Graduate Recruitment Insights & NewsEmployers! Don't miss out on important market insights. Subscribe to our periodic graduate recruitment updates. September 2024 Job Application Bots Are HereMost of us have heard about bots that automate the job application process for applicants. To date they've been focused on roles outside of student recruitment. But that's changing. If you advertise student programs on Seek or LinkedIn, chances are you've received bot generated applications. Lazy Apply and Linkedin AI Hawk are just two bot apps used by candidates in Australia. How do they work? Within the apps, candidates LinkedIn AI Hawk applies only to jobs posted on LinkedIn. But Lazy Apply, has automations for LinkedIn, Seek and Indeed among others. Will they or other bots extend to graduate job boards? Time will tell. How prevalent are bot applications? What are the immediate implications for graduate recruiters? If you've advertised your graduate program on Linkedin or Seek, have a look at the number of applications from those sources. If the growth is a lot higher than other channels, it's likely from applicants using bots. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But it may result in lower quality applications. Or higher drop-offs when applicants who pass initial ATS screening decide not to go through further assessment steps. But there will be many applicants who continue in the assessment process. This could lead to a significant increase in the employer's psychometric or video interview assessment costs. For employers relying on resume key word screening, it's highly likely that technology will be a lot less effective as the applicant's bot AI matches the job requirements. While employers with smaller application volumes, reviewed manually, could see a spike in applications. "But applicants still need to get past psychometric testing and video interviews". That's true. The job application bots don't do that. Well, Gen AI can for testing. Which is why testing providers have been scrambling to combat applicants using Gen AI on their assessments. Some testing providers report that Chat GPT 4.0 performs at the following percentiles: They "can ace question-based Personality Assessments for any role, by simply reading the job description" Sources: Arctic Shores SacsConsult Can Bot AI get through an applicant tracking system? Technically yes, but the ATS providers response has been to implement captchas or other security measures to prevent bots from submitting applications. Is GradSift vulnerable to Bot AI applications? No. Because we don't rely on a resume to assess an application.
July 2024 Candidate ExperienceListening to students share their experiences in how they research and apply to graduate / intern programs has been eye-opening. When you came to start your search, how did you feel? The application experience was one of frustration, even for top candidates. But there's some good news for the candidate experience coming from government employers. More government organisations (Federal and State) are offering whole-of-government recruitment processes, where a candidate applies once and is considered by multiple agencies / departments. That's a step in the right direction. But many of the platforms that underpin that approach aren't really designed for its use. It makes it clunky (still using spreadsheets) and extends the process time. And that's where GradSift's platform excels. It's designed for programs with many hiring managers with different need.
March 2024 Market UpdateWhen employers were asked what were they looking forward to in 2024, a word cloud highlighted the responses with the following dominant themes. • Innovation It makes sense given the pressing need for employers to respond to the behaviours and demands of Gen Z. There’s also a recognition to rethink psychometric assessments for neuro-diverse and low socio-economic status candidates. Combined those groups can account for up 20% of the applicant pool. For a better understanding of assessments and neuro-diverse candidates take a look at this article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rethinking-aptitude-tests-embracing-neurodiversity-applicant-karam/?trackingId=%2F4RNnM2SMzzKYnrNnJnLhQ%3D%3D Some interesting data from recent employer and student surveys:
Are they effective? This was a question posed by an employer. The reality is nearly every employer who offers an EOI directly or through a job board, uses it only as an alert to registrants that their graduate/intern program has opened. That’s OK. But there is a lot more that could be done. One employer said they have positioned theirs as an Early Talent Community, sharing information with students. But no-one is reviewing the candidates to see if they have superstars waiting to be reached out to. Along these lines, an employer shared a talent pool request from their hiring managers. The managers want a year-round pool of quality students, so as an opportunity becomes available (outside of the formal programs), they can just reach out. That’s a great idea but in practice requires HR to review every student. The only automated solution with no intervention required from HR and direct access for hiring managers is GradSift.
