Campus Recruitment: Are You Focusing on the Metrics That Matter?

In today’s tight labor market, employers may struggle to find and hire the right talent for their businesses. Campus hiring can be an important way to connect with qualified, well-educated young people. Done right, early careers recruiting will help you source interns and entry-level employees who can grow into long-term employees.

What makes Campus Recruitment efforts successful? How can you beat out the competition and attract the young Generation Z people you’re looking for? The answer is a blend of effective outreach and careful data analysis. This article will dive into exactly what that means.

The Campus Recruitment Landscape                    

Campus recruitment is more popular than ever, as businesses increasingly realize the value of hiring college-educated workers. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, employers are preparing to hire 31% more college graduates in 2022 than they did in 2021.

The result? As Gen Z college graduates are increasingly in demand, employers need to work harder to attract those graduates. In many cases, that means changing the traditional approach to campus recruitment. New platforms, like Oleeo, can take your recruitment effort to a new level.

How to Recruit On-Campus

There are a few recruitment approaches that have stood the test of time. Here are some of the best.

Job Boards

Most colleges and universities have job boards where employers can post openings for jobs and internships. Typically, the boards are used by both current students and alumni. It’s a good idea to post entry-level positions, as well as opportunities for more experienced workers.

The advantage of job boards is that they are usually free to use and require very little time and effort. The jobs can be reposted as necessary, or they can be updated. Since the job board is not time-specific, it may allow you to get the interest of students at all different stages of their job search.

The downside of job boards, of course, is that they don’t always give students an accurate picture of the job, or the qualifications you need. In some cases, using a job board can mean that you get swamped with too many resumes that don’t fit the job description.

Job Fairs and Career Days

Many campuses have regular career days aimed at introducing students to employers. Career days and job fairs are an opportunity for students to learn about how different sectors operate, and what kinds of entry-level jobs are available in those sectors.

The advantage of job fairs is that they allow students to ask questions and interact with people who work in those sectors where they have an interest. Career days are also a great way for students to explore avenues they may not have previously considered and to get to know an employer brand.

The disadvantage of job fairs, though, is that they take up significant time and resources. As an employer, it is difficult to cover much ground simply by sending out your employees to job fairs. In today’s globalized economy, you need to recruit students from a wide geographical area. You can’t do that if you rely on job fairs alone.

Virtual Job Fairs

Virtual job fairs are increasingly popular among students and employers. By using video chat, employers can reach a much larger group of students, on widely distributed campuses.

Virtual meetings bring together the warmth of an in-person encounter with the convenience of digital. They also make it easier to track important metrics so that you can assess how well your outreach is working.

Important Metrics to Track

There are a few KPIs (key performance indicators) that you should be tracking for all of your recruitment efforts.

• The number of qualified applicants per opening. Are you getting applications from the kinds of students you’d like to hire one day? Or are you being deluged with applications from unqualified candidates? If you’re not getting enough good candidates, you may need to change your recruitment strategy. Perhaps you should define the position more clearly in your job description, or perhaps you need to offer a different level of compensation.
• The quality of your recruitment sources. Where are most of your candidates coming from? Are you finding good applicants at each college you visit, or do they tend to be all from just one particular college? Looking at source quality is a good way to focus your resources on the most reliable campuses.
• The quality of your new hires. Even after you make a hire, it’s important to assess how well the new hires are working out. Are your new employees doing a good job, and are they fitting in well at the company? If not, then perhaps you need to make some changes to your recruitment effort.

Other Metrics You Should Be Tracking

Businesses don’t always remember to track these metrics, in part because they can be challenging to keep tabs on. Fortunately, Oleeo’s recruitment platform makes it easy to tabulate all kinds of performance data.

• Diversity and inclusion. Are you reaching a broad group of applicants from different walks of life? Is your candidate pool gender and racially inclusive? It’s important to stay compliant with equal opportunity regulations. It’s also important to attract talent from a range of different backgrounds so that your business can benefit from different ideas and approaches.
• Cost per Hire and Time to Offer. These two metrics are interrelated. Cost per hire measures the average cost of your hiring process, from the first job posting you place to the moment your new hire signs a contract. Time to offer analyzes the average time. in days, weeks, or months, that this process takes.

Together, these metrics allow you to identify trouble spots in your hiring process. If there’s a bottleneck causing the hiring process to slow down, you’ll now be able to spot it. If you’re spending too much on a particular stage of the process, you’ll also be able to identify it.

Working with Oleeo’s Talent Acquisition Software

No matter how long you’ve been recruiting new hires, the process can still be overwhelming. It’s especially challenging when you work in a large business and you hire in volume. Sourcing, attracting, and selecting new employees can feel like a never-ending job.

Fortunately, Oleeo’s ATS Software brings the whole process into one, easy-to-access format. Oleeo has built-in solutions for campus recruiting, Virtual Recruiting, interview management, and Job Board Integration. Learn more about our Campus Recruiting Software today!