Part 6: Michigan State University 51st Annual Recruiting Trends Survey & Report: Retaining New Hires and Final Thoughts

This is the sixth and final article in this series, click here to go to the first article. If you’re searching for a remote internship, go to our search results page that lists all of the remote internships and other entry-level jobs advertised on College Recruiter and then drill down as you wish by adding your desired category, location, company, or job type.

RETAINING NEW HIRES: HAS COVID CAUSED A SHIFT?

Employers always wrestle with retention issues among recent hires. COVID certainly threw a possible monkey wrench into an organization’s ability to retain their young hires made during the height of the COVID pandemic. The reason stems from their own advice (see Recruiting Trends 2020-21) that career professionals, parents, and peers echoed. COVID temporarily closed access to positions that pending graduates were anxious to obtain. Employers encouraged candidates to accept positions that were available thus gaining entry to the workforce. Once their desired positions opened, they could move into them. This strategy opens the door for the possible rapid turnover of many recent hires as they scrabble for their desired job.

We attempted to examine the possible onset of turnover by asking employers to provide their expected tenure for hires made during the pandemic period of spring 2019 through spring 2021 and what they expected tenure to be for those hired after COVID. The two figures failed to produce statistically or meaningful differences. One explanation rests on the fact that we have not had enough separation from COVID. Thus, most employers are still operating under COVID conditions.

We obtained reliable figures on the retention outlook for hires made throughout the COVID period (2019 to present). Employers expect to retain hires from this period, regardless of degree level, from three to five years. Small differences appeared between degree levels:

• Associate Degree Hires: Average Retention 4.2 years, Median 3 years, and Mode 2 and 5 years
• Bachelor Degree Hires: Average Retention 4.4 years, Median 4 years, and Mode 2, 3, and 5 years
• Master’s Degree Hires: Average Retention 5.1 years, Median 5 years, and Mode 5 years
• MBA Hires: Average Retention 5.3 years, Median 5 years, and Mode 5 years.

Comparisons by size and industry sector provided significant differences in expected retention. Size (F=2.096, p = .05) revealed that organizations with 1500 to 10,000 employees expect their COVID hires to stay for 6 to 7 years. Organizations with fewer than 1500 employees and large employers (over 10,000 employees) expect their COVID hires to remain at their organizations 4 to 5 years. Industry sector differences (F=2.270, p=.002) showed that sectors separated into three groups:

• Long Tenure Expectations ( 6 to 10 years)
  • Educational Services
  • Construction
  • Agriculture
  • Utilities
• Short Tenure Expectations (2 to 3.5 years)
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Non-profits
  • Leasing
  • Retail
  • Transportation
  • Health Services
• Mid Tenure Expectations (4 to 5 years)
  • Finance & Insurance
  • Manufacturing
  • Professional, Business & Scientific Services
  • Accommodations (Hospitality)

A more general question asked respondents to consider the hires they are making today and compare their expected tenure to those hired prior to COVID. Fifty-eight percent expect tenure to remain the same while 13% expect tenure of today’s hires to increase. Nearly 30%, however, believe the tenure of today’s hires will be shorter than pre-COVID hires.

When asked to look at possible tenure changes across functions with the organization, 20% of those organizations with engineering, computer/IT and technology functions expect COVID hires to have shorter tenure (compared to two-thirds who expect tenure to remain the same). For business and professional services and operation and management functions employers largely believe the tenure in these functions will remain unchanged.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This section brings the conclusion to the 51st edition of Recruiting Trends. It also marks the conclusion of my 25 years of managing this report. My involvement with Trends has enriched my professional life in many ways through the close relationships with colleagues, stimulating discussions about student success and future of recruiting, opportunities to produce scholarly work on the transition from college to work and influence of work-integrated learning. I have clearly been blessed by all the opportunities you have provided me. However, it is time to step aside and hope others will step forward to continue the advancement of research in our field. I deeply cherish each of you for your support of and devotion to the work of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute and hope you found benefits it what we have been able to produce. I will never be able to replace the comraderies and relationships built over my 36 years working with you. To each of you – thank you.

I am not completely leaving the scene. I am still working with several former graduate assistants who are climbing faculty tenure tracks to advance several research projects that remain incomplete. You can anticipate several research publications out of these efforts. The best way to learn of our activities is to occasionally surf the CERI website (www.ceri.msu.edu) where our recent publications appear. In addition, the complete archives of the work of CERI since 1985 is being curated and starting to appear on our website. Be sure to check it out! You can also anticipate Dr. Heather Maietta and my newest book, due out in the spring, on students who transfer and career engagement.

Best wishes for successful recruiting in 2021-22.

— This is the sixth and final article in this series. This series of articles is courtesy of Dr. Phil Gardner, Ph.D. Michigan State University Collegiate Employment Research Institute. To download the full report, go to https://ceri.msu.edu/_assets/pdfs/Recruiting%20Trends%202021-22/Recruiting-Trends-Report-2021-22.pdf