Friday, December 16, 2011
9 Topics to Include in Your Campus Recruiting Business Case
This is Part 2 of...
5 Steps to Developing a World-Class Campus Recruiting Program
In Part 1 of this article, I described the importance of building a solid business case for campus recruiting. This is the first step in developing a world-class campus recruiting program. Your business case plays a vital role in helping you get the resources you need for a successful program. Here are nine topics you may wish to research and include in your business case:
1. The demographic shift
This is probably the most compelling (and perhaps obvious) argument for investing in campus recruiting today. A Google search will quickly provide you with plenty of evidence of the aging population, declining birth rates, and the fact that fewer workers are going to have to support more retirees. There is plenty of evidence (and those who debate the opposite as well) that this will lead to shortage of workers within the next few years.
But that’s not the only aspect of the demographic shift that may affect your company. January 1st of this year (2011) marked the date that the first baby boomers turned 65 – the traditional retirement age. Most companies are sitting on a potential mass exodus when your senior employees decide they can afford to retire. What are the projections for your organization? Obviously retirees can’t be immediately replaced with new grads, but foresight is required to put your organization in a good position to fill future gaps.
Seek out national data, industry-specific data and then complement that with information about your own organization. Include labour market details specific to your industry. Data is best, but opinion pieces and case studies will help support your case.
2. Eye on the competition
Compile evidence of what your competitors are doing in terms of campus recruiting. Is this your opportunity to get ahead of competitors by attracting the best young talent? Or are you in severe catch-up mode? Either way, learn your position among your competitors and build your argument around that.
3. Future workforce
The world of work is changing: how it gets done, where it gets done, and who does it. Young employees are keen and able to work in collaborative work environments; they know how to connect and communicate with others around the world through a variety of technologies; and they may adapt more easily to how businesses will operate in the future. Understand how the changing workplace is affecting your business and add details to your business case about how new grads can support that change.
4. Building diversity
Simply put: if your business is trying to re-balance its workforce to reflect the diversity of the population, campus recruiting can be one of the most effective ways to attract and recruit your target audience. Ensure that your efforts, and your business case, align with your organization’s diversity efforts (and you may even be able to acquire support and resources from that area of HR).
5. Understanding changing times
The world outside your organization is changing in ways that older workers sometimes don’t grasp. Compile information about how your business is expected to change and make the case that students in the programs you recruit from are being trained for these changing times.
6. Creativity and innovation
Few will argue that young talent can bring creativity and innovation to an organization. If this is something your organization values – it may even be built into your organizational vision – be sure to demonstrate alignment with campus recruiting.
7. ROI – corporate examples
Seek out case studies of successful organization and articles by respected business leaders that endorse the case for recruiting and “developing your own” talent straight out of campus. It may not be “data”, but it can be persuasive.
8. Future customers
If your organization directly serves or sells to consumers, there is likely an effort to ensure that your employees are also a reflection of your customer base. Make the case that it takes young people to understand, market, and sell to young consumers.
9. They “get” technology
Never before have we been in a position where all young new hires have wealth of know-how that is in demand by more experienced workers: how to use new technologies. Develop opportunities for younger workers to share their knowledge of these technologies and add this as evidence to your business case.
Collecting this information may seem like a lot of work – but unless you’ve been asked for it right away, you can work on this over time. Always be on the lookout for new statistics, hiring trends, and case studies to support your argument.
That’s it for Step 1. The next step (coming soon!) is to evaluate your recruiting programs, processes and people to help you determine the highest priorities in your recruitment strategy.
What else do you include in your business case for campus recruiting?
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
5 Steps to Developing a World-Class Campus Recruiting Program (Part 1)
In my next several articles I am going to discuss five steps involved in developing and implementing a truly strategic campus recruiting program. This information is also the subject matter I have been presenting at the Campus Recruiting Forums this fall. If you can, consider joining us at the last Forums of the year in San Francisco on December 12th (www.CampusRecruitingForum.com) and Waterloo on December 15th (www.CampusRecruiting.ca).
These are the five steps:
My approach to this process is based on two fundamental truisms:
Building a solid business case for investing resources into campus recruiting is the first step towards developing a truly strategic program. Even if you’ve been “thrown” into the job and told that you already have a clear mandate, the sooner you can get to work on building a solid business case the better. For one thing, it will help you better understand the needs and opportunity that support your organization’s investment. It will also provide some clarity that will support better decision-making when it comes to the many choices you will have to make regarding marketing, target school selection, program types (co-op, leadership development, internship), and so on.
