Companies pull on grab-a-graduate night
How can your company attract the best graduates in the face of fierce competition? You could, like some investment banks, offer the highest salary. Or, you could do what Barclays Bank did last week at Warwick University in the UK it treated a party of students to popcorn, fizzy drinks and a private viewing of a popular film release. While the audience waited expectantly, the high street bank had the perfect opportunity to show a short video, explaining what its business was about and why it was a natural career choice for those who have what it takes to lead a world-class business.
As the graduate recruitment market heats up led by an expansion in hiring activity among professional services firms more and more companies are promoting their “employer brand” in the way that marketers promote branded goods and services.
In the past few months, students at Oxford, Cambridge and other leading universities have ridden in rickshaws laid on by the accountants KPMG, watched street artists perform, courtesy of the professional services firm Deloitte, and been intrigued by an array of marketing stunts pulled off by corporations such as Shell, Asda and PwC.
Driving forward this consumer-style approach to recruitment is a new breed of managers. “The fact that we sit in human resources is incidental,” says Paloma Alos, head of recruitment marketing at KPMG. “By profession, we are marketers with backgrounds in brand and youth marketing.” But do the techniques that tempt consumers to experiment with brands work equally well for recruitment?
Lloyds TSB offers evidence that they do. Last year, Lloyds employed what marketers call “guerilla-style” marketing to disrupt its stereotypical image as a dull high-street bank and force itself on to the list of high calibre students who typically look to a career in management consultancy or a big accounting firm. After the campaign which revolved around the unexpected appearance at universities of life-size models of its iconic black horse Lloyds noticed an appreciable improvement in the quality of students applying to its scheme. “In 2002/3, one in five candidates seen by our assessment centres were appointable,” says Sally Cox, Lloyds' graduate recruitment manager. “This year, the ratio was one in four.” Shock tactics can help to win the attention of an audience. But, to capitalise on this, stunts have to be backed by a real understanding of the market and a proposition that compares well with what rivals are offering. Where a business operates globally, it may be necessary to fine-tune the approach to appeal to a local audience. “We need to understand which elements of recruitment marketing work globally and which we should localise,” says Navjot Singh, the company's global marketing manager for recruitment. Knowing when and where to target students is crucial to success. As more undergraduates combine studying with part-time jobs, which take them away from their universities, employers are finding it increasingly difficult to attract applicants through established recruitment channels. Charlie Osmond, co-founder of FreshMinds, says that in response to changes in the way graduates look for jobs businesses are bolstering their annual recruitment drives with continuous campaigns aimed at making students aware of their employer brand from the moment they first set foot on campus. Such initiatives include running business games, sponsoring sports clubs and societies and even, as in the case of Shell, providing specialist input to course work. Another popular device is to paystudents to act as “brandambassadors”. Offering holiday work, scholarships and placements is a well-established method of gaining prior access to the most promising candidates. But, as more recruiters adopt such strategies, the most opportunistic are going to extreme lengths to secure an earlier lead in the scramble for talent.
Last month, Deloitte launched a pre-university scholarship programme for twenty-six outstanding school leavers. The programme combines periods of paid work experience with finance for gap year travel and an annual bursary paid throughout the scholar's undergraduate life. Deloitte is confident that when they leave university, most of the scholars will apply to the graduate programme and be taken on full-time.
How many businesses choose to emulate Deloitte will depend on whether the growth in demand for graduates continues at its current brisk level. If it does, one can only speculate at the high jinks that recruiters will cook up next year.