January/February 2024 Student Recruitment Collaboration Project
Over the past six months we’ve been working with multiple student teams to relook at the student recruitment experience. We all get their frustration. Multiple job applications, the time commitment for each assessment, repeating the same assessments for other employers, however many video interviews, little feedback and only a 3% chance of being hired into a large employer program. There’s a limit to the number of programs or job ads anyone will apply to. As one student said, “there needs to be a hub or pool where all interns and grads go and potential employers look for them, not the other way around”. In collaboration with students, we came up with GradSift Talent. It’s an employment platform (not a job board) that flips student recruitment on its head. Think LinkedIn , except designed for students and graduates. No job application, just a single registration, ready to be discovered by employers. Underpinning it is GradSift’s AI technology. Already used by government and corporate employers for their internal student programs, it’s proven, transparent and supports diversity. Employers, large or small, discover students in real time using our advanced matching algorithm and comprehensive user profiles. They decide who is a good fit and reach out. No sifting through hundreds of applications. It just makes sense, doesn’t it? We’re already into our student awareness campaign. But here’s a call out to recruiters and university careers advisors. Most people are happy to recommend LinkedIn as a resource to students. We hope that will now extend to GradSift Talent, as a specialist career resource for students and graduates. Here’s another insight from our student teams. When unsuccessful job applicants receive the generic “reject” email regardless of how encouraging it is, it leaves them flat. But what if the employer included practical suggestions to help in their career? Our student teams proposed employers refer their unsuccessful applicants to "take a look" at GradSift Talent. Not as an endorsement but as a resource referral. A single sentence at the end of the reject email that gives them hope, lifting their confidence and importantly their appreciation of the employer. When you think about it, it’s simple but so powerful. And it needn’t be about GradSift Talent. It could be anything. LinkedIn made it easier for professionals to be found by employers. GradSift Talent is doing the same for students and graduates. December 2023
Gen Z Application Drop-OffsResearch by Bullhorn of a 1,000 US Gen Z workers shows the majority (85%) concur that the entire job search and placement process is outdated, resulting in two out of five abandoning an opportunity between application and interview, and one in three giving up before even submitting an application. What are the symptoms employers experience: When more than 20% of applicants are dropping out at any assessment stage, it’s a red alert signal for a recruiter. Here’s a visual example of what happens to an employer receiving 3,000 applications but finding the applicant drop-off from the initial psychometric assessment jumps from a normal 15% to 40%.
It reduces the pool of available candidates by 30%. This inevitably flows through to fewer hires. There are plenty of employers who can attest to this. But it is fixable. So what stops HR from doing something about it? It’s usually not knowing what else to do. Or fear that if they do make a change, it doesn’t work. So how do you balance the need for change and perceived risk? The safest solution is to do a pilot project. It’s a concept widely used across many sectors including engineering and technology. But equally applicable to student recruitment. The benefits of a pilot project are: For employers experiencing high applicant drop-offs or frustrated hiring managers, GradSift should be top of mind for a pilot project. • An award-winning, multi-criteria assessment platform with video included. There are many options to run a pilot. An intern or vacationer program. A business unit that’s ready for innovation. Or when you’re forced to go back-to-market. And if you don't want to pilot GradSift, try something else. It has to be better than doing more of the same.
