Organizations are always on the lookout for fresh talent, and college campus recruitment is a great strategy for finding it.

In this article, we’ll look at what campus recruitment is, how it can benefit your organization, and how you can plan an effective campus recruitment strategy for your brand.

What Is Campus Recruitment?

Campus and university recruitment is the process of recruiting job candidates straight out of college or university. 

The goal of campus recruitment is to create relationships between businesses and soon-to-be graduates. Organizations send recruitment representatives to college campuses to scout for talent, get to know students and create brand visibility.

On-campus recruiting offers a unique opportunity to source early talent. 

Students, especially those nearing graduation, are already looking ahead. They’re considering where to apply for their first roles and how they want to progress in their career. 

College campus recruitment presents organizations to those students, creating a relationship early on in their career path with the aim of hiring fresh talent straight out of college.

Why Is Campus Recruiting Important?

College campuses are a fount of potential. Yet studies show an increased anxiety in undergraduates. Concern about the current economic climate has led to students starting their job searches sooner and applying for more jobs than ever. 

According to a study by NACE (the National Association of Colleges and Employers), businesses are expected to hire 3.9% more graduates from the class of 2023 than the previous year.

The jobs need filling, and graduates are primed and ready to fill them. 

Campus recruitment brings organizations and students together at a crucial time, creating solutions to both graduates’ concerns and business needs. 

What is a Campus Recruiter and What Do They Do?

Campus recruiters are responsible for planning and executing campus hiring strategies. The role includes:

  • Liaising with colleges
  • Collaborating with HR to understand company hiring needs
  • Identifying which colleges produce candidates best suited to their organization 
  • Attending recruitment events
  • Evaluating student skills and personalities
  • Guiding students through the recruitment process
  • Marketing their brand
  • Analyzing Recruitment Metrics to create better strategies

Campus recruiters consider short-term goals like immediate staffing needs, as well as long-term goals like organizational growth and future-proofing. 

Recruiters can offer graduate schemes, internships, or full-time employment to college students with potential. They can also offer integrated work experience, like internships that run alongside university courses. 

Your organization can train existing HR employees to become campus recruiters, or you can outsource the job to a recruitment agency. 

The Benefits of Campus Recruitment Explained

College campus recruitment has numerous advantages for organizations, students, and colleges alike.

Businesses get first pick of the best talent

New graduates are raring to go. They’re eager to learn, grow, and start their new careers. 

They’re also qualified and ready to put those newfound skills and academic achievements to good work. 

By utilizing university recruitment strategies, your business gets access to fresh talent early on in their job search–before any other companies can snatch them up, and before they become worn out by modern job application purgatory.

Building lasting relationships with students

For students eager to start their careers, the first brands they see will create a lasting impression. 

Students want future stability, and your presence at campus career events is a glimmer of hope for them. Introducing candidates to your brand early and working with them before approaching with an employment offer builds lasting partnerships.

By canvassing your company’s benefits, job roles, and company culture, graduates are far more likely to accept your offer than to look elsewhere. 

Building relationships between businesses and colleges

Campus recruitment allows brands to build mutually beneficial relationships with colleges and universities. 

An organization gains access to a consistent pool of fresh talent, and the university gets a cut of the success by gaining a higher percentage of students in full-time employment following graduation (a statistic that is used as a notable marketing technique for universities).

Networking opportunities 

According to a 2023 Gitnux report, 80% of job openings are not published or advertised, and a whopping 85% of jobs are filled through networking. 

Campus recruitment can bridge this gap between students and job openings, offering networking opportunities to students who might not understand the importance of networking.

Improving brand visibility 

All organizations strive for brand visibility and discovery. 

Bringing your brand to campuses allows you to showcase what your company has to offer. This can leave a lasting impression on students, who are more likely to consider applying for jobs at your organization.  

Campuses aren’t just a place to hire students, though; they might also be your target audience. 

College campuses can be huge, and your potential candidates are only a small percentage of the overall student population. Your presence on campus acts as marketing to those students, too–not for careers, but for products, social media channels, and brand personality. 

This makes college campuses a great place to create brand visibility, encourage brand discovery, and learn what makes the next generation of consumers tick. 

