Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

When it comes to campus recruitment channels, traditional “high-touch” strategies are deemed most productive among employers satisfied with their campus results, while employers less satisfied with their results have a stronger reliance on virtual tools, according to Effectiveness of Recruiting Timing and Techniques: Qualitative Research and Analysis.

Responses of those employers reporting satisfaction with their current recruitment approach were in agreement that their success was based on using such specific strategies as:

• Focusing on student organizations within their targeted schools;
• Maintaining deep relationships with campus influencers;
• Hosting lots of events; and
• Using a personal approach to develop close connections between their schools and teams.

Notably, fewer than half of the less satisfied cohort reported using a “high-touch” approach for their campus initiatives, and were more likely to cite social media and “collecting lots of resumes at career fairs” in response to the question about what is working for them.

A question about what is not working, campus recruitment channel-wise, surfaced this interesting pattern: Fully half of those in the satisfied group are not using social media or relying on virtual tools to recruit, citing concerns about candidate quality and diversity along with the “inordinate time required to sort through the high volume of candidates” these channels generate.

Effectiveness of Recruiting Timing and Techniques: Qualitative Research and Analysis is the result of research conducted by Mary Scott, president of the Scott Resource Group, in partnership with the NACE Center for Career Development and Talent Acquisition. The study is a companion to the quantitative research conducted through the NACE 2017 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey. Fifty employers were invited to participate in the qualitative research; they were selected to represent the organizational demographics of the NACE membership. Twenty-four organizations responded affirmatively and were interviewed during August 2017. Effectiveness of Recruiting Timing and Techniques: Qualitative Research and Analysis is available at http://www.naceweb.org/store/2018/effectiveness-of-recruiting-timing-and-techniques/.