Top Campus Recruitment Strategies To Employ While Recruiting

Campus recruitment season is here and the easiest way to get your future employees is by having a successful campus recruitment session. While many recruiters see on-campus recruiting as a quick and easy way to source junior-level recruits and link students to open jobs, the real result is that the school a person attends has an outsized influence on which career doors are open to them and which are not.

1. Use social media to your advantage

Today’s emerging professionals are not scouring the local classified section looking for employment ads, nor are they pursuing shop windows hoping to find a meticulously scrawled ‘Help Wanted’ sign. There are appropriate ways of using social media to connect with students. LinkedIn is one of the most effective tools that companies can use to reach out and network with prospective employees. Today’s young talent is using their smartphones, updating professional networking sites, and turning to the latest mobile devices to engage with industry leading employers. So, make sure that you’re investing in a mobile-friendly recruitment process making your career sites mobile friendly, and ensuring that the application process is easy to pursue from any device.

2. Engage with Student Clubs

College campuses are active places, and it’s easy to get lost in the hustle. Making positive connections with the right clubs, associations, and student groups can be the best way for organizations to introduce their brands, network with prospective candidates, and position their companies as an employer of choice.

3. Get Creative

Creating a buzz on campus will go a long way in terms of brand recognition. Sponsoring events, guest speaking at student organizations, or participating in alumni networks are some of the indirect ways of recruiting from colleges.

4. Focus On Your Strengths and Connect

Companies, especially small and growing companies, should realize that they are in a position to offer employees a lot of room to grow. Even if they can’t match the starting salary of bigger companies, start-ups can make employees feel a lot more important by fostering open communication and project ownership.

5. Start Recruiting Early

Top employers are getting to the best candidates as early as during the first year of their college. Recruiters are starting with promoting their brand image and industry to create a buzz among students as early as the beginning of their higher education. Don’t wait until the fall of their campus placements to start.

6. Internships and Cooperative Education Programs

All companies should create internship (single term) or cooperative education (multiple terms) opportunities for college students. This is a win-win situation. Students gain experience and exposure to the organization and to the field. Companies can observe the promising new professionals in the workplace, thus creating a talent pipeline for hiring the best talent upon graduation.

7. Campus Ambassadors

Use your assets. Returning interns can be your most effective ambassadors on campus, spreading your news, marketing your brand and engaging in the peer-to-peer promotion of your company brand and its opportunities.

8. Do not be a one time show

Campus recruiting cannot be a turn on, turn off thing. Make at least a two-year commitment and form a partnership with the university to meet the institution’s needs. Campus recruiting is no longer a fall activity but goes on year-round.

9. Create a long lasting relationship

Although the modes may have changed and students may be motivated by different things, most recruiters would agree that winning new employees on campus comes down to relationships. Ensure that the freshers feel that the company is approachable and is worth a fight.