innovation. 

What Is A Campus Recruitment Strategy?

A campus recruitment strategy is a clear plan that can help you add more talented and qualified candidates to your organisation. Since campus recruitment involves actively engaging with your candidates, you need to ensure that you attract the right candidates and take steps to retain them for a long time.

Here are a few steps you can incorporate into your campus recruitment strategy

• Create a Persuasive Job Profile. The talent team collates information from various teams in the company about their need for potential candidates. They compile what each team requires in terms of new talent and skills. Using this information, you need to create persuasive recruitment presentations like job descriptions that will attract and keep the attention of potential candidates. Research allows you to understand exactly what a candidate is looking for before they join a company. 

• Shortlist a list of potential candidates that have the potential of adding value to your organisation. Once you have an adequate number of candidates, conduct a thorough assessment. Not only should you assess their scholastic history within a university but also make a note of non-scholastic endeavours as well.  

• Use social media to highlight the company’s work culture. Emphasise the work-life balance that people can enjoy when they become part of your organisation. Make sure you provide social proof to potential employees by shining a light on the achievements of existing employees. You can also do live interactions with established and upcoming stars in your organisation. These live interactions can help engage directly with potential candidates and establish your identity among the youth. It is also a great way to show the actual social proof of the employees’ success. 

• Referral programs can be initiated as students usually have a large network of peers with a variety of skill sets. Referrals usually come with a monetary component which could be appealing to newer hires. You can also establish the use of student-oriented dashboards that can empower students to add other talented students to your network. In this way, you would have access to a select pool of qualified potential employees that can help you grow your organisation to new heights. 

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How Is A Company Profile Presentation Different From A Recruitment Presentation?

A company profile is a formal introduction of any organisation to potential stakeholders. It holds basic information about a company’s mission and vision. It also mentions all the services that an organisation provides to its customers. 

However, this is not at all an appealing profile for creating recruiting presentations while hiring from college campuses. Your presentation deck, at any point in your recruitment strategy, needs to provide value to your employer brand. 

You also need to create a presentation that is not dull and uninspiring. A presentation is not only a slide deck. It can also include emails, newsletters, social media interactions and live Q & A sessions. The surge in digital marketing has increased the anticipation of students regarding what they are expecting from potential employers. 

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What Are The Key Attributes The Youth Look For Before Joining An Organization?

Almost all recent graduates that enter the workforce are looking for something more than just a job. The tendency of working hard just to earn money has changed drastically. The youth entering the workforce want their work to mean something more in the grand scheme of a business’s success. They want their work to be an active contribution towards something bigger.  

• Students want to understand an organisation’s vision. They want to see if a brand has the values that they identify within themselves. Students nowadays build a course for the careers that they want to achieve. They may choose organisations on seeing if the company has a way to align with the career roadmap they have designed for themselves. 

In case an organisation does not support their road map, students would prefer to join some other company that does align with them. 

Source: Venngage

• Students prefer to join organisations that have clear ethical values and diverse cultures. It is becoming mainstream to break gender norms and eradicate social stigma. There is a lot of preference to join organisations that do not stereotype or stigmatise based on gender or even sexual orientation. 83% of the youth prefer to join companies that have diversity in their employees.

• The younger generation prefers to join organisations that practise sustainability. The youth have become aware of their compromised future if sustainable practices are not done. 67% of the current youth have reported that climate change is their top concern for future sustainable options. This generation understands the importance of preserving the environment and looks forward to working with those companies that can help make the world better for their future.  

• Work-Life Balance is one of the key attributes that the youth prioritise when considering an organisation. Mental health has gained priority over the last few years with more organisations actively raising awareness for the same.  Depression, OCD, and anxiety are only a few of the problems plaguing students. Students would prefer to join companies that would provide a good balance between work and other activities which would protect them from premature burnout due to undue stress.

• A company’s reputation, in other words, the employer brand, has an impact on who students may choose to work for. The efforts that a brand puts into attracting and retaining employees play a huge role in choosing the organisation. Companies can also set up student-centric portals where the youth can engage directly with the brand. The portals can help students connect with like-minded peers as well as core achievers in the organisation. 

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Takeaway

The entire premise of conducting campus interviews and hiring young graduates has slowly changed. No longer do colleges approach top organisations and it is often the other way around. 

Organisations understand the importance of creating an employer brand that needs to help nurture and support student's education and career growth right from the start. The strategy of campus recruitment has evolved from needing only book smart candidates. Now there is an emphasis on work culture, work-life balance, ethics, working with industry rockstars, and so many more. 

At INK PPT, the team is comprised of presentation design experts that can change your organisation’s recruitment presentation strategies to appeal to a wider audience. The team understands the need for employer branding while creating recruitment presentations and can help you craft a unique voice that can reach potential employees. 

If you would like to partner with us to create your employer brand for campus recruitment, leave us a message. We will get in touch with you as soon as possible to knock together a clean and winning campus recruitment strategy for your brand.