Hiring is in a weird place. Millions of people are coming out of unemployment benefits and some are not being incentivized to get new jobs. Yet there are so many people looking for work.
Not only do people who are out of work need jobs, college graduates are entering an uncertain job market. As it turns out, 45 percent of people who graduated in 2020 are still looking for a job and now 2021 graduates are joining them. Luckily this provides a lot of options and competition for companies who need to hire employees with entry-level salaries. If you’re a business that needs to hire, below are five tips to hire college graduates in 2021.
Use Background Checks
When you are hiring newly graduated employees, you might not think to run background checks. It remains an important step for hiring anyone. A criminal background check will provide any pertinent information on whether or not the candidate has been in trouble with the law.
It will also illuminate if the person isn’t being honest about their education and experience. Employment and education verification are very important when you’re hiring college graduates because so few have adequate experience and may embellish to get more of it. That’s why running background checks is vital for any employee—whether they’ve just graduated or not.
Utilize Social Media
It should be no surprise that college graduates are savvy with social media. That’s why you should utilize these platforms to get the word out that you are hiring new employees and accepting applications from college graduates applying for entry-level positions. You can also use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to scout for potential job candidates. Not only is using social media beneficial to get the word out that you are hiring, it can help you do your research about the people you are considering.
Post on Career Sites
There’s absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t post on career sites. Some of these platforms have become incredibly helpful at matching you with employees that fit the salary and level of experience. Nowadays you can even search for employees from specific schools and majors. Career sites are just another tool to use when you are trying to hire the best possible employees for the job and salary that you can afford to pay them. When you use the tools at your disposal, you’ll be able to find the perfect match.
Take Advantage of Referrals
A great way to find employees who will be trustworthy and hard-working is to take advantage of referrals and references. If you have employees that know recent college graduates, taking their referrals seriously may end up being the best choice you make. When you trust your staff, you can find others to work with you can also trust. Personal references matter, and so do professional ones. Be sure to follow up on the college graduate’s references—even if they are all professors and personal friends.
Look for Internships
It takes a lot for a person to do work that is unpaid. When you put in the work just to get experience, it shows that the person is aware of their shortcomings and will do whatever they can do to get the necessary experience to further their career. Applications that have internships are a good sign. Don’t overlook them. You will also be able to call the managers and other supervisors for references. The more you have to work with, the more you can vet the candidate.
Hiring is always vital to the process of growing your business. That’s why you should hire people you can cultivate into loyal staff that will grow with the company. While the people who have recently graduated college may not have all the experience that you’d like them to, the opportunity to train the employee exactly the way you want to. They are a blank slate to mold to the business’s needs.
Recent college graduates are motivated, full of energy, and have the ability to be versatile. You’ll be surprised just how much this is helpful to you. College graduates need work and they are willing to do what others will not for less money. Start looking at them as a benefit and you will see how they can become the perfect employees.