November 2023 What Does the Future of Graduate Recruitment Look Like?At the recent AAGE graduate recruitment conference many people were wondering what the future of student recruitment would look like. Here’s our snapshot from what we heard. Go back five years to 2018, graduate recruitment was all about making life more efficient for recruiters. There was a surplus of candidates and most students would jump through all of the assessment hoops. If they didn’t, there were others ready to take their place. Covid accelerated the adoption of digital interviews, making the interview process even more efficient for recruiters. (But maybe not when it comes to evaluating all those videos). Today, the student market is different. Fewer candidates, who are very selective with their time. They now have the power and their user experience matters. What we’re seeing today is the start of a structural shift, which will focus on a much improved student experience. So what about in five years time, in 2028? 1. User experience dominates. It’s not just the applicant user experience either. In a world where fewer quality candidates make it through to shortlist stage, hiring manager experience is just as important. Giving them a greater to say on who they want to interview. 2. An arm wrestle with AI. Have you heard about AI apps that facilitate bulk job applications? We’re talking hundreds of applications where ai does all the work, including finding the appropriate jobs and completing the application. Right now, the apps are used for general employment, targeting major job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed. But, what happens when someone develops/modifies an app for graduate/intern recruitment? And instead of LinkedIn, they can apply through graduate job boards or even your own organisation’s job portal. Yikes! Now that will make screening even more important. Some students will use AI to do bulk applications. While for those who personally apply, they won’t accept a time-consuming process with multiple steps. Even if an economic downturn causes a surplus of graduates and gives power back to employers, the fundamental behaviour and expectations of students won’t change. The future is a shorter and faster assessment process. 3. We may see the emergence of whole-of-government style programs for the private sector. There are very early discussions of collaboration by private sector employers to create pre-qualified talent pools for specific disciplines/role types. 4. Hiring throughout the year will become common utilising ai and other technologies.
October 2023 Unmasking Catalysts for ChangeOrganisations embrace change because it's an inherent necessity for growth, adaptation, and survival in a dynamic and competitive environment. Pain points, often stemming from challenges, inefficiencies, or shifting market demands, serve as powerful motivators for change. That’s what many in graduate recruitment are experiencing now. But the cause of the pain isn’t always immediately obvious. They’re often masked as symptoms. Gen Z’s behaviour, high assessment drop-offs, increased renege rates, frustrated managers asking “but who else do you have”? They can be symptoms of the real pain point: a recruitment and assessment process that doesn’t meet the needs of all stakeholders. Specifically, candidates and hiring managers. In a candidate rich market, the candidate experience wasn’t a concern. In fact, it was overlooked for recruiter efficiency. While there were more than enough candidates for managers to pick and choose the best fits for their teams. But in a candidate short market user experience matters. How to redesign the recruitment and assessment process for a positive user experience for candidates and hiring managers? A small number of employers have already moved to streamline the number of assessment steps for candidates. While some have listened to hiring managers recognising that a standard assessment profile doesn’t work for every role or team. Those managers want greater say over the assessment criteria for their unique roles. It’s consistent with the theme of the AAGE conference; ‘time to explore unconventional pathways to attract, engage, select and retain talent”. The graduate recruitment sector is experiencing the pain. Now is the time to embrace change.
September 2023 Generative AI and Student RecruitmentOf course the implications of generative AI continue to dominate discussion around the student/graduate recruitment process. What are they? Anything in an application or assessment that is text based or relies on language learning models is at risk of manipulation. From resumes and cover letters, to the text responses from video interviews, even to psychometric assessments. It's not just what will happen in the future. We’ve already heard from one employer who found more students “passing” a particular video interview assessment. When they looked at the student details, the results didn’t match up. The suspect? Chat GPT prompting the "correct" answers. On a scarier note, there's emerging technology that showed a video interviewee who looked steadily at the camera. Yet they were not looking at the camera at all. The technology made it appear so while they read out a generated response to the interview question. It was freaky. Recruitment technology and assessment vendors are trying to catch up. It's recognised that written language assessments are highly susceptible to AI-generated responses and candidates may use LLMs (Language Learning Models) like ChatGPT to complete their assessments. What’s the solution? It may be a return to in-person assessments or where the assessment environment is strictly controlled. How does it affect GradSift? Unlike other assessment platforms that rely on text interpretation and language models, GradSift takes a fundamentally different and more secure approach. Our assessment system is designed to provide objective evaluations that are immune to manipulation or bias, preserving the integrity and fairness of the assessment process. Employers can rest assured the assessment is objective.
