Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

When it comes to the changes employers plan to make in their methods of recruiting new college graduates, it’s no surprise that they plan to use more technology. However, the growing focus on technology may affect other traditional recruitment methods.

According to NACE’s Job Outlook 2017 report, the use of more technology, in general, continues to be the largest change employers will make in their methods of recruiting new college graduates. This year, more than 60 percent of respondents indicated they will use more technology in recruiting, with more than half indicating they will specifically increase their use of social networks. (See Figure 1.)

In addition, almost one-third will attend fewer career fairs, which may point to the increased use of technology. By comparison, the percentage of 2013 respondents attending fewer career fairs was less than one-quarter.

Furthermore, while the specific uses of technology were not explored in this report, preliminary findings from NACE’s 2016 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey show that respondents plan to increase their use of video interviewing; this, too, may be a reason that employers plan to attend fewer career fairs.

Data for the Job Outlook 2017 survey were collected from August 5, 2016, through October 4, 2016. A total of 169 surveys were returned—a 17 percent response rate. The Job Outlook 2017 report is available at www.naceweb.org/surveys/job-outlook.aspx or through the MyNACE area at www.naceweb.org/job-outlook/index.aspx.