At the Campus Recruiting Forum in Vancouver last week, there was a great discussion about the discrepancy between what students want to know about employers and what employers want them to hear.
Experienced campus recruiters know the importance of focusing their marketing on the “What’s In It For Me?” messages, but they often work with (or report to) colleagues who have different ideas about what is most important. As a campus expert, you have to be well prepared to address this issue or risk running an ineffective campaign.
Part of the problem is that as a concept “What’s In It For Me?” can leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths. It sounds horribly self-centred – and the last thing we want to do is hire young people who care about nothing but themselves. So let’s address this first. First of all, it is important to keep in mind that today’s students are far more active in volunteering and community service than any generation before them. It’s one of the accomplishments that the helicopter parents deserve a pat on the back for. In general, today’s students also have a strong sense of equity and fairness. So, in fact, “an opportunity to do good for others” is actually a very compelling “What’s In It For Me?” message.
So if this is not about appealing to selfishness, what is it about?
Quite simply, focusing on “What’s In It For Me?” is about clearly communicating the things that are meaningful and easily understood by the specific target audience. Like it or not, candidates of all ages are looking for what the opportunity will do for them personally, but different people use different filters to interpret the information they hear. In other words, if you tell me that your company is the industry leader for HR practices, I (as an experienced candidate) will have all sorts of ideas about how that might benefit me in terms of compensation, training opportunities, and career progression. But to a new grad, “industry leader” is much less meaningful. It would be far more effective to clearly spell out exactly what this will mean for them in practice.
Even just a few years into our careers we quickly forget the perspective of a student or new grad. We simply no longer recall what it was like to know very little about the workplace. But simple and clear messaging – without any special lingo or jargon – that focuses on students’ priorities, not your company’s, will be highly effective.
As Isabelle Morin of KPMG pointed out in her presentation at last week’s Campus Recruiting Forum, doing this well requires the right research. Your peers will respect and listen to your argument if you come armed with research that shows exactly what students are most interested in.
Keep in mind that what students appear to be less interested in is not necessarily unimportant. Employers are often surprised to hear that environmental policies and social responsibility do not make the “top 10” priorities. But these things are still important to students. However, they may not be as important AND students may also be sceptical of your messaging on these fronts any way. You must be prepared to address these topics, but very few employers can build a distinctive employment brand on them.
So what do students care about? Before I give the general answer based on our research, I’d like to make it clear that we find different answers depending on the target “top students” an employer wishes to attract. The list is different for MBAs than it is for undergrad business students; it’s also different for engineers, arts grads, and computer scientists. Again, if you want to spend your marketing dollars well and maximize your chance at connecting with the candidates that best fit your organization, you need the most pertinent research.
For most students, however, we find the same priorities near the top of the list: interesting work, great people to work with, job security, and work-life balance. The list probably doesn’t surprise you, but I am always intrigued that students make “great people” such a priority when I know so many experienced workers that took decades to realize the real importance of that.
Some are surprised to see “job security” on the list and attribute it to the recession. Certainly this became a higher priority recently, but stability has been very important to graduates for many years. Yes, they may be seen as job surfers but that has a lot more to do with workplaces not measuring up than it does with young people being disloyal (and we have plenty of research to back that up). In this economy, employers have to be prepared to talk about security and stability – after all, your new hires will be buying houses and having families soon.
And finally, it’s worth understanding that “work-life balance” to a new grad may not mean the same thing as it does to you. For one thing, most students are used to working much harder in school (concurrent with a part-time job) than most readers of this article likely did. But also, their highly programmed lives mean they have many interests outside work that they will continue to pursue (including the company sports teams and fund raisers you’ll want them to lead). For them, work-life balance is first and foremost about flexibility. The majority of new grads are women who may want plenty of time to raise families one day (not to mention fathers who may want the same). They also don’t see the logic of spending an hour in rush hour traffic when they can easily work from home until the traffic clears. And they would love the flexibility to take an extended holiday (even if they have to earn the time through reduced pay or extended over-time).
Communicating on the frequency on which your target candidates are listening requires research and carefully listening. It also may mean making a convincing case to your colleagues and providing them the information they need to support you. You can learn a lot more about these subjects at the Campus Recruiting Forum coming to Toronto and Chicago next week (www.CampusRecruitingForum.com). I hope to see you there.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Marketing: Quick Fixes, Tactics and Planning
At a workshop last week, I spoke at length about the importance of developing your strategic plan before you venture into developing a marketing plan. The topic was marketing career services to students, but many of the concepts apply to employers recruiting students as well. It is far too easy to venture into implementation without sufficient planning. But doing so really says, “I’m in this for the short haul. I’m looking for a quick fix, not a permanent solution.”
Given all the pressure on people to work harder with fewer resources – and often carry the load from a recently vacated position as well – it is understandable that some may leap at the first opportunity to launch a Facebook page, create a LinkedIn Group, or spend money on a new video production. But the best way to reduce your workload in the long run is to do thorough planning first.
Consider this quote from one of the most respected marketing experts, Philip Kotler: “If the marketer does a good job of identifying consumer needs, developing appropriate products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them effectively, these good wills sell very easily.”
Hopefully, it’s not too hard to see how this translates to marketing either career education or career opportunities to students. Whether you’re an employer trying to hire or a career services professional trying to engage students, if you do your marketing well, the rest will “sell very easily”.
Notice, however, that he has put the process in sequential order. “Promoting” is the last thing you do before you actually engage the students. And yet we are drawn so quickly to promotions. Ask anyone what strategies they are using to attract students these days and you’ll hear all about contests, YouTube videos, email or text campaigns and so on. But these are not really strategies; at best they are tactics. And they can only even be considered tactics if they come from a well-considered plan. Otherwise, they are just quick fixes.
If you are in it for the long haul, then you’ll go back to the beginning of the Kotler quote and start first with “identifying consumer needs”. In other words, develop a truly deep understanding of what the students you are trying to attract really want. Chances are that this information is not readily available. For a recruiter, attracting “students” as a whole means receiving thousands of unwanted applications. Understanding the needs of your target students requires quite a bit more research.
And next comes “developing appropriate products”. For the career services office these are the specific services that are relevant to meet the needs of each target group you are trying to engage. For employers, this is about developing a unique employment value proposition that speaks directly to your ideal candidate. But of course that requires a lot more than developing the right tagline; it means actually being the right fit for your target candidate. (And if you’re not, then you are either picking the wrong target or you need to become a different kind of employer.)
For career services, “pricing” is an issue: what does “free” say about your services? How can you address this? What do you do to prove that you offer value even if your service is so underpriced? For employers, “price” is about much more than salary and benefits. From a marketing point of view, it is really about the whole package of the employment experience – the workplace, the colleagues, the opportunities to grow, and so on. How attractive are you making that “price”?
And finally comes “distribution”. But remember, we’re not at “promotion” yet, so this isn’t about distributing your marketing message, this is about distributing your service or opportunity. For career services this about determining the right mix of delivery through one-on-one advising, workshops, major events, online, and so on. Clearly this is a major piece of work and planning how you will optimize your resources must occur before promotion can begin. I suppose employers could interpret “distribution” a number of ways: work location (does it appeal to your target candidate?); work-life balance and flexible hours; career mobility; or perhaps something else altogether.
Translating these product marketing concepts to the challenge of attracting students to career development or career opportunities should demonstrate one thing above all: if you want to make it easy to engage the right students with as little selling as possible (and who doesn’t?), then there is a lot of research, planning, and work to be done first. Otherwise, every “tactic” will be at best a quick fix – if that.