August 2023 AI Enabled Student SourcingGradSift Talent: A ground-breaking AI enabled sourcing platform for employers. Target and efficiently connect with students and graduates based on the calibre of candidate you’re seeking. Blanket email blasts are great for volume. But result in too many applicants who are simply the wrong fit! No need to sift through hundreds or thousands of applications. Or pay for expensive psychometric and video assessments just to screen out the wrong applicants. AI enabled sourcing.
https://au.gradsift.com/gradsift-talent/
July 2023 Free Empower Me AI tool for StudentsGradSift launches free AI assessment tool, Empower Me for students. Everyone likes constructive feedback. But for students that never comes if they’re rejected at the application stage. So we developed Empower Me, a free AI tool for students and recent graduates. It unlocks insights into how employers assess their background. It's easy to use. Select a benchmark role eg. Accounting Intern and go! https://au.gradsift.com/applicant/empowerme/
June 2023 Learnings from US Graduate RecruitmentOne of the interesting insights is how the graduate recruitment process differs between the US and Australia. Naturally both have the same objective. But achieve it in very different ways. In the US, the typical assessment process is for recruiters to review applications followed by two rounds of behavioural interviews. Then an offer. Typically, it takes two weeks from the first interview to offer. Contrast that to the multiple assessments and stages that Australian employers put students through. In turn, universities invest heavily in managing their brand reputation to attract leading employers and of course students who recognise the strong employment prospects associated with the university. Australian employers on the other hand recruit from any university. But then apply multiple assessments to filter and find the quality candidates. It’s a much more expensive and time-consuming process than their US counterparts. But it does open up applications to students from any university. What can Australian employers learn from the US? The US model demonstrates that if an employer identifies “quality” candidates upfront, two rounds of behavioural interviews is all that’s needed to make a hiring decision. One interview with a recruiter, the second with a hiring manager. US employers rarely use assessment centres, psychometric assessments or even video interviews. It offers an opportunity to rethink the local recruitment process. Finding a way to identify quality candidates at the first assessment stage can simplify and shorten the whole process, as well as achieve substantial cost savings. Graduate recruitment doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. It sounds very much like GradSift.
May 2023 Gen Z Insights
Here’s a great webinar presented by a US Gen Z early careers influencer, Jade Walters. https://vimeo.com/821416901/95ec31a87f? Interestingly, she says that if you only posted on two platforms, they should be LinkedIn and Tik Tok. The reason she recommends LinkedIn is because students use it to learn about careers, employers and career paths. Instagram came in third because “it’s in decline”. Note – Facebook never even had a mention. Gen Z Recruitment Process Compatibility We know that Gen Z wants a simpler recruitment process, with fewer steps and less time commitment. So it’s great to see some employers embracing that. We’ve recently seen employers do away with assessment steps like psychometric assessments, video interviews and assessment centres. They have been replaced with less time intensive assessments and more interview time. The old funnel process of "online application, multiple psychometric assessments and video interview" before any personal contact is starting to look outdated. Authenticity Mary Scott https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-scott-0781908/ is a US graduate recruitment expert who conducts regular research into students and their recruitment experiences. Her most recent findings identify a key differentiator of graduate employers and their opportunities. It's how students are treated during their job search and recruitment process. She defined that as how effective the overall process was and the relationship (the impression) built between the student and employer. When students were asked what made an employer both impressive and effective, the answer was “They made me believe they were interested in ME”. The most impressive and effective employer was rated as high as 8.7 out of 10, while the low end scored 4.1. While there are multiple factors that influence the rating, a key is the skill level of the front-line employer representatives (graduate recruiters, hiring managers etc). For many people, being a relationship builder (meeting new people and quickly building rapport and trust) doesn't come naturally. They might be good at the transactional elements of the recruitment process. But do they have the relationship skills that students want to see?
April 2023 Chasing Up ApplicantsCareer fairs have just finished. Employers have invested considerable resources to attract, sell to and build relationships with students. In such a competitive market, the waiting game now makes for a tense time for employers. Will they attract enough of the strongest candidates? Has the expression of interest generated quality candidates? Will student enthusiasm wane for employers who don’t open applications until mid-year? If there is one truth in this market, employers cannot afford to sit back and hope for the best. If a candidate has applied or registered their interest with your organisation, you need to follow up. Students need to be prompted and reminded. Last year we all witnessed students dropping out of the recruitment process at various stages. Remember the employer who lost 40% of their applicants because they didn’t want to complete a 90 minutes battery of psychometric assessments? It’s no different this year. Already we’ve seen clients find 25% of their applicants started but did not complete the assessment process. But with multiple follow ups, a combination of automations and old-school email and text, that reduced to less than 5%. That’s an impressive result and is in line with the historical proportion of applicants who simply change their mind about an employer. But the message is this. Be prepared to work hard and chase applicants to complete each assessment stage. Most will respond. It’s the generation we’re now dealing with.
