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6 min read

How to showcase your employer brand and stand out from the crowd

Attracting graduates requires companies to stand out from their competitors. There are numerous ways to achieve this and some of these are explored here, plus tips for implementing these initiatives in your organisation.

Two graduates smiling showing manager their work on a laptop

Company culture can be a beneficial characteristic that can attract graduates, and this is an important area of focus. Understanding what graduates see as success and demonstrating that the company offers this helps the employer brand to stand out.

Virtual engagement is another opportunity that can be drawn on and with very few companies doing this, it is a way to noticeably distinguish the organisation from its competition. Looking at a case study of where this has already been deployed is useful in understanding how this can provide a remarkably high quality of leads for potential future employees as well.

Using company culture to hire and retain graduate talent

Company culture is an integral part of the employer brand. Finding the right employees through pinpointing fit with the culture starts at the very earliest stages of the recruitment process and continues with onboarding and later, retention. Helping potential future talent to understand the company culture right from the get-go enables this to occur. There are plenty of ways in which this can be achieved, such as through encouraging work experience or running “get to know the team” days as just two possible examples.

Identifying and hiring graduates that will fit in well with the company culture aids productivity. When people are like-minded the feeling of belonging is enhanced.

Recent research shows that company culture is also important in retaining staff. Employees that fit in are more likely to build strong relationships in the workplace. They can use these to benefit their productivity. Almost 40% claim that strong relationships at work help improve their own productivity. This is beneficial for morale with 60% stating that their relationships at work are one of the main reasons for looking forward to going in. 4 in 5 of those employees with at least one strong relationship in the workplace state that they are extremely satisfied in their job.

Companies can improve this by providing opportunities for people to bond. Less than two fifths (39%) of organisations invest in such events. This is problematic from both the perspectives of employee retention and productivity. Yet putting energy into this area is likely to lead to lower recruitment costs.

Tips for Employers

  • Identify creative ways to allow potential employees to get to know your company culture. You could invite them in for work experience, or to get to know the team. Setting up a WhatsApp for all new graduates could be helpful. You might even assign them a mentor!
  • Find ways to help employees build strong relationships at work, such as through social events or team building

Virtual campus engagement

Global employer branding agency, Universum, has developed a product called Virtual Campus Engagement so that employers are able to offer virtual campus events.

With the current challenges of COVID-19 and problems with running on-campus events, this provides a great way of engaging with students and building your brand.

Engaging in this way enables organisations to develop and maintain a connection with candidates, driving awareness and showcasing potential career opportunities. The approach is cost-effective, and it allows companies to access the best quality candidates who are likely to be highly engaged.

Case Study

In the early months of 2020, Universum and a Fortune500 company were working on developing an on-campus event. The escalating situation with COVID-19 led to the team investigating innovative new engagement approaches online instead.

The client was eager to maintain engagement and buzz that had been built through its Universum online campaigns. They agreed to the development of a Virtual Campus Engagement effort, led by Universum. The aim was to reach graduates despite a lack of campus activity.

Universum delivered a webinar for a Fortune500 company. The event secured 95 sign-ups, with 66 attendees on the day, of which 44 of those engaged with questions. This was achieved through using a “source audience” from Universum’s talent database of 1.5 million graduates, allowing them to target similar people on both Facebook and Instagram.

The end result was high-quality engagement with a purposeful graduate audience.

To find out more about virtual campus engagement, contact a member of our team by email or phone: sales@milkround.com or 0333 0145 111

Tips for Employers

  • Where possible, look for ways to get on campus and build relationships with potential candidates and showcase your brand. Possibilities here could include setting up networking options, offering skills sessions and having brand ambassadors promote your business
  • Be creative in finding ways to engage with candidates – for example through virtual campus engagement. This is a particularly compelling option as it cuts travel time and achieves a higher reach of students. It is less time consuming overall

What does success look like to graduates?

Employer branding continues once new graduates are onboarded as it is critical in retention. Success to graduates includes learning new skills, reaching a higher salary, taking on increased responsibility or a managerial role and having a better job title. Awareness of this and acting on it is helpful for companies that wish to retain graduates.

The clear message is that graduates rate development highly. We wanted to understand what it is that graduates want and how they can be retained, so we researched this to find out more. We found that graduates want to see opportunities for development, and they want these to be in reach.

Learning new skills is an important success factor, and our findings show that 29% of graduates aim to move jobs within two years for this reason. 84% of graduates plan to move jobs within two years, and only 1% plan to stay with their first company for five years. Employers can overcome this by clarifying development paths and opportunities with employees. This helps graduates to visualise the possibilities at the organisation, reducing turnover.

Where firms make learning development accessible to everyone, this is likely to appeal to graduates. Employers should listen to graduates and offer realistic development options. Promoting case studies that are indicative of possible development can help graduates to visualise a future with an organisation too.

Graduates want to have a job secured before they leave university. 25% line up a graduate role even before the final year at university. This means employers should concentrate on student engagement throughout their time at university. Internships are particularly important for finding graduate jobs among young graduates, with 83% of non-Russell Group graduates (under the age of 26) seeing this as essential to getting their first job. Only 14% of Russell Group students expressed this opinion.

Flexible working options are hugely attractive to graduates, with one in five Gen Z workers looking for flexible working compared with 1 in 20 Baby Boomers. Offering these to graduates is beneficial in making the employer brand more appealing.

Tips for Employers

  • Help graduates to learn new skills. Making graduates aware of their options can be very motivating. This can be executed in numerous ways, even before a graduate starts, such as offering them small tasks to complete or online learning?
  • Make sure any skills development you do offer is both accessible and equal for everyone
  • Assign graduates a mentor – a great way to provide support and assist with career development
  • Provide opportunities for graduates to discover how other areas of the business work
  • Discuss career development opportunities with graduates to show them pathways to progression
  • Listen to what graduates have to say about their career progression interests
  • Implement flexible working options since these are particularly appealing to recent graduates
  • Engage with students throughout their time at university
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