3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D48&r=G /% editor October 15, 2014

Recruitment functions need to broaden their value proposition and provide better data around talent to help executives shape strategy and meet business needs, according to a recent research report.

Conducted by CEB, it found that while two thirds of CEOs report a greater need for talent insight to help inform investment decision, only 15 per cent of senior business leaders said their recruitment function provides the proactive advice they need to help shape business strategy.

Today’s recruitment function must be able to straddle traditional and execution focused activities while also stepping up to an advisory role, partnering with business leaders in shaping strategy, the Driving New Success Strategies in Graduate Recruitment report said.

Organisations are facing the challenges of rapid social, economic and political change. In the private sector, key imperatives are to preserve and grow market share while public sector organisations are facing the dual challenges of having to deliver the same for less and a shift to new models for delivering services.

“Either way, organisations know that the talents they have and the talents they acquire are critical to their success,” the report said.

The rise of the talent advisor

The report also observed that the above issues are giving rise to a new role: the talent advisor, which goes beyond responding to line management demands to fill vacancies.

Talent advisors work with business partners and leaders to shape talent strategy in line with business strategy, according to CEB, which noted that a talent advisor requires effective networks within and outside an organisation to develop and refine talent intelligence to help make informed business decisions.

“The role also demands that recruitment professionals and leaders do more than just communicate that intelligence. They need to exert influence in shaping the action that business leaders will take,” the report said.

“HR professionals may not rank highest on many of the talents required, but our data suggests that the function does have substantial proportions of people with the potential to step up to the demands of organisations.”

Relating and networking, and persuading and influencing are two key talents which are critical to the HR and recruitment functions adopting a more strategic role, helping build relationships with key stakeholders and influencing them to achieve business success.

However, most business leaders believe they are not receiving the proactive talent advice that they need because HR needs to improve its benchstrength in deciding and initiating action when it comes to recruitment, and help business leaders make decisions involving tough choices where they currently lack intelligence.

The ability to analyse and apply expertise and technology also surfaces as an area where there is a need to improve within the HR function, as organisations increasingly become more data driven and demand rises for predictive intelligence.

“Part of the answer lies in the design and scope of recruitment roles, with almost 90 per cent of the perceived current influence of the recruitment function residing with executives and managers in the function,” the report said.

“This suggests that recruitment needs to both understand the depth of talent it has across all levels of the function and how best to deploy that talent across all of its operations.”

Plugging the value of recruitment into the wider talent management effort such as onboarding is one way of demonstrating that the recruitment function can meet the immediate needs of the line and support the broader talent strategy of the organisation, according to CEB.

Improving graduate recruitment

The report also found that graduates are accepting job offers as a steppingstone into the workplace, but a disconnect between their understanding of the role they applied for and its day-to-day reality is causing many to jump ship.

Two thirds of graduates spend five hours or less researching a prospective employer before applying for a job,” said Samantha Hickey, head of professional services at CEB.

“However, even given this limited time investment they’re still exploring beyond corporate websites, to access information on networking and social media sites.

“This means organisations have a very tight window to communicate the substance of their employee value proposition across a range of media, so hiring managers need to understand more about who they’re targeting and how this audience is searching for information, as well as ensuring the practicalities of the role are clearly outlined.”

To address high churn rates among newly hired graduates, hiring and line managers need to ensure they’re aligning their offering to address the professional and personal needs of today’s graduates, while still providing a realistic job preview and not ‘over selling’ the role.

The research revealed the five most important aspects of employment that motivate graduates:

• Personal growth: opportunities to learn, develop and grow
• Competition: opportunities to demonstrate their skills and shine against others
• Progression: the desire to achieve career goals

• Fear of failure: the need to avoid letting others down and loss of self-esteem
• Recognition: acknowledgment for doing a good job and making a strong contribution

Hickey said HR must also manage line mangers expectations of graduates skills and experience, helping them to understand why hard skills and academic results alone won’t guarantee that a candidate is the right fit for the role and organisations.

For line managers looking to effectively maximise the contribution of their graduates, it’s essential that they invest in the all-round development of the graduate.

“Line managers must create an environment where graduates can successfully grow into their role and enhance their professional experience,” she said.

“Mapping out the career goals and achievements will support satisfaction with their first professional role and in turn improve retention rates.”

Hiring for success: driving more effective graduate recruitment

Current graduate recruitment programmes are failing to deliver, but all is not lost, according to CEB, which said r ecruiters need to rethink their approach to filling their graduate vacancies in the context of the organisation, role recruited for, sector and geography. The research report identified ten key must do’s to help organisations drive more effective graduate recruitment:

1. Recruitment know thyself. Audit the talents you have in the recruitment function to drive effective stakeholder engagement and develop the intelligence those stakeholders need.

2. Question your assumptions about graduate investment. Surface, check and challenge the assumptions driving your graduate recruitment programme – check that you are invested in the sources of graduate talent and the practices that will drive value.

3. Measure the outcome, not just the process. Build metrics that focus on outcomes and provide lead indicators of effectiveness – focus on job performance, career potential, engagement and retention and not just process efficiencies.

4. Understand the talent space you occupy today. Are you perusing a buy, build or buy-and-build strategy? Check what that space says about the balance of investment your organisation needs to make to leverage graduate talent for today and tomorrow.

5. Define the talent space you want to occupy. What investment do you want to make pre- and post-hire? Base that decision on the ongoing pre-hire and post-hire investment your organisation is willing to make.

6. Make sure you understand where your investment provides most value. Know the talent sources and channels that offer greater value for you. Use talent intelligence to drive on-campus investment and the impact of social media as well as operations across geographies.

7. Review your employee value proposition. Less effective EVPs drive a +21 per cent premium for talent. Make your EVP tangible to help the talent you want navigate and commit to you and to help you manage the premium you pay for graduate talent.

8. Benchmark your graduate hiring practices. Is strong talent walking away to your competitors? Use talent intelligence to know if your processes are effective in capturing the strongest talent that you attract.

9. Make sure your metrics align with strategy as well as demand from the line. Don’t restrict yourself to immediate and micro stakeholder needs. Ignore the wider and macro needs of the organisation at your peril.

10. Decide how you will deliver talent insight to your stakeholders: Make the intelligence and the value-add to stakeholders tangible – package that intelligence to meet the short-term needs of the line and the longer-term needs of the organisation.

Source: CEB’s global Driving New Success Strategies in Graduate Recruitment report