March 2023 An Inconvenient TruthHiring managers are crying out for candidates for their graduate and intern roles. HR says we can’t find them. The likely truth is they’re already in the company’s system.
But does it need to be that way? We take a look at where potential student hires are slipping through the cracks.
These are all real reasons given by graduate recruiters. All without knowing the circumstances of the candidate. Or without the benefit of an experienced recruiter rephrasing a question to help the candidate perform at their best.
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February 2023 Using a Talent PoolThe concept of graduate talent pools keeps popping up and seems to be a hot topic right now. It makes sense as going in to 2023, every employer is wondering, will we be able to make our hiring numbers.
Can employers make more hires using a talent pool? Definitely.In a market where students now look at opportunities throughout the year, it's a must-have. The premise behind any talent pool is to leverage the strength of the employer brand. In graduate recruitment employers invest in multi-channel marketing campaigns - advertising, career fairs, campus events and campaigns, website content etc. Then there is word-of-mouth, referrals from past and current employees, even the posts on Whirlpool forums, which all contribute to building a graduate employer brand. In general advertising we know the communication message can stay with a consumer well after an advertising campaign finishes. The same applies to graduate recruitment marketing. Marketing doesn't stop working when a graduate (or intern) program closes. The message stays with students. So while some students may not apply to the program, a subsequent trigger event may prompt them to take a closer look. (A referral, an online post, organisation or sector news, a change in personal circumstance etc.) Except if the program is closed and there's no opportunity to apply or register interest, the candidate is missed. The investment in the graduate employer brand has done its job to create interest. But if there's no mechanism to capture the candidate details, it hasn't been fully capitalised. That's where talent pools play their part.But it's not just collecting expressions of interest before a program opens. Many employers already do that and simply email registered applicants that the program is now open. It's more important to open the talent pool after the program closes. In fact, immediately after. That's when the employer branding effort is still fresh in the minds of students. But keep it open right up until the time the new graduates or interns are ready to start. Talent pools and expressions of interest do not commit the employer to formally assessing applications. They're positioned as "register your details and if a suitable role becomes available, we will contact you". How many applicants could an employer be missing out on by not using some form of talent pool?We think it could be another 20%. For an employer receiving 1,000 direct applications to a program, there may be another 200 who would have applied outside the program open dates. Assuming a hire rate of 5% of applications, in this example it would mean another 10 hires. Talent Pool Platforms In graduate recruitment the challenge for an employer is making a timely connection with a strong candidate. That means determining the quality of each applicant and where they could be a potential fit. But going through applications takes time. Invite them to do a psychometric test? Maybe. But how many would complete it? For students it needs to be a simple process. So it’s understandable employers see it as becoming all too hard. The best choice for a talent pool is the GradSift shortlisting platform.Why? Employers instantly see the quality of an applicant without opening a resume. And that's by type of role, even location. That makes it easy to quickly respond to the best candidates. For students it's ten minutes to complete a GradSift profile from drop-down fields with no resume upload. For a recruiter it's spending 60 seconds once a week to view the latest candidates and choose whether to make contact. It's as simple as that. Of course there’s a lot more employers can do with GradSift. Identify applicants by availability, previous employers, gender and diversity. Ask their own screening questions or ask applicants to upload a resume and record a short video. There's even a Hiring Manager View function where managers decide who to bring forward.
ble for apprentice roles, entry-level roles, whole-of-government programs and merit pools. [new] Do I really have to watch every video? We don't have internal resources to manage high-volume recruitment Budget constraints Interested in seeing how GradSift will save time, cost and help you deliver more quality candidates? Watch the video or email peter@gradsift.com to schedule a walk-through demo.
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