Can you rely on universities to deliver you candidates for your vacancies?

A recent study by a leading University showed that if you rely on university job boards to attract graduates, you may only reach a small percentage of your potential audience.

They conducted research to see how students and graduates find job opportunities. The focus groups did not mention the university’s own job board once, even though it lists hundreds of vacancies. Which must be a concern for those employers.

I have not named the university, as the problem is not limited to them. Low engagement from students and graduates with university job boards and even career services is common across most universities, and fixing it can be complex and slow. (I am happy to email you the report if you would like to see it).

The overall level of service to employers can vary across universities: some are excellent and responsive. Others not so. As an example, some take several days to make an advert live; in many cases when the job is already at interview stage.

Many employers have had success; but others tell me they’re disappointed by the quality of applications, and assume there simply aren’t suitable graduates who are interested and available.

Usually, that’s not the case. It can just take a lot of proactive work, using various methods, to find them and make them aware of the vacancy and business. But not all employers have the time or tools to do this.

It’s something I do for my clients, and on many occasions I have found graduates from a specific university for employers who had not been able to attract suitable candidates through a job board advert at that university.

University job boards account for around 6 percent of all the vacancies I fill. They can be very useful, but shouldn’t be your only source.

Even if your university is one of the good ones, if you are just using them you risk missing out on graduates who have studied in another city, and returned home for work. You are also limited to a set number of candidates, with often significant variations in overall employability and work ethic.

And it’s a fact that not all graduates will see job adverts, wherever they are placed. So even if a vacancy is filled, it doesn’t mean that the best person has been appointed: often they will not even be aware of the vacancy or business.

Many employers avoid using recruiters to find graduates due to the university services being free. But it can be a false economy if they end up missing out on the graduate who would have been the best match for them.

Matthew Parry,
Director. SME Graduate Employment

You can read more blogs on the graduate employment market here

Email: matthew@sme-graduates.co.uk Telephone: 0370 774 9500

If you would like to find out more about the services I offer please contact me by email matthew@sme-graduates.co.uk or phone 0370 7749500 (local rate number) You can also see other content I have written here