How to Build an Effective Campus Recruitment Strategy

Now that we understand the ins and outs of campus recruitment, how can we create an effective recruitment strategy? 

Consider your hiring needs

The first part of planning a college campus recruitment strategy is understanding the needs of your organization. 

Consider:

  • Your recruitment budget
  • What and how many roles need to be filled
  • Your future growth as an organization
  • The type of candidates you’re looking for
  • The qualifications and skills required
  • The colleges that excel in producing those skills

Once you’ve figured all this out, it’s time to get recruiting.

Connect with schools

Colleges generally have career centers to facilitate graduate employment. 

Your organization should connect with each school’s career center and establish a relationship with them. 

The career center can discuss upcoming Campus Recruiting Events and the requirements for attending. They can also facilitate communication with students, create collaboration opportunities, and coordinate scheduling so that you can plan the timeline of your campus recruitment strategy.

Approach professors and support staff

Who can advise you on the best student for a particular role?

Few people understand the skills and potential of a student more than their teachers. Building relationships with educators allows you to go to them for advice. If you have a particular student in mind for a specific role, their teacher can help you gauge their suitability.

Create good branding

Attracting talent requires good branding, but many organizations struggle with that.

We can’t all be Nike or Apple. Most companies aren’t well-known, and younger generations are notoriously picky about which brands they support. This can make branding difficult. 

Just like with sales, it’s important to research your target audience before reaching out. 

The latest crop of graduates belongs primarily to Gen Z, a generation that rejects flashy marketing for a more authentic approach. They place a higher value on inclusivity than previous generations, demand fair pay and a reasonable work-life balance, and strive for stability in an increasingly volatile world. 

Knowing your audience can help you craft the right kind of branding to attract Gen Z graduates to your brand, regardless of how big or small your company is. 

Look at past resumes

Usually, recruitment requires a wall of text between recruiters and candidates: the resume. Resumes are a vital tool for discerning a candidate’s academic success, skills, and job experience. But they don’t tell the whole story.

One major benefit of college campus recruitment is that your representatives get to meet potential candidates in person. This creates a more personal connection between your organization and students, painting a more holistic picture of every candidate. 

What kind of person are they? What is their sense of humor like? Are they friendly and approachable? Do they seem like the right fit for your company culture? 

These are things a resume can’t tell you, but in-person recruitment can. University recruitment gets boots on the ground, allowing recruiters to gauge candidates on a personal and individual level.

Go online

Gen Z is a generation of digital natives who grew up with the “internetification” of everything from social awareness to following trends to academia.

In a Forbes interview with Biz Sherbert, Karen Correia da Silva, and Rachel Lee of The Digital Fairy’s Fairy Futures, they discuss how Gen Z uses online tools for brand discovery, career aspirations, and career progression. 

In short, Gen Z are more likely to go online to support their careers. 

To take your campus recruitment strategies to the next level, get online and meet this generation of students where they are. 

You can:

  • Create a social media presence for your brand.
  • If you already have social media channels, use them to craft career outreach to students by advertising your organization’s job postings, benefits, and company culture.
  • Create an online portal for job postings and filter students to it through in-person career fairs. 
  • Utilize job search websites.

These strategies can help you attract internet-savvy Gen Z candidates who prefer to do things online rather than in-person. 

Utilize automation 

Campus recruitment is a complex process that requires juggling responsibilities, planning strategies, and handling an endless stream of candidates.

Automating certain tasks can lighten the load.

You can utilize Campus Recruiting Software to streamline the campus recruitment journey, from event management to filtering applicants to virtual campus recruitment. This gives recruiters more time to focus on thoughtful, creative, and personal responsibilities. 

How Can College Recruitment Software Help You with Campus Recruitment?

Recruitment software like Oleeo is a fantastic tool for helping you with bulk processing of candidates, intelligent selection using artificial intelligence, and removing bias from candidate selection and job postings. 

There is also a deep emphasis on Candidate Experience, with a longstanding value on building meaningful relationships with candidates. 

If you want to get involved with campus recruitment, or book a demo, Contact Us Today.