Regardless of your situation, there will inevitably come a time when you’ll be asked: “why exactly are we doing this?” In fact, even if your current support comes from the CEO level, there will undoubtedly be those in your organization – people you rely on – who will not be completely convinced of the importance of your work. This could be your boss or your boss’s boss; your direct reports; hiring managers; colleagues in the marketing department; others in HR; recent hires you want to bring to campus; and many others. And of course, if there are leadership changes, you may find yourself having to defend your costs there too – or risk starting from scratch!
Part of your job is to ensure clarity among others. Your colleagues may think there is an endless supply of young talent or they may feel threatened, or concerned, by new hiring on campus when there are layoffs elsewhere in the business. Almost certainly, the colleagues you need support from are very busy with other tasks and responsibilities. The reasons for recruiting on campus may seem obvious to you, but often they are not; everyone deserves the opportunity to see the case clearly laid out. And remember, anecdotes are not data. You will need both.
Building your business case is a continuous process. You can continue to add data, case studies, and competitive intelligence to your business case on an on-going basis – the stronger your case, the more secure your role and your potential to expand your programs.
In my next article I will share eight topics that you should include in your business case.
Of course, if you’d rather discuss all five steps in person (along with many other topics at the conference), join us an upcoming Campus Recruiting Forum:
These are the five steps:
- Build a solid business case
- Evaluate your current programs, processes and people
- Create your campus recruitment strategic plan
- Focus on your Employer Value Proposition
- Implement
My approach to this process is based on two fundamental truisms:
- Failure to plan is planning to fail; and,
- That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially. (Karl Pearson)
Building a solid business case for investing resources into campus recruiting is the first step towards developing a truly strategic program. Even if you’ve been “thrown” into the job and told that you already have a clear mandate, the sooner you can get to work on building a solid business case the better. For one thing, it will help you better understand the needs and opportunity that support your organization’s investment. It will also provide some clarity that will support better decision-making when it comes to the many choices you will have to make regarding marketing, target school selection, program types (co-op, leadership development, internship), and so on.
Regardless of your situation, there will inevitably come a time when you’ll be asked: “why exactly are we doing this?” In fact, even if your current support comes from the CEO level, there will undoubtedly be those in your organization – people you rely on – who will not be completely convinced of the importance of your work. This could be your boss or your boss’s boss; your direct reports; hiring managers; colleagues in the marketing department; others in HR; recent hires you want to bring to campus; and many others. And of course, if there are leadership changes, you may find yourself having to defend your costs there too – or risk starting from scratch!
Part of your job is to ensure clarity among others. Your colleagues may think there is an endless supply of young talent or they may feel threatened, or concerned, by new hiring on campus when there are layoffs elsewhere in the business. Almost certainly, the colleagues you need support from are very busy with other tasks and responsibilities. The reasons for recruiting on campus may seem obvious to you, but often they are not; everyone deserves the opportunity to see the case clearly laid out. And remember, anecdotes are not data. You will need both.
Building your business case is a continuous process. You can continue to add data, case studies, and competitive intelligence to your business case on an on-going basis – the stronger your case, the more secure your role and your potential to expand your programs.
In my next article I will share eight topics that you should include in your business case.
Of course, if you’d rather discuss all five steps in person (along with many other topics at the conference), join us an upcoming Campus Recruiting Forum:
- San Francisco, December 12th (www.CampusRecruitingForum.com)
- Waterloo, December 15th (www.CampusRecruiting.ca)
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The #1 Reason You Do NOT Need a Social Media Strategy.
You’ve heard the buzz in campus recruiting and the buzz is: social media. The only other catchphrase competing as aggressively for your attention is: Gen Y. Your task is to attract Gen Y and you know Gen Y lives on social media and therefore… could it be any more obvious? You need to create a presence through social media. But you know social media is complex – there are so many decisions and choices to be made (Which channels? What voice? Whose responsibility? What frequency? Whose budget!?). So there can be no doubt: before you get started you must develop a well-planned strategy.
But most employers do NOT need a social media strategy.
Why not? Simply put: because they aren’t ready!