Given all the pressure on people to work harder with fewer resources – and often carry the load from a recently vacated position as well – it is understandable that some may leap at the first opportunity to launch a Facebook page, create a LinkedIn Group, or spend money on a new video production. But the best way to reduce your workload in the long run is to do thorough planning first.
Consider this quote from one of the most respected marketing experts, Philip Kotler: “If the marketer does a good job of identifying consumer needs, developing appropriate products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them effectively, these good wills sell very easily.”
Hopefully, it’s not too hard to see how this translates to marketing either career education or career opportunities to students. Whether you’re an employer trying to hire or a career services professional trying to engage students, if you do your marketing well, the rest will “sell very easily”.
Notice, however, that he has put the process in sequential order. “Promoting” is the last thing you do before you actually engage the students. And yet we are drawn so quickly to promotions. Ask anyone what strategies they are using to attract students these days and you’ll hear all about contests, YouTube videos, email or text campaigns and so on. But these are not really strategies; at best they are tactics. And they can only even be considered tactics if they come from a well-considered plan. Otherwise, they are just quick fixes.
If you are in it for the long haul, then you’ll go back to the beginning of the Kotler quote and start first with “identifying consumer needs”. In other words, develop a truly deep understanding of what the students you are trying to attract really want. Chances are that this information is not readily available. For a recruiter, attracting “students” as a whole means receiving thousands of unwanted applications. Understanding the needs of your target students requires quite a bit more research.
And next comes “developing appropriate products”. For the career services office these are the specific services that are relevant to meet the needs of each target group you are trying to engage. For employers, this is about developing a unique employment value proposition that speaks directly to your ideal candidate. But of course that requires a lot more than developing the right tagline; it means actually being the right fit for your target candidate. (And if you’re not, then you are either picking the wrong target or you need to become a different kind of employer.)
For career services, “pricing” is an issue: what does “free” say about your services? How can you address this? What do you do to prove that you offer value even if your service is so underpriced? For employers, “price” is about much more than salary and benefits. From a marketing point of view, it is really about the whole package of the employment experience – the workplace, the colleagues, the opportunities to grow, and so on. How attractive are you making that “price”?
And finally comes “distribution”. But remember, we’re not at “promotion” yet, so this isn’t about distributing your marketing message, this is about distributing your service or opportunity. For career services this about determining the right mix of delivery through one-on-one advising, workshops, major events, online, and so on. Clearly this is a major piece of work and planning how you will optimize your resources must occur before promotion can begin. I suppose employers could interpret “distribution” a number of ways: work location (does it appeal to your target candidate?); work-life balance and flexible hours; career mobility; or perhaps something else altogether.
Translating these product marketing concepts to the challenge of attracting students to career development or career opportunities should demonstrate one thing above all: if you want to make it easy to engage the right students with as little selling as possible (and who doesn’t?), then there is a lot of research, planning, and work to be done first. Otherwise, every “tactic” will be at best a quick fix – if that.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Should We Reinvent the Workplace for Millennials?
Millennials have been coddled all their lives and are indecisive because every important decision has been made for them. They are the most medicated youth in history because we’ve given a medical term to every trouble they can come up with. They have the shortest imaginable attention span as they, like crows, pursue the shiniest object that catches their attention. They are disloyal and will quit their job and move into their parents’ basement the moment they are critiqued at work; they also don’t believe in “putting in time” and think they should be promoted every year regardless of their performance. They believe they deserve endless learning opportunities – as if the workplace is just an extension of their education. And, they are so good with technology that they will probably waste most of their workday on social media.
Therefore, your organization should bend over backwards and turn all your existing talent management processes, work culture and schedules, benefits programs, etc., on their ear to accommodate them. Right?
So, go to it – set up a meeting to tell your managers about all the changes that are coming. Time is running out and they have a lot of re-inventing and accommodating to do! Some of them have kids; they’ll understand how important this is. Won’t they? Oh, and most of what these Millennials want from the workplace is the same as what the Boomers running your company wanted back in the 60s and 70s, but never got. However, I’m sure they’ll be happy to help these undeserving youngsters get it now. After all, they must be familiar with the concepts (if memory serves).
Okay, so you’ve probably determined that this would not be the best approach. And although it is greatly exaggerated, it reflects the feeling I got while watching an interview with one of the many Gen Y “gurus” recently. He was discussing the radical changes required to attract and retain Millennials. He insisted that you don’t recruit Gen Y - you “engage” them. And you don’t “supervise” them - you “collaborate” with them. And by the way, social networks will be the business “operating system” of the future. Perhaps these statements will all be true one day, but this kind of talk might not go over too well back at the office. It’s no wonder that some older employees feel resentment. Perhaps your colleagues don’t believe all of the nasty stereotypes I described above, but chances are that they entertain at least some of these thoughts.
Now I must confess: I have great admiration for this generation and I don’t pay much heed to the stereotypes I’ve recited in the first paragraph. I firmly believe that all of the highly-invested parenting, technological changes, multi-cultural experience, open access to information, engagement with elders, and social and political changes of the past 30 years have produced a generation of young employees with admirable work values. We also know that they are more generous with their time as volunteers and share a great concern for those less fortunate than themselves; they are concerned with the environment and being socially responsible; they are optimistic through trying times (9-11, the war on terror, and even the current recession); and, although they may be less engaged in formal politics, they are highly interested in improving the society we live in.
Although there are some small truths in the stereotypes I introduced this with, I believe that what this generation really wants from the workplace is both achievable and very appealing to the vast majority of workers of all ages. The challenge is in engaging your leaders and colleagues to embrace change and at the same time tap into the strengths of tomorrow’s workers. It can help to share with them the many reasons for recruiting new graduates – from demographics to talent shortages to the need integrate “digital natives”; but that will only take you so far in changing your co-workers’ attitudes.
Try this exercise: take out a piece of paper and make two columns with the headings: “Hate to have” on the left and “Love to have” on the right. Now put these concepts in the appropriate column based on your own interests: great people to work with; flexible work schedules; a supportive manager; interesting work; personal developmental opportunities; a clear career path; an opportunity to have a positive impact on others; and, job security. I’m guessing that the right hand column is pretty full. Now imagine a great employer (it doesn’t have to be your company) and ask yourself which of these things should be achievable. Put an “A” beside each of the items that should – one day – be the norm of a great employer.
You’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this. What you want, what your colleagues want, and what Millennials wants is very similar. The changes needed to attract and retain today’s young workers are the same changes that will make your workplace a great workplace for everyone. It’s also worth pointing out that the percentage of women in most workplaces is growing rapidly (as is the percentage of women graduating today). Chances are that the women in your workplace feel even more strongly about these changes.
So if you are having trouble convincing your organization to embrace change for the sake of Millennials, focus on getting them to embrace change for their own benefit. Once you’re on that track, you can introduce the positive aspects of engaging Millennials in your workplace – not for what the workplace offers Millennials, but for what Millennials can offer your people and your organization.
Therefore, your organization should bend over backwards and turn all your existing talent management processes, work culture and schedules, benefits programs, etc., on their ear to accommodate them. Right?
So, go to it – set up a meeting to tell your managers about all the changes that are coming. Time is running out and they have a lot of re-inventing and accommodating to do! Some of them have kids; they’ll understand how important this is. Won’t they? Oh, and most of what these Millennials want from the workplace is the same as what the Boomers running your company wanted back in the 60s and 70s, but never got. However, I’m sure they’ll be happy to help these undeserving youngsters get it now. After all, they must be familiar with the concepts (if memory serves).
