As activity turns once again to the graduate recruitment season – 2013’s finalists return for their last shot of academia in September/October this year – it is clear that there exists something of a communications chasm between employers and would-be employees.
Although it seems advisable to pinch oneself, quiet signs of optimism are indeed returning to the domestic economy. According to the monthly Markit/CIPS survey, the UK service sector index increased to 55.3, a healthy rise from February’s 53.8. At the same time, YouGov suggested that economic activity was now at its highest since mid 2010. And, in contrast to previous hints of economic optimism, this has indeed begun to feed through into the jobs market. Reed indicated that jobs growth was up 9% in the quarter compared to 12 months ago. Similarly, the Monster Employment Index showed its strongest reading since February 2008, with IT roles driving this performance.
All good news then for students graduating this summer, who presumably will avoid the worst of the economic fallout, suffered by finalists in 2009-10?
Apparently not, it would appear. Qualitative feedback collated from campus engagement and student focus groups suggest that job hunting confidence levels are still low. Less students are going travelling and many are aware that around a third of all available graduate jobs will be hoovered up individuals who have already spent internships or work experience at those firms. Although there is a forecast year-on-year 6% rise in graduate vacancies in 2012, according to High Fliers, it certainly doesn’t feel like it for our beleaguered finalist.
And before we are too quick to judge, perhaps this is no mystery. For many of us involved in graduate recruitment, we have seen economic conditions wax and wane. The painful recession of 1990-92 was followed by a long and sustained growth period. These 63 quarters of unbroken economic growth was a huge influencer for Generation Y, whose formative years knew only growth, expansion and rosy job prospects. Who could blame them for an apparent sense of entitlement?
However, has this current graduate generation not gone full circle? Finalists in 2012 will have entered university in late 2008-09. In sharp contrast to their immediate predecessors, their entire university experience has been spent during a time of recession, growing unemployment, receding job prospects, seasoned only with mounting debts. Only the most thick-skinned of graduate job hunters will have emerged from such an era without scarring to their job hunting ambitions. Perhaps it is no surprise then that many feel the graduate employment landscape remains barren.
But why does this matter? For TMP, it is a major concern that sizeable swathes of finalists have little, or certainly a lowered, sense of expectation regarding their post university job prospects. Employers are facing growing skills shortages and the war or race for talent is as much a factor as it ever has been since McKinsey’s first coined the term.
Much of this responsibility comes down to employer branding. Organisations on campus need to make it abundantly clear that economic conditions are lifting, that students influenced by the employment misery of the last three/four years can afford to be more optimistic about their job prospects. If such employer branding initiatives are not successful, then too many talented graduates will join the world of employment via osmosis or the back door rather than through a formal graduate training scheme. Worse still, the UK economy faces losing exceptional graduate talent to economies who are genuinely booming (the BRIC nations, the Middle East, south Asia, etc) and/or whose employer brand appears open, warm and welcoming to this critical audience.
It might be a better time to graduate than for a number of years. Trouble is, no one has told the key audience that this is indeed the case.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 