There are many reasons that a business may not be ready to develop a social media recruitment strategy. A big one can be a lack of buy-in from those who control the resources to make it successful – often because they question if it is really necessary and how success will be measured. Another reason can be the recruitment team’s lack of expertise – even if they are all over social media in their personal lives, they may not be ready to implement social media in their professional roles.
But the biggest reason that many employers are not yet ready for social media has nothing to do with social media at all. It is the simple fact that they have lower-hanging fruit to pick. That is, there are simpler challenges with better-understood solutions that should be addressed first.
Campus recruiting has many moving parts: campus events, coordinating hiring managers, making effective use of co-op programs, training interviewers, campus relations, projecting hiring needs, ensuring management buy-in, understanding today’s students, campus ambassador programs, developing an effective employment value proposition, on-boarding, an effective website, effective advertising, and so on.
To take advantage of the opportunities on campus, all these pieces need to be aligned and used effectively. Somewhere in that long list (and the list goes on), there is almost certainly something that can be fixed or improved more easily. That’s the low-hanging fruit you want to pick first.
Developing and implementing a social media strategy can and should be a vital part of your attraction strategy (which is itself a part of your recruitment strategy). There is plenty of guidance and support available to make it a success – but it does require the development of internal expertise and most likely the support of external resources and expertise also. It doesn’t have to be intimidating, but it is probably not your low-hanging fruit.
Social media will develop interest, start conversations, and expand your candidate pool. But the first step is to do an assessment (we call it a Campus Recruitment Audit) to make sure you are ready for success when it comes. When you’ve done your assessment and addressed your major challenges, then you’ll be ready to take on social media. (And we’ll be happy to help you when you do!)
Join the conversation and sharing of expertise regarding campus recruitment program audits, social media strategies, and campus recruitment best practices at the Campus Recruiting Forums coming to Calgary on November 30th (www.CampusRecruiting.ca), to San Francisco on December 12th (www.CampusRecruitingForum.com) and to Waterloo on December 15th (www.CampusRecruiting.ca).
But most employers do NOT need a social media strategy.
Why not? Simply put: because they aren’t ready!
There are many reasons that a business may not be ready to develop a social media recruitment strategy. A big one can be a lack of buy-in from those who control the resources to make it successful – often because they question if it is really necessary and how success will be measured. Another reason can be the recruitment team’s lack of expertise – even if they are all over social media in their personal lives, they may not be ready to implement social media in their professional roles.
But the biggest reason that many employers are not yet ready for social media has nothing to do with social media at all. It is the simple fact that they have lower-hanging fruit to pick. That is, there are simpler challenges with better-understood solutions that should be addressed first.
Campus recruiting has many moving parts: campus events, coordinating hiring managers, making effective use of co-op programs, training interviewers, campus relations, projecting hiring needs, ensuring management buy-in, understanding today’s students, campus ambassador programs, developing an effective employment value proposition, on-boarding, an effective website, effective advertising, and so on.
To take advantage of the opportunities on campus, all these pieces need to be aligned and used effectively. Somewhere in that long list (and the list goes on), there is almost certainly something that can be fixed or improved more easily. That’s the low-hanging fruit you want to pick first.
Developing and implementing a social media strategy can and should be a vital part of your attraction strategy (which is itself a part of your recruitment strategy). There is plenty of guidance and support available to make it a success – but it does require the development of internal expertise and most likely the support of external resources and expertise also. It doesn’t have to be intimidating, but it is probably not your low-hanging fruit.
Social media will develop interest, start conversations, and expand your candidate pool. But the first step is to do an assessment (we call it a Campus Recruitment Audit) to make sure you are ready for success when it comes. When you’ve done your assessment and addressed your major challenges, then you’ll be ready to take on social media. (And we’ll be happy to help you when you do!)
Join the conversation and sharing of expertise regarding campus recruitment program audits, social media strategies, and campus recruitment best practices at the Campus Recruiting Forums coming to Calgary on November 30th (www.CampusRecruiting.ca), to San Francisco on December 12th (www.CampusRecruitingForum.com) and to Waterloo on December 15th (www.CampusRecruiting.ca).
Monday, July 5, 2010
Are You Measuring Your Quality of Hire?
Do you know if you are hiring the right people? Does striving to attract students with the highest GPA at the best schools ensure the future success of your organization? Or does it simply result in you giving your campus hires a couple of years of training before they go elsewhere? How do you know?