Okay, so you’ve probably determined that this would not be the best approach. And although it is greatly exaggerated, it reflects the feeling I got while watching an interview with one of the many Gen Y “gurus” recently. He was discussing the radical changes required to attract and retain Millennials. He insisted that you don’t recruit Gen Y - you “engage” them. And you don’t “supervise” them - you “collaborate” with them. And by the way, social networks will be the business “operating system” of the future. Perhaps these statements will all be true one day, but this kind of talk might not go over too well back at the office. It’s no wonder that some older employees feel resentment. Perhaps your colleagues don’t believe all of the nasty stereotypes I described above, but chances are that they entertain at least some of these thoughts.
Now I must confess: I have great admiration for this generation and I don’t pay much heed to the stereotypes I’ve recited in the first paragraph. I firmly believe that all of the highly-invested parenting, technological changes, multi-cultural experience, open access to information, engagement with elders, and social and political changes of the past 30 years have produced a generation of young employees with admirable work values. We also know that they are more generous with their time as volunteers and share a great concern for those less fortunate than themselves; they are concerned with the environment and being socially responsible; they are optimistic through trying times (9-11, the war on terror, and even the current recession); and, although they may be less engaged in formal politics, they are highly interested in improving the society we live in.
Although there are some small truths in the stereotypes I introduced this with, I believe that what this generation really wants from the workplace is both achievable and very appealing to the vast majority of workers of all ages. The challenge is in engaging your leaders and colleagues to embrace change and at the same time tap into the strengths of tomorrow’s workers. It can help to share with them the many reasons for recruiting new graduates – from demographics to talent shortages to the need integrate “digital natives”; but that will only take you so far in changing your co-workers’ attitudes.
Try this exercise: take out a piece of paper and make two columns with the headings: “Hate to have” on the left and “Love to have” on the right. Now put these concepts in the appropriate column based on your own interests: great people to work with; flexible work schedules; a supportive manager; interesting work; personal developmental opportunities; a clear career path; an opportunity to have a positive impact on others; and, job security. I’m guessing that the right hand column is pretty full. Now imagine a great employer (it doesn’t have to be your company) and ask yourself which of these things should be achievable. Put an “A” beside each of the items that should – one day – be the norm of a great employer.
You’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this. What you want, what your colleagues want, and what Millennials wants is very similar. The changes needed to attract and retain today’s young workers are the same changes that will make your workplace a great workplace for everyone. It’s also worth pointing out that the percentage of women in most workplaces is growing rapidly (as is the percentage of women graduating today). Chances are that the women in your workplace feel even more strongly about these changes.
So if you are having trouble convincing your organization to embrace change for the sake of Millennials, focus on getting them to embrace change for their own benefit. Once you’re on that track, you can introduce the positive aspects of engaging Millennials in your workplace – not for what the workplace offers Millennials, but for what Millennials can offer your people and your organization.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
What Does it Take to Promise a Career?
In my previous blog post, I discussed the topic of career services offices providing guarantees as a means of building credibility for their programs and services. This caused a flurry of discussions on various LinkedIn Groups, primarily focused on the idea of guaranteeing jobs (to which most were strongly opposed). Although guaranteeing jobs was not the focus of my article, I did provoke the discussion by mentioning the University of Regina’s recent launch of the “UR Guarantee” which promises a great career after graduation. By no means am I suggesting that others should copy this strategy, but I am interested in the implications of this guarantee for the field of campus career development. What can we learn from this strategy?
First a little background.
The UR Guarantee (details are here) is built on the strength of the university's co-operative education program and commitment to experiential learning, and promises all students who complete the guarantee requirements a career-oriented job within six months of graduation. If students don’t get a good job, then they are entitled to an additional year of undergraduate study at no cost. Participation in the guarantee is optional and to qualify students must participate in a variety of career development activities each year during their studies.
The program was launched last fall, so the school won’t know if it attracts more students for a while and they won’t have students graduating with the guarantee for a few more years. Here are a few more important points:
So what’s a small university that is not well known with a declining enrolment base and great employment programs to do? How about addressing almost every student’s number one priority when considering post-secondary studies: careers!
On one level, this new initiative is so obvious I almost hesitate to call it brilliant. (And I know some are going to call me crazy for referring to this as “brilliant.”) And I can hear a few of the objections:
It’s not really my goal to promote the UR Guarantee; nor am I suggesting that other schools should adopt this strategy. My interest is in looking at what this program implies for other.
This is what I take from the existence of the UR Guarantee:
First a little background.
The UR Guarantee (details are here) is built on the strength of the university's co-operative education program and commitment to experiential learning, and promises all students who complete the guarantee requirements a career-oriented job within six months of graduation. If students don’t get a good job, then they are entitled to an additional year of undergraduate study at no cost. Participation in the guarantee is optional and to qualify students must participate in a variety of career development activities each year during their studies.
The program was launched last fall, so the school won’t know if it attracts more students for a while and they won’t have students graduating with the guarantee for a few more years. Here are a few more important points:
- This is primarily a recruitment initiative driven by anticipated enrolment challenges
- It is being implemented from the senior administration down with the president leading the campaign
- It has been accompanied by a significant investment in additional career development staffing and resources
So what’s a small university that is not well known with a declining enrolment base and great employment programs to do? How about addressing almost every student’s number one priority when considering post-secondary studies: careers!
On one level, this new initiative is so obvious I almost hesitate to call it brilliant. (And I know some are going to call me crazy for referring to this as “brilliant.”) And I can hear a few of the objections:
- Isn’t this just a marketing ploy? (Yes, it is, but one that promotes career development for all students.)
- How can you believe every student will get a job? (You can’t, but you can promise to help those who don’t succeed right away.)
- Doesn’t this take us back to the dark ages of “placement”? (Securing a great career is still the students’ own responsibility. If four years of engagement in career development activities and experiential education doesn’t give them the tools they need then…)
- What about the “unemployable” students we all have but don’t talk about? (UR would much rather give them extra attention than pretend they don’t exist.)
It’s not really my goal to promote the UR Guarantee; nor am I suggesting that other schools should adopt this strategy. My interest is in looking at what this program implies for other.
This is what I take from the existence of the UR Guarantee:
- When confronted with enrolment challenges, universities that take their planning and research seriously must address the fact that no outcome is more important to prospective students than their career opportunities.
- A real commitment to student career development requires leadership from the president on down and from all corners of the campus.
- This program clearly recognizes that students’ opportunities for career success are significantly enhanced by integrating career development throughout the post-secondary experience (and one school believes that strongly enough to invest in it up front and risk expense later if it doesn’t work).
- For a university itself to feel confident that it can deliver on the promise of a successful career outcome, it must offer every student comprehensive programming delivered in all years of study.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Should Career Services Offer a Guarantee?
Guarantees come standard on most products we buy: whether it’s a new iPod or a box of cereal. If we’re not satisfied, we can return it. Guarantees on services are much less common, but they do exist. Some ski resorts and amusement parks offer guarantees, for instance. Guarantees convey a sense of quality and reliability and also reassure customers that if the product or service does not work as promised, the customer will be compensated. So if you are confident in the quality of work you do in Career Services, shouldn’t you offer a guarantee?
Three years ago I developed a workshop on the topic of marketing to students for Career Services offices. I presented it several times through webinars and also at the NACE Conference in New York. Not surprisingly, the topic attracted a very large audience each time it was presented because engaging students in their career development is both consistently challenging and a key focus for Career Services. The workshop covered several different key topics related to achieving credibility among students, ensuring that what you are offering really speaks to students, and so on. I also posed a challenge to participants: offer your students a service guarantee.