毕业生争夺战
你的公司如何才能在激烈的竞争中吸引最优秀的毕业生？你可以像一些投资银行那样提供高额薪酬，或者，你也可以模仿巴克莱银行（Barclays Bank）的做法：上周，该银行在英国华威大学（Warwick University）拿爆米花和碳酸饮料招待了一群学生，还放映了一部颇受欢迎的电影。当学生们翘首期盼电影开始时，这家座落于英国商业大街的银行就利用这一绝佳的机会放了一段短片，介绍银行的主营业务，告诉观众，为什么对于那些有才能领导一家顶级公司的人而言，巴克莱银行是他们必然的选择。
专业服务公司加大了招聘大学生工作的力度，致使大学生的招聘市场越来越火。因此，越来越多的公司开始推广自己的“雇主品牌”，就像商家推销自家的品牌产品和品牌服务一样。
在过去的几个月里，牛津、剑桥以及其他名牌大学的学子们坐上了毕马威（KPMG）提供的人力车，观看了街头的艺人表演，享受了德勤会计师事务所（Deloitte）的盛情款待。另外，壳牌石油（Shell）、阿斯达超市（Asda）和普华永道（PWC）等公司也使出了种种营销绝活，令这群学子目不暇接，流连忘返。
将这种向消费者推销产品的方式运用于招聘工作的是新一代的经理们。在毕马威负责招聘宣传的帕洛玛?阿洛斯（Paloma Alos）说：“坐在人力资源部的办公室招人不是我们招聘的主要方式。从专业角度来讲，我们干的就是营销，推销的是品牌，推销的对象就是年轻的消费群体。”但是，吸引消费者的方法是否也同样适用于招聘呢？
英国劳埃德集团（Lloyds TSB）以事实证明，这些方法的确有用。去年，该银行运用“游击式”的营销战术，以此打破其惯有的呆板形象，吸引了一些优秀学生。通常，这些学生向往能在管理咨询公司或大型的会计事务所开始自己的职业生涯。
劳埃德集团在许多大学都摆放了公司的标记：一匹和真马一样大小的黑马模型。集团在各个大学都以此奇招为中心，展开招聘工作。之后，集团发现应聘学生的质量有了明显的提高。
劳埃德集团的毕业生招聘经理萨莉?考克斯（Sally Cox）说：“2002年和2003年，经过测评中心评估的应聘者中，有五分之一的人符合招聘要求，可以马上上岗。今年，这个比例是四分之一。”
突击行动有助于吸引应聘者的视线。但若要充分利用这一战术，招聘单位需要真正了解招聘市场，并拿出比竞争对手更棒的推广方案来。
对一家经营范围遍及全球的企业而言，当它的目标锁定某一特定地区时，它的营销策略就要作相应的调整。劳埃德集团的全球招聘营销经理?辛格（Navjot Singh）说：“我们需要了解招聘营销中哪些方面在全球范围内适用，哪些需要本土化。”知道在何时何地向目标发起攻势，是成功的关键。
如今，越来越多的在校大学生半工半读，这样，他们就会离开校园，因此，各大公司发现，要想凭借传统的招聘方式吸引应聘者已愈来愈难。
FreshMinds公司的创办人之一查理?奥斯曼德（Charlie Osmond）说，现在，毕业生找工作的方式已有改变，相应地，各大公司一年一度的招聘工作就要加大力度，继续开展各种活动，让学子们从踏入校门的第一天起就注意到各大公司的名字。
此类积极活动包括举办各种商业大赛，赞助体育俱乐部和社团，甚至可以向壳牌公司那样，派专业人员指导学生完成课程作业。
另外一个常用的方法就是聘请学生担任“品牌代言人”。为了能够招募到最有前途的学生，公司会向学生提供假期期间的工作机会，颁发奖学金，安排学生工作，这些都是惯用的方法。
但随着越来越多的招聘单位采用此类举措，各公司就需要将才能发挥到及至，以确保在这场人才争夺战中始终能领先一筹。
上个月，德勤会计师事务所为26名杰出的高中毕业生设立了大学预科奖学金项目。在该项目的赞助下，这些学生可以获得有偿的实践机会，可以在大学间隔年中被资助旅游，并在就读大学期间，每年拿奖学金。德勤会计师事务所相信，当这些学生大学毕业后，大部分都会选择该公司的毕业生项目，然后成为事务所的一名全职员工。
究竟会有多少公司效仿德勤的做法？这将取决于对大学生的需求是否会以眼下的增长势头继续升温。如果这一增长势头不减，那么人们就等着在来年再次目睹各大公司吸引人才的绝招吧。