At the NACE conference in Orlando last month a panel of expert campus recruiters discussed the use of various metrics to evaluate and improve their recruiting. For me, what was most striking was when the facilitator, John Flato of Campus Strategic Partners, asked the audience how many of them measured “quality of hire”. There were about 75 employers in the room and yet only a handful raised their hands. I was so surprised that I posed the same question in my own workshop at the conference the next day – and the results were the same.
To be clear, “quality of hire” refers to the success of your new hires as they progress in their careers in your organization. It doesn’t mean how many other employers wanted them, how well they interviewed, or other assets they demonstrated during the recruiting process. Quality of hire measures whether or not they deliver value to your organization, get promoted, and fit well enough with your culture to want to stay long enough to deliver a great return on your investment.
Tracking cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, job offer acceptance rates, and other data helps to measure whether or not you are “filling seats” efficiently. But these metrics say nothing about whether or not you are actually hiring the right people. Without measuring the quality of hire – the true success of your process – you can’t demonstrate your effectiveness nor learn how to make improvements to your talent attraction and management.
In fact, your metrics may be entirely misleading. Perhaps you should be doubling the value you attribute to your candidates’ extra-curricular activities; perhaps those who interview well are your worst performers. How do you know?
Most employers have failed to design and implement a process to determine whether or not the students and graduates they are hiring are actually the right fit for their organization – and therefore likely to be promoted and make a meaningful impact. Many have no idea how long their new hires stay in the organization or how well they perform in the long term.
But it is quite possible that your “top picks” are failing miserably on the job, or succeeding wonderfully but leaving quickly when they find the work isn’t what they were looking for. Meanwhile, the “second tier” candidates you are hiring may be staying for the long term and excelling on the job. Obviously you’d like to re-vamp your hiring process so that those you have been considering “second tier” become identified quickly as your top candidates. You simply can’t learn this without tracking your quality of hire.
All that is really needed is a process and documentation to track your campus hires as they progress in their careers; access to their performance reviews; their exit interviews if they leave; and the original details from the hiring and interviewing process. This doesn’t have to be difficult, but it is challenging when there is high turnover in the campus recruiting roles – as is the case with many employers. There are tools such as RECSOLU that are designed for campus recruiters and some ATS systems will also facilitate the maintenance of such information.
You can always find ways to cut costs and add more efficiency to the process, but your ability to advance the role of campus recruiting in your organization; gain more resources; a commitment for more hiring; and truly add value is severely limited if you aren’t measuring your quality of hire.
At the NACE conference in Orlando last month a panel of expert campus recruiters discussed the use of various metrics to evaluate and improve their recruiting. For me, what was most striking was when the facilitator, John Flato of Campus Strategic Partners, asked the audience how many of them measured “quality of hire”. There were about 75 employers in the room and yet only a handful raised their hands. I was so surprised that I posed the same question in my own workshop at the conference the next day – and the results were the same.
To be clear, “quality of hire” refers to the success of your new hires as they progress in their careers in your organization. It doesn’t mean how many other employers wanted them, how well they interviewed, or other assets they demonstrated during the recruiting process. Quality of hire measures whether or not they deliver value to your organization, get promoted, and fit well enough with your culture to want to stay long enough to deliver a great return on your investment.
Tracking cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, job offer acceptance rates, and other data helps to measure whether or not you are “filling seats” efficiently. But these metrics say nothing about whether or not you are actually hiring the right people. Without measuring the quality of hire – the true success of your process – you can’t demonstrate your effectiveness nor learn how to make improvements to your talent attraction and management.
In fact, your metrics may be entirely misleading. Perhaps you should be doubling the value you attribute to your candidates’ extra-curricular activities; perhaps those who interview well are your worst performers. How do you know?
Most employers have failed to design and implement a process to determine whether or not the students and graduates they are hiring are actually the right fit for their organization – and therefore likely to be promoted and make a meaningful impact. Many have no idea how long their new hires stay in the organization or how well they perform in the long term.
But it is quite possible that your “top picks” are failing miserably on the job, or succeeding wonderfully but leaving quickly when they find the work isn’t what they were looking for. Meanwhile, the “second tier” candidates you are hiring may be staying for the long term and excelling on the job. Obviously you’d like to re-vamp your hiring process so that those you have been considering “second tier” become identified quickly as your top candidates. You simply can’t learn this without tracking your quality of hire.