A guarantee is, in essence, an agreement between the customer and the provider. When I buy an iPod, I promise not to throw it down the stairs and if I do, I don’t expect the guarantee to apply. Similarly, with a service guarantee it is assumed that I will do my part: if I don’t give my accountant the right information, I can’t expect her to give me the right results. So a guarantee in Career Services would require a certain level of duty and commitment on the part of students.
Since a guarantee in a Career Services office represents an agreement between the student and Career Services, both are expected to do their part or the guarantee is null and void. Your statement of guarantee needs to specifically state what is expected of your students. Given this basis – the understanding that to “qualify” for the guarantee your students must invest a certain amount of effort – you may feel more confident about raising the bar of commitment that you are willing to make.
But what happens if your students do their part and still don’t get the result you promise? There’s usually no payment to refund, and more importantly, you can’t give them back the time they have invested. But you can do a number of things they will value greatly, the best of which is to listen to them and respond in a helpful way. Give them a meeting with the director, heap additional support and service upon them. Go the distance for them and they will become stronger allies than some of your most successful students. Again, these details must be described in your guarantee statement.
A first step in offering a service guarantee may be to start out with it as an option for just a certain group of students or a specific program. Select one of your best programs and create a guarantee or “service agreement” around it. Offer students the option of signing up for that agreement and explain clearly what is expected of them and what they can expect from you in return. Just imagine what it could do for their confidence in you, themselves, and the potential outcomes of your program!
To be clear, I am not suggesting that you guarantee your students a job – not unless you believe that that would be both achievable and consistent with your mandate. However, if your goal is to support students’ career development; or to create opportunities for them to connect with employers; or to develop job search skills, those are probably the kinds of things that you could be guaranteeing.
Offering a service guarantee can go a long way to increasing your credibility with students as true experts with whom they should invest their time. At the same time, it can increase students’ commitment to the process and thereby lead to better outcomes.
But what about the idea of guaranteeing students jobs upon graduation? That may not be a suitable offer for every Career Services office – at least not without the commitment of your entire institution. But is it necessarily an absurd idea? That’s the guarantee that the University of Regina launched last September (http://www.urconnected.ca/urguarantee) - but further discussion of that will have to wait until a future article.
Three years ago I developed a workshop on the topic of marketing to students for Career Services offices. I presented it several times through webinars and also at the NACE Conference in New York. Not surprisingly, the topic attracted a very large audience each time it was presented because engaging students in their career development is both consistently challenging and a key focus for Career Services. The workshop covered several different key topics related to achieving credibility among students, ensuring that what you are offering really speaks to students, and so on. I also posed a challenge to participants: offer your students a service guarantee.
A guarantee is, in essence, an agreement between the customer and the provider. When I buy an iPod, I promise not to throw it down the stairs and if I do, I don’t expect the guarantee to apply. Similarly, with a service guarantee it is assumed that I will do my part: if I don’t give my accountant the right information, I can’t expect her to give me the right results. So a guarantee in Career Services would require a certain level of duty and commitment on the part of students.
Since a guarantee in a Career Services office represents an agreement between the student and Career Services, both are expected to do their part or the guarantee is null and void. Your statement of guarantee needs to specifically state what is expected of your students. Given this basis – the understanding that to “qualify” for the guarantee your students must invest a certain amount of effort – you may feel more confident about raising the bar of commitment that you are willing to make.
But what happens if your students do their part and still don’t get the result you promise? There’s usually no payment to refund, and more importantly, you can’t give them back the time they have invested. But you can do a number of things they will value greatly, the best of which is to listen to them and respond in a helpful way. Give them a meeting with the director, heap additional support and service upon them. Go the distance for them and they will become stronger allies than some of your most successful students. Again, these details must be described in your guarantee statement.
A first step in offering a service guarantee may be to start out with it as an option for just a certain group of students or a specific program. Select one of your best programs and create a guarantee or “service agreement” around it. Offer students the option of signing up for that agreement and explain clearly what is expected of them and what they can expect from you in return. Just imagine what it could do for their confidence in you, themselves, and the potential outcomes of your program!
To be clear, I am not suggesting that you guarantee your students a job – not unless you believe that that would be both achievable and consistent with your mandate. However, if your goal is to support students’ career development; or to create opportunities for them to connect with employers; or to develop job search skills, those are probably the kinds of things that you could be guaranteeing.
Offering a service guarantee can go a long way to increasing your credibility with students as true experts with whom they should invest their time. At the same time, it can increase students’ commitment to the process and thereby lead to better outcomes.
But what about the idea of guaranteeing students jobs upon graduation? That may not be a suitable offer for every Career Services office – at least not without the commitment of your entire institution. But is it necessarily an absurd idea? That’s the guarantee that the University of Regina launched last September (http://www.urconnected.ca/urguarantee) - but further discussion of that will have to wait until a future article.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Split Personality: Students Want Both Change and Stability
Students want change
Today is an appropriate day to discuss one of the greatest fears students have about their first real job: boredom. At least, it’s an appropriate day for those who are old enough to remember the movie Ground Hog Day. If you haven’t seen it, all you need to know is that every morning – day after day – Bill Murray wakes up to discover that during his sleep he has gone back in time and he has to re-live the same day, February 2nd, all over again. It’s a great representation of what students fear if they accept your job offer: that their tenth day, their one hundredth day, and their one thousandth day will be exact replicas of their first day.
Of course, when that first day on the job arrives, they will likely fear many other things much more: Is this the right building? Will I remember people’s names? Am I really qualified for this? Did I remember to get dressed this morning? But during the hiring process when they are evaluating opportunities and imagining life after graduation, they will definitely be wondering about what will make their work day interesting.
The best way to address this – like so much of the recruiting process – is to get personal. Websites, brochures, and presentations are full of “a day-in-the-life” synopses designed to give candidates a full picture of the employment experience. This is a good start, but it’s nothing compared to specific personal examples: “Today, for instance, I am here meeting with you; this morning I worked on developing a new strategy which I am excited to share with my colleagues; this afternoon I’m visiting our web designers to review the site; and tomorrow we’re having our first meeting to plan our charity stair climb.” There’s no need to exaggerate, just tell it like it is: “But I have to admit Tuesday was frustrating: we had to kill two hours waiting for approval for…” It’s all about making it personal and keeping it authentic.
Start with the ideal scenario: a direct conversation with each potential candidate. Then look for ways to make the other ways you connect (your website, presentations, student ambassadors, etc.) as close to that personal conversation as possible. And while you of course need to talk about the job itself, don’t forget about the human interaction, the humour, the charity drives, the learning, and the personal growth that are part of your organization. All of these have the potential to create an emotional connection that will outstrip an intellectual one any day.
Of course, your own job may be nothing like the ones you are hiring for. That’s why you involve colleagues: so they can share their true stories of the roles you are trying to fill. And keep in mind that what is interesting to you will be different for others. The day of an accountant may seem dull to you, but the intellectual stimulation and challenge will be intriguing to the right candidate. Overselling or underselling the position may attract too many or too few candidates and will definitely create retention problems when the role doesn’t match your new hire’s expectations.
Students hate change
As you’ve likely read elsewhere, students value advancement (lateral or vertical promotion) and opportunities to learn and develop very highly. This is partly because it demonstrates growth and change. It is also because, as we have established, they want variety in their work.
So students want change. Well, sort of. They also hate change.
