The entry-level talent pool increasingly consists of “non-traditional students.” Recruitment methods and strategies that narrowly focus on attracting talent from top schools, or from a short list of degrees, no longer provide employers with the workforce they need to grow. Employers should become more aware of who non-traditional students are, and how talent from alternative pools brings value.
LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner said at a recent conference, “Historically here, there’s been a tremendous amount of weight that’s been given to four-year university degrees, and not nearly enough weight, in my opinion, is given to vocational training facilities and vocational training certifications.”
Consider the gap between what “traditional” grads bring to your organization, and what your organization needs. Research from PwC and the Business Higher Education Forum shows a startling gap between educators and business executives when it comes to getting graduates ready for jobs. Their research focused particularly on data science and analytics skills, and found that by 2021, 67% of U.S. executives expect to choose job candidates with data skills over those without – yet only 23 percent of educators believe their students will graduate with these essential tech and analytical skills.
Recruiters, your top schools (that is, traditional higher education) are not preparing students for your future workforce.
Enter, non-traditional students.
Non-traditional students are three-quarters of undergraduates, according to The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). In addition, the number of on-campus students has declined by 5 percent in 2015.
By “non-traditional,” we refer to students who:
According to Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of College Recruiter, “there is a stigma amongst most employers with formalized college and university recruiting programs against students who attended non-traditional schools including on-line schools. A chief reason, I believe, is a lack of a data-driven approach by the recruiting leaders and hiring managers.”
“Fortunately,” says Rothberg, “more and more employers are embracing data, and really looking not just at their cost-per-hire by source — including schools and job search sites like College Recruiter — but more importantly the productivity of those hires. What employers are starting to discover is that there’s little to no correlation for the vast majority of hires between the status of the school and the productivity of the hire.”
Rothberg cites conversations he’s had with employers such as Lockheed Martin, where they actually discovered an inverse correlation between status of school and productivity of hire. “Perhaps this is due,” says Steven, “to the tendency of so-called scrappers excelling in their environment.”
Related: Strategies for recruiting data analytics and related skills
Related: Diversity recruitment strategies and mistakes
Here we share a few case studies, provided by Kevin Grossman of The Talent Board.
Humana has a Summer Works non-residential internship program. It’s run in conjunction with the Mayor’s office and the public schools, focused on high school students. They are also increasing their year-round internships that occur while they students are in school full time. Humana offers virtual job experiences as well. For those, they assess the ability and interest to do the job based upon performance of job tasks, as opposed to looking at their previous experience or titles. Finally, Humana says they’re targeting veterans, military spouses and wounded warriors, because this population is so broad and under-utilized, filled with very skilled workers with deep examples of conflict of resolution, mission and collaboration.
Superior Group has an “eXceed Program” for ambitious candidates entering the workforce. They seek bright, driven candidates interested in joining their accelerated learning program, regardless of educational background. This career-advancing talent development program is aimed at shaping future Superior Group leaders through recruiting and sales curriculum training.
Thank you for submitting your request to College Recruiter for a proposal for how we can help you hire students and recent graduates of one-, two-, and four-year colleges and universities for part-time, seasonal, internship, and entry-level opportunities.
We will likely respond within a couple of hours and definitely within one business day. Should you need assistance even faster, please call us at 952.848.2211 or email us at [email protected].
Posted in Advice for Employers, Recruitment Strategies | Tagged Tagged entry level recruitment, HR, human resources, kevin grossman, recruiting, recruitment strategies, steven rothberg, talent acquisition, talent shortage, talent war, the talent board, workforce planning
Top Internships for Students
Popular Jobs for Recent Grads
Jobs in Growing Industries