All that is really needed is a process and documentation to track your campus hires as they progress in their careers; access to their performance reviews; their exit interviews if they leave; and the original details from the hiring and interviewing process. This doesn’t have to be difficult, but it is challenging when there is high turnover in the campus recruiting roles – as is the case with many employers. There are tools such as RECSOLU that are designed for campus recruiters and some ATS systems will also facilitate the maintenance of such information.
You can always find ways to cut costs and add more efficiency to the process, but your ability to advance the role of campus recruiting in your organization; gain more resources; a commitment for more hiring; and truly add value is severely limited if you aren’t measuring your quality of hire.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Do you really know who you are?
In last week’s article I asked if you really know what your target students want and I talked about the importance of focusing in on their key interests when developing your recruitment messaging. But knowing what your target candidates are looking for is only the first step to developing effective brand messaging.
Once you understand what your ideal target candidate wants, it can be tempting to put it on a sign, a website, and your Facebook page: that’s us! That’s what we offer! But unless you have been re-designing your organization around the interests and aspirations of your future young recruits for many years, this is not likely true. So the next step in developing your key brand message is to understand who you really are. More specifically: what is the value you offer to current and potential employees?
This is essentially what is meant by the terms Employer Value Proposition or, my favourite, Unique Recruitment Proposition (URP!).
As you are likely aware, today’s students are sceptical of the messages they see and hear. So if your recruitment messages are anything less than authentic (or simply even contrary to public opinion), they will fall upon deaf ears; or worse, they will be mocked online for all to see. Discovering who you really are is best revealed by conducting research with your recent hires.
This does not have to be a huge undertaking, but it does need to be done objectively and in a manner which invites honest input. (And, generally speaking, today’s students are pretty comfortable expressing their opinions and pointing out opportunities for improvement). You will want to give them an opportunity to provide both open-ended feedback, which may reveal both strengths and weaknesses you hadn’t considered, as well as ranking-type questions in which they evaluate you on the exact same criteria that was used in the research with potential hires.
Ultimately, your goal is to figure out where the interests of your potential candidates (what they want) intersect with the actual experiences of your recent hires (who you are). In the end, you may find that “interesting work” is your target candidates’ first interest but not one of your strengths. In this case, you won’t be able to base your messaging on this aspect of your employment offering. But chances are that some of your real brand (the truth revealed by your young employee survey) will overlap with the interests of your candidates. This overlap will form the basis of your brand communications.
By the way, if you don’t find some points of strong correlation between the interests of your target candidates and experiences of your current employees, then either your “target candidate” criteria is flawed or your work environment needs to change, or both.
Once you understand what your ideal target candidate wants, it can be tempting to put it on a sign, a website, and your Facebook page: that’s us! That’s what we offer! But unless you have been re-designing your organization around the interests and aspirations of your future young recruits for many years, this is not likely true. So the next step in developing your key brand message is to understand who you really are. More specifically: what is the value you offer to current and potential employees?
This is essentially what is meant by the terms Employer Value Proposition or, my favourite, Unique Recruitment Proposition (URP!).
As you are likely aware, today’s students are sceptical of the messages they see and hear. So if your recruitment messages are anything less than authentic (or simply even contrary to public opinion), they will fall upon deaf ears; or worse, they will be mocked online for all to see. Discovering who you really are is best revealed by conducting research with your recent hires.
This does not have to be a huge undertaking, but it does need to be done objectively and in a manner which invites honest input. (And, generally speaking, today’s students are pretty comfortable expressing their opinions and pointing out opportunities for improvement). You will want to give them an opportunity to provide both open-ended feedback, which may reveal both strengths and weaknesses you hadn’t considered, as well as ranking-type questions in which they evaluate you on the exact same criteria that was used in the research with potential hires.
Ultimately, your goal is to figure out where the interests of your potential candidates (what they want) intersect with the actual experiences of your recent hires (who you are). In the end, you may find that “interesting work” is your target candidates’ first interest but not one of your strengths. In this case, you won’t be able to base your messaging on this aspect of your employment offering. But chances are that some of your real brand (the truth revealed by your young employee survey) will overlap with the interests of your candidates. This overlap will form the basis of your brand communications.
By the way, if you don’t find some points of strong correlation between the interests of your target candidates and experiences of your current employees, then either your “target candidate” criteria is flawed or your work environment needs to change, or both.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Do You Really Know What Students Want?
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.
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.
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.
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