For several years now we’ve been asking students in surveys and discussion groups what they think of the idea of staying with one employer for their whole life. The results are shocking to most: more than half say they like the idea. They don’t consider it likely – after all, we’ve told them it won’t happen – but they like the idea of it. How is this possible? Aren’t all Gen Yers disloyal and job-happing mad? Well, no. (Not at all, in fact, but I’ll focus on the decimation of those myths another time.) Will they leave a job they don’t like – or an employer who fails to deliver on the promises made in the hiring process – even if it means moving into their parents’ basement while they find a new one? If they can afford it, absolutely.
Many students, however, want stability in their careers because their main focus (at least as they view it before starting their careers) is on their life outside work. It seems remarkable to think of young people focusing on job security, but the truth is that dating, marrying, home buying, and baby-making all offer enough change without worrying about changing jobs. I hear again and again about their disdain for job hunting and their desire to be part of an organization, a work community, and with a group of colleagues with whom the can build long-term relationships. The opportunity for advancement, to gain more expertise, the promise of a dynamic career and company loyalty (yes, loyalty!) can keep many students at one company for a long time – perhaps for their entire working lives.
These two things – variety in the day-to-day and stability over time – are not really contradictory, but the differences are important. Bringing these two together so that candidates can imagine staying for the long term as they move through different experiences and roles is the key to attracting – and keeping – candidates who best fit your organization.
Today is an appropriate day to discuss one of the greatest fears students have about their first real job: boredom. At least, it’s an appropriate day for those who are old enough to remember the movie Ground Hog Day. If you haven’t seen it, all you need to know is that every morning – day after day – Bill Murray wakes up to discover that during his sleep he has gone back in time and he has to re-live the same day, February 2nd, all over again. It’s a great representation of what students fear if they accept your job offer: that their tenth day, their one hundredth day, and their one thousandth day will be exact replicas of their first day.
Of course, when that first day on the job arrives, they will likely fear many other things much more: Is this the right building? Will I remember people’s names? Am I really qualified for this? Did I remember to get dressed this morning? But during the hiring process when they are evaluating opportunities and imagining life after graduation, they will definitely be wondering about what will make their work day interesting.
The best way to address this – like so much of the recruiting process – is to get personal. Websites, brochures, and presentations are full of “a day-in-the-life” synopses designed to give candidates a full picture of the employment experience. This is a good start, but it’s nothing compared to specific personal examples: “Today, for instance, I am here meeting with you; this morning I worked on developing a new strategy which I am excited to share with my colleagues; this afternoon I’m visiting our web designers to review the site; and tomorrow we’re having our first meeting to plan our charity stair climb.” There’s no need to exaggerate, just tell it like it is: “But I have to admit Tuesday was frustrating: we had to kill two hours waiting for approval for…” It’s all about making it personal and keeping it authentic.
Start with the ideal scenario: a direct conversation with each potential candidate. Then look for ways to make the other ways you connect (your website, presentations, student ambassadors, etc.) as close to that personal conversation as possible. And while you of course need to talk about the job itself, don’t forget about the human interaction, the humour, the charity drives, the learning, and the personal growth that are part of your organization. All of these have the potential to create an emotional connection that will outstrip an intellectual one any day.
Of course, your own job may be nothing like the ones you are hiring for. That’s why you involve colleagues: so they can share their true stories of the roles you are trying to fill. And keep in mind that what is interesting to you will be different for others. The day of an accountant may seem dull to you, but the intellectual stimulation and challenge will be intriguing to the right candidate. Overselling or underselling the position may attract too many or too few candidates and will definitely create retention problems when the role doesn’t match your new hire’s expectations.
Students hate change
As you’ve likely read elsewhere, students value advancement (lateral or vertical promotion) and opportunities to learn and develop very highly. This is partly because it demonstrates growth and change. It is also because, as we have established, they want variety in their work.
So students want change. Well, sort of. They also hate change.
For several years now we’ve been asking students in surveys and discussion groups what they think of the idea of staying with one employer for their whole life. The results are shocking to most: more than half say they like the idea. They don’t consider it likely – after all, we’ve told them it won’t happen – but they like the idea of it. How is this possible? Aren’t all Gen Yers disloyal and job-happing mad? Well, no. (Not at all, in fact, but I’ll focus on the decimation of those myths another time.) Will they leave a job they don’t like – or an employer who fails to deliver on the promises made in the hiring process – even if it means moving into their parents’ basement while they find a new one? If they can afford it, absolutely.
Many students, however, want stability in their careers because their main focus (at least as they view it before starting their careers) is on their life outside work. It seems remarkable to think of young people focusing on job security, but the truth is that dating, marrying, home buying, and baby-making all offer enough change without worrying about changing jobs. I hear again and again about their disdain for job hunting and their desire to be part of an organization, a work community, and with a group of colleagues with whom the can build long-term relationships. The opportunity for advancement, to gain more expertise, the promise of a dynamic career and company loyalty (yes, loyalty!) can keep many students at one company for a long time – perhaps for their entire working lives.
These two things – variety in the day-to-day and stability over time – are not really contradictory, but the differences are important. Bringing these two together so that candidates can imagine staying for the long term as they move through different experiences and roles is the key to attracting – and keeping – candidates who best fit your organization.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
New Reitman’s site demonstrates some career page best practices
Reitman's (Canada) Ltd. has launched a new website (www.reitmans.ca) and its career pages demonstrate some best practices for recruiters. There are no earth-shattering new technologies involved, but a clean and simple focus on the things that matter most to candidates. It’s amazing how often some of these basics go missing from recruitment sites. One important shortcoming, however, is the site’s failure to clearly define a Unique Recruitment Proposition.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the site from a recruitment point of view is the high profile given to “Careers” on the home page – it appears in the main menu, holds one of three “permanent” spots on the page, and is one of the three major themes represented by the rotating feature images: “Careers” is given equal billing to “About Reitman’s” and “Financial & Media”.
The careers pages themselves are very easy to navigate and cover all of the key elements clearly. Too often, career web pages miss some of these key elements or make them much too difficult to find. Here are some of the features:
Where Reitman’s career pages fall short is in defining a Unique Recruitment Proposition. The main visual space on the careers pages provide a rotating set of 8 headlines that provide details such as “over 10,000 employees”, “over 1 billion in sales”, “over 950 stores” and so on. These all hint at a Unique Recruitment Proposition, but these headlines are too plentiful (8 concepts is too many to have an impact) and too indirect – what does “multi-banner company” mean to me as potential employee? New grads should not be expected to make the leap of logic; not because they aren't smart enough (of course they are), but because they aren't experienced in the world of work. It's important to remember that, for students, all employers are the same until proven different (or better).
One of the headline statements addresses candidates’ concern that they may never progress past the retail floor: “Wide range of career opportunities”. This is important to students considering launching their careers through retail. Most of the other statements may be indicators of potential job security – which is also important to new grads – but they should be directly stated as such. If Reitman’s simplifies these messages into two or three key benefits and clarifies their immediate value to new recruits, then they will have an all-around solid recruitment website.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the site from a recruitment point of view is the high profile given to “Careers” on the home page – it appears in the main menu, holds one of three “permanent” spots on the page, and is one of the three major themes represented by the rotating feature images: “Careers” is given equal billing to “About Reitman’s” and “Financial & Media”.
The careers pages themselves are very easy to navigate and cover all of the key elements clearly. Too often, career web pages miss some of these key elements or make them much too difficult to find. Here are some of the features:
- Quick access to postings and clear delineation between corporate opportunities and in-store positions
- Testimonials/profiles with great photos of 10 employees in a wide variety of roles
- Details that focus on "what's in it for me" in terms of rewards, personal development, and work-life balance – all important benefits to students entering retail
- Easy access to a list of upcoming recruitment events
- A helpful list of FAQs that address the questions Reitman’s has, no doubt, heard many times; it’s great to see applicants’ concerns about the online process so well addressed
- A page specific to students and graduates that addresses their unique interests
- “Share” links that allow visitors to easily share pages on the site via email, Facebook, Twitter, and so on
Where Reitman’s career pages fall short is in defining a Unique Recruitment Proposition. The main visual space on the careers pages provide a rotating set of 8 headlines that provide details such as “over 10,000 employees”, “over 1 billion in sales”, “over 950 stores” and so on. These all hint at a Unique Recruitment Proposition, but these headlines are too plentiful (8 concepts is too many to have an impact) and too indirect – what does “multi-banner company” mean to me as potential employee? New grads should not be expected to make the leap of logic; not because they aren't smart enough (of course they are), but because they aren't experienced in the world of work. It's important to remember that, for students, all employers are the same until proven different (or better).
One of the headline statements addresses candidates’ concern that they may never progress past the retail floor: “Wide range of career opportunities”. This is important to students considering launching their careers through retail. Most of the other statements may be indicators of potential job security – which is also important to new grads – but they should be directly stated as such. If Reitman’s simplifies these messages into two or three key benefits and clarifies their immediate value to new recruits, then they will have an all-around solid recruitment website.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Canadian Students Rank Canada’s Top Employers
[This blog entry is our press release announcing Canada's Top Campus Employers rankings...]
New rankings say a lot about the character of tomorrow’s workforce.
A recent survey of more than 16,000 Canadian university and college students forms the basis of Canada’s Top Campus Employers rankings while also providing new insight into the career interests and aspirations of today’s students.
The Government of Canada tops the overall rankings, with provincial and municipal governments as well as Health Canada also making it in the top 10. Interestingly, three technology giants – Google, Apple, and Microsoft – were the only for-profit organizations to make the top 10 this year. Meanwhile, some non-profit organizations made a big showing in the rankings: the Hospital for Sick Children, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the David Suzuki Foundation came in sixth, ninth, and tenth respectively.
Canada’s Top Campus Employers rankings are one component of a larger report, known as the From Learning to Work Report, which is conducted annually by Brainstorm Consulting and DECODE. The rankings also feature six sub-groups that list the top 25 employers as rated by students in liberal arts, engineering, information technology, natural sciences, undergraduate business, and MBA programs.
“Although surprising to many,” notes one of the report’s co-authors, Graham Donald of Brainstorm Consulting, “the results reflect two trends among young people that have been growing stronger each year: the desire for secure employment and the opportunity to do work that makes a meaningful contribution to society.”
The report refutes many stereotypes that often portray today’s graduates as unwilling to work hard and even disloyal to employers. “Today’s graduates are willing to work hard, but they place a high priority on having greater balance in their lives than their parents did,” explains Eric Meerkamper of DECODE. “And to say that this generation is not interested in loyalty is very misleading. Certainly organizations have to adapt to successfully retain these new hires, but the kinds of changes they need to make also improve the workplace for all employees.”
In fact, students believe quite strongly in the concept of loyalty: 71% of those surveyed believe that their employer will be loyal to them if they work hard. Even more remarkable is the finding that more than half (53%) of all students would like to find one employer with which to spend their whole career.
“Employers that want to rank well with today’s students have to demonstrate that they can provide the kind of workplace that will remain attractive for the long term,” adds Mr. Donald. “In other words, the onus to create opportunities for loyalty lies with the employer. This means creating a workplace environment that satisfies students’ top four priorities: interesting work, work-life balance, good people to work with, and job security.”
The recession has had some impact on students’ career expectations: 62% indicate that the current economy makes them “worried about” their job prospects. However, the study also found students to be very confident in their abilities and three quarters (76%) believe that employers will see them as “good candidates for employment.” “Canada’s top employers are not letting the recession stop them from building a good brand image on campus,” notes Mr. Donald.
Other highlights of the rankings show that the major accounting firms – Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers – perform very well among undergraduate business students by landing in the top 10. Canadian technology powerhouse Research In Motion (the makers of the BlackBerry) ranked in the top 10 as selected by students in 4 different majors: undergraduate business, engineering, graduate business (MBA), and information technology.
Often in the spotlight to provide leadership during this recession, the Bank of Canada performed well among business students by ranking tenth.
“Our primary goal with this research,” explains Mr. Meerkamper, “is to be able to help employers attract and hire successfully on campus. However, we have found that the research not only supports our clients’ efforts towards attracting and retaining new grads, but also creates better workplaces for all employees.”
Further details about Canada’s Top Campus Employers and the full rankings are available at www.TopCampusEmployers.ca
New rankings say a lot about the character of tomorrow’s workforce.
A recent survey of more than 16,000 Canadian university and college students forms the basis of Canada’s Top Campus Employers rankings while also providing new insight into the career interests and aspirations of today’s students.
The Government of Canada tops the overall rankings, with provincial and municipal governments as well as Health Canada also making it in the top 10. Interestingly, three technology giants – Google, Apple, and Microsoft – were the only for-profit organizations to make the top 10 this year. Meanwhile, some non-profit organizations made a big showing in the rankings: the Hospital for Sick Children, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the David Suzuki Foundation came in sixth, ninth, and tenth respectively.
Canada’s Top Campus Employers rankings are one component of a larger report, known as the From Learning to Work Report, which is conducted annually by Brainstorm Consulting and DECODE. The rankings also feature six sub-groups that list the top 25 employers as rated by students in liberal arts, engineering, information technology, natural sciences, undergraduate business, and MBA programs.
“Although surprising to many,” notes one of the report’s co-authors, Graham Donald of Brainstorm Consulting, “the results reflect two trends among young people that have been growing stronger each year: the desire for secure employment and the opportunity to do work that makes a meaningful contribution to society.”
The report refutes many stereotypes that often portray today’s graduates as unwilling to work hard and even disloyal to employers. “Today’s graduates are willing to work hard, but they place a high priority on having greater balance in their lives than their parents did,” explains Eric Meerkamper of DECODE. “And to say that this generation is not interested in loyalty is very misleading. Certainly organizations have to adapt to successfully retain these new hires, but the kinds of changes they need to make also improve the workplace for all employees.”
In fact, students believe quite strongly in the concept of loyalty: 71% of those surveyed believe that their employer will be loyal to them if they work hard. Even more remarkable is the finding that more than half (53%) of all students would like to find one employer with which to spend their whole career.
“Employers that want to rank well with today’s students have to demonstrate that they can provide the kind of workplace that will remain attractive for the long term,” adds Mr. Donald. “In other words, the onus to create opportunities for loyalty lies with the employer. This means creating a workplace environment that satisfies students’ top four priorities: interesting work, work-life balance, good people to work with, and job security.”
The recession has had some impact on students’ career expectations: 62% indicate that the current economy makes them “worried about” their job prospects. However, the study also found students to be very confident in their abilities and three quarters (76%) believe that employers will see them as “good candidates for employment.” “Canada’s top employers are not letting the recession stop them from building a good brand image on campus,” notes Mr. Donald.
Other highlights of the rankings show that the major accounting firms – Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers – perform very well among undergraduate business students by landing in the top 10. Canadian technology powerhouse Research In Motion (the makers of the BlackBerry) ranked in the top 10 as selected by students in 4 different majors: undergraduate business, engineering, graduate business (MBA), and information technology.
Often in the spotlight to provide leadership during this recession, the Bank of Canada performed well among business students by ranking tenth.
“Our primary goal with this research,” explains Mr. Meerkamper, “is to be able to help employers attract and hire successfully on campus. However, we have found that the research not only supports our clients’ efforts towards attracting and retaining new grads, but also creates better workplaces for all employees.”
Further details about Canada’s Top Campus Employers and the full rankings are available at www.TopCampusEmployers.ca
Monday, September 7, 2009
Why Campus Recruiters Should Market More to Gut Instincts
How do you make important decisions? How do you REALLY make those decisions? Do you develop a carefully calculated process to weigh various options and then select the one with the highest score? Or do you start along that track and then let your gut instincts take over? How do you imagine that students make decisions about their job choices? The truth is that gut instinct plays a far greater role in just about every decision than any of us like to admit. Effective recruiting means marketing to that gut instinct.
On the evolutionary time scale, our intellect is still in its infancy while our gut instinct is so mature that we don’t even notice it making decisions for us. Of course, “gut” is a misnomer that seems to imply that our instinctive decisions are not worthy of the brain where they are actually processed. Although we may have grown to accept that “rational” decisions are better in the sophisticated modern world, we wouldn’t last a day without our “gut” decisions to guide us. Before I get way too far outside my own expertise, I’ll simply refer you to a great book published last year by Dan Gardner, a journalist from Ottawa, entitled “Risk: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn’t – and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger.” (In the U.S. it was published with the title, “The Science of Fear.”) In a nutshell, he asserts that although we live in a safer world than ever, our illogical fear is also greater than ever – and causing some bad decisions.
Whether or not you agree that students’ career choices are made more by gut instinct than rational calculation, chances are that you are not speaking enough to the instinctive, emotional side of the brain. I was quite impressed a year and a half ago by a student in a focus group who indicated that salary was way down on his list of 10 criteria he used to evaluate job offers. I wasn’t so much impressed by salary being low on his list (that’s true of many students), but what impressed me was the simple fact that he even created such a list and scored the offers against it. That sounds pretty rational, but what was on that list? Quite simply, a lot of things that can’t be measured or easily compared.
(As an aside, one of the reasons students often appear to focus on salary is the same reason that employers focus on GPA more than they admit: these things are easily measured.)
Our research, and that of others, consistently shows such things as work-life balance, great people to work with, and interesting work as top criteria for graduating students. Not surprisingly in the current economic climate, the importance of “secure employment” has risen significantly. But none of these things can be easily measured, if at all. Ultimately, how students feel about these things is what will influence their decisions. How they feel about you and anyone else they meet from your company will therefore be tremendously important. What they hear from friends, family, and professors will also be highly impactful. And how they imagine themselves feeling when they tell those people where they’ve landed a job will also be critical.
My firm, Brainstorm Consulting, in partnership with DECODE, recently presented our clients with the 2009 edition of our “From Learning to Work Report” based on a survey of 16,000 Canadian university and college students. (Note to U.S. readers: I work and correspond work many U.S. experts and I am confident that these findings would be consistent on both sides of the border.) In our research, we analyzed dozens of criteria that influence students’ employer choice and job decisions. This resulted in the development of 6 groups of co-related criteria that we refer to as the 6 drivers of employer attractiveness. With almost all students, the number one driver is something we call “livability”. In a nutshell, livabililty is all about things that can’t be easily measured such as great people to work with, work-life balance, and a comfortable work environment. Marketing your livability means marketing what it feels like to work in your organization.
So how do you market such things as livability to students? How do you market to students’ gut rather than just their intellect? Well, of course Coca-Cola, Apple, VW and all the big brands create loyalty through massively expensive campaigns that consistently connect with our “heart strings” through mass media. So if you’ve got a great consumer brand and your target recruits love that brand, then you may be way ahead (although not everyone who loves a brand wants to work for the company).
Whether you have a great consumer brand you can leverage or not, the key here is to realize that although choosing an employer is a much bigger decision than choosing a soft drink or ketchup, employers must speak to the gut to create a powerful employment brand and have a profound influence on students’ decisions. And the way to do that is through simple true stories told in a personal way that create an image of work and a workplace that students can get passionate about and proud to be a part of. You may not have the budget to produce a heart-wrenching ad campaign, but if you work in a place worth working in then you are surrounded by stories – many of them your own personal stories – that will get students excited, even passionate, about joining you.
How, where, and when you tell those stories is a whole other matter…
On the evolutionary time scale, our intellect is still in its infancy while our gut instinct is so mature that we don’t even notice it making decisions for us. Of course, “gut” is a misnomer that seems to imply that our instinctive decisions are not worthy of the brain where they are actually processed. Although we may have grown to accept that “rational” decisions are better in the sophisticated modern world, we wouldn’t last a day without our “gut” decisions to guide us. Before I get way too far outside my own expertise, I’ll simply refer you to a great book published last year by Dan Gardner, a journalist from Ottawa, entitled “Risk: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn’t – and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger.” (In the U.S. it was published with the title, “The Science of Fear.”) In a nutshell, he asserts that although we live in a safer world than ever, our illogical fear is also greater than ever – and causing some bad decisions.
Whether or not you agree that students’ career choices are made more by gut instinct than rational calculation, chances are that you are not speaking enough to the instinctive, emotional side of the brain. I was quite impressed a year and a half ago by a student in a focus group who indicated that salary was way down on his list of 10 criteria he used to evaluate job offers. I wasn’t so much impressed by salary being low on his list (that’s true of many students), but what impressed me was the simple fact that he even created such a list and scored the offers against it. That sounds pretty rational, but what was on that list? Quite simply, a lot of things that can’t be measured or easily compared.
(As an aside, one of the reasons students often appear to focus on salary is the same reason that employers focus on GPA more than they admit: these things are easily measured.)
Our research, and that of others, consistently shows such things as work-life balance, great people to work with, and interesting work as top criteria for graduating students. Not surprisingly in the current economic climate, the importance of “secure employment” has risen significantly. But none of these things can be easily measured, if at all. Ultimately, how students feel about these things is what will influence their decisions. How they feel about you and anyone else they meet from your company will therefore be tremendously important. What they hear from friends, family, and professors will also be highly impactful. And how they imagine themselves feeling when they tell those people where they’ve landed a job will also be critical.
My firm, Brainstorm Consulting, in partnership with DECODE, recently presented our clients with the 2009 edition of our “From Learning to Work Report” based on a survey of 16,000 Canadian university and college students. (Note to U.S. readers: I work and correspond work many U.S. experts and I am confident that these findings would be consistent on both sides of the border.) In our research, we analyzed dozens of criteria that influence students’ employer choice and job decisions. This resulted in the development of 6 groups of co-related criteria that we refer to as the 6 drivers of employer attractiveness. With almost all students, the number one driver is something we call “livability”. In a nutshell, livabililty is all about things that can’t be easily measured such as great people to work with, work-life balance, and a comfortable work environment. Marketing your livability means marketing what it feels like to work in your organization.
So how do you market such things as livability to students? How do you market to students’ gut rather than just their intellect? Well, of course Coca-Cola, Apple, VW and all the big brands create loyalty through massively expensive campaigns that consistently connect with our “heart strings” through mass media. So if you’ve got a great consumer brand and your target recruits love that brand, then you may be way ahead (although not everyone who loves a brand wants to work for the company).
Whether you have a great consumer brand you can leverage or not, the key here is to realize that although choosing an employer is a much bigger decision than choosing a soft drink or ketchup, employers must speak to the gut to create a powerful employment brand and have a profound influence on students’ decisions. And the way to do that is through simple true stories told in a personal way that create an image of work and a workplace that students can get passionate about and proud to be a part of. You may not have the budget to produce a heart-wrenching ad campaign, but if you work in a place worth working in then you are surrounded by stories – many of them your own personal stories – that will get students excited, even passionate, about joining you.
How, where, and when you tell those stories is a whole other matter…
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Address students’ three “trigger questions” to engage them in career development.
Every campus career educator would like to engage more students in their career development. Put simply, the goal is to: 1) involve more students in the programs and services available; and 2) get those currently participating to engage more deeply.
But how?
Every year I ask thousands of students across North America a wide range of questions through surveys, panel discussions, and focus groups. I ask about their career interests, how they evaluate employers, what they expect from their career services office, who influences their decisions, where they gather information, and much more. I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to decisions about job search and career development services on campus, students have some questions of their own. Consciously or not, these are the three make-or-break “trigger” questions in the back of their mind:
1) Is it good?
2) Is it relevant?
3) Is it here and now?
These questions are the key to understanding what your “customers” value – and what they value is really all that matters when trying to engage them. But before discussing these in detail, let’s look at how career educators usually try to get students to use their services.
The mandate to deliver more career education to more students usually leads to the conclusion that what is needed is better marketing. The assumption is that if you develop a strong brand with a great logo and a compelling tagline, maximize your impact through social networks, launch a shiny new website, and print massive quantities of posters, thousands more students will come to you for help. Effective marketing is certainly important (and a clear, simple message delivered consistently is crucial), but at best, this is only a partial solution.
Reaching and engaging more students has far more to do with the programs you deliver and how and where you deliver them than it does with marketing.
The first step in marketing any program or service is quite simply: fix the service! I don’t care how witty the advertising is, or how bold the branding is, for a new ketchup – if it tastes like pickle juice then I won’t be buying it again. More importantly, rather than recommending it to others, I will tell them how awful it is. This last point is especially important to career educators. The risk to a customer when buying a product is relatively low: I can almost always return the product for a refund. But when I use a service (even if there is no fee), I am taking a bigger risk because I can never get back the time I invest in using it.
This is why referrals (word-of-mouth) are such a critical part of marketing career education on campus. Your customers need to know in advance that what you are offering will be a valuable investment of their time. So the first step in your marketing is to fix your service. You must fix anything you do that is less than excellent to stop the bad word-of-mouth which always draws far more attention than the good. Chances are that you can’t bring everything up to the “excellent” level or you would have done so long ago, therefore you must eliminate it.
This is no small feat for career educators who by nature say “yes” to every opportunity to help. There is also a tendency to continue offering anything that requires very few resources or minimal effort. But this is because we vastly underestimate the damaging effects of less-than-excellent programs or services. In the networked world, this damage can grow exponentially.
So let’s assume you have award-winning marketing and nothing but excellent programs and services. Problem solved? If that were true then there would be career offices across the continent engaging 100% of their students in comprehensive career exploration. Great marketing may get students’ attention and quality programs will support positive word-of-mouth referrals. But these only address the first of the “trigger questions” that hold the key to students’ decision to participate.
Here is an explanation of the three questions and some suggestions for how career educators should explore them further:
But how?
Every year I ask thousands of students across North America a wide range of questions through surveys, panel discussions, and focus groups. I ask about their career interests, how they evaluate employers, what they expect from their career services office, who influences their decisions, where they gather information, and much more. I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to decisions about job search and career development services on campus, students have some questions of their own. Consciously or not, these are the three make-or-break “trigger” questions in the back of their mind:
1) Is it good?
2) Is it relevant?
3) Is it here and now?
These questions are the key to understanding what your “customers” value – and what they value is really all that matters when trying to engage them. But before discussing these in detail, let’s look at how career educators usually try to get students to use their services.
The mandate to deliver more career education to more students usually leads to the conclusion that what is needed is better marketing. The assumption is that if you develop a strong brand with a great logo and a compelling tagline, maximize your impact through social networks, launch a shiny new website, and print massive quantities of posters, thousands more students will come to you for help. Effective marketing is certainly important (and a clear, simple message delivered consistently is crucial), but at best, this is only a partial solution.
Reaching and engaging more students has far more to do with the programs you deliver and how and where you deliver them than it does with marketing.
The first step in marketing any program or service is quite simply: fix the service! I don’t care how witty the advertising is, or how bold the branding is, for a new ketchup – if it tastes like pickle juice then I won’t be buying it again. More importantly, rather than recommending it to others, I will tell them how awful it is. This last point is especially important to career educators. The risk to a customer when buying a product is relatively low: I can almost always return the product for a refund. But when I use a service (even if there is no fee), I am taking a bigger risk because I can never get back the time I invest in using it.
This is why referrals (word-of-mouth) are such a critical part of marketing career education on campus. Your customers need to know in advance that what you are offering will be a valuable investment of their time. So the first step in your marketing is to fix your service. You must fix anything you do that is less than excellent to stop the bad word-of-mouth which always draws far more attention than the good. Chances are that you can’t bring everything up to the “excellent” level or you would have done so long ago, therefore you must eliminate it.
This is no small feat for career educators who by nature say “yes” to every opportunity to help. There is also a tendency to continue offering anything that requires very few resources or minimal effort. But this is because we vastly underestimate the damaging effects of less-than-excellent programs or services. In the networked world, this damage can grow exponentially.
So let’s assume you have award-winning marketing and nothing but excellent programs and services. Problem solved? If that were true then there would be career offices across the continent engaging 100% of their students in comprehensive career exploration. Great marketing may get students’ attention and quality programs will support positive word-of-mouth referrals. But these only address the first of the “trigger questions” that hold the key to students’ decision to participate.
Here is an explanation of the three questions and some suggestions for how career educators should explore them further:
1. Is it good? Quite simply, students want to know if the program, workshop, advice, or event you are offering is high quality. They are wondering: how do I know it’s good? What are the qualifications of the organizers or presenter? Where is the proof? Who said so?
Career educators need to brainstorm their answers to these questions and develop a plan to address them. What credentials can we boast about? What track record can we draw attention to? What testimonials can we offer? Who are the influential people (professors, student leaders, employers, advisors, etc.) who can recommend us?
2. Is it relevant? Now that I know it’s good, is it targeted to my needs? Is it relevant to me as a graduating kinesiology student or is this just another workshop that’s better for business students? How does it fit the stage I’m at? Is this about summer jobs or starting my career? Is it going to repeat the stuff I already know or take me to the next level? Will I really find it useful?It would be hard to imagine a better activity for a retreat day for career educators than to take on the task of addressing these questions. Ultimately, your work is about achieving positive change for your students. Engaging them in that change demands understanding what they value and responding in creative and innovative ways.
The big question that career educators need to ask themselves here is: how can we be more relevant to individual students with our limited resources? How can we have the greatest impact with the least investment in customization? How can we segment students into manageable sub-groups to increase our relevance? What partners can help us be more relevant to these students?
3. Is it here and now? Is it here where I spend my time – in my Faculty or campus hangouts? Do I really need this now? Do the venue and facilities reflect quality and give me confidence? Is it easily accessible? Is it available only in person or online too?
This is not about reinventing your programming in 30-second MTV-like sound bites or YouTube videos. The “here and now” factor is really about two things: 1) making it convenient and accessible; and 2) reinforcing the first two triggers with a time and a place that supports the messages of quality and relevance. How can you get your programming out of your career centre and into departments and faculties so that you not only increase participation, but also create opportunities to develop new partnerships and alliances?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
