University Recruiting SME | Independent consultant to employers hiring early talent | Provider of unbiased student recruiting research
With fall recruiting season fast-approaching, here’s one student’s comment about her preference for attending ‘IRL’ [in real life] recruiting events. A clear-eyed analysis of SRG’s spring 2024 campus research [‘IMPACT of Recruiting Modality on the Student Job Search’] surfaced dozens of relevant data points in support of in-person recruiting events, among them: ➡ On a 10-point Likert scale, where a ‘10’ indicated strongest level of agreement, students agreed that in-person interaction “felt personal“ at 7.32 on average, compared with a corresponding rating of 6.65 for virtual engagement; and ➡ That representatives “seemed to want to engage with me” was rated 7.98 for in-person interaction, and 7.29 for virtual encounters. 👉 Why do these metrics matter? Because for the third year running, over 60% of students agreed that they were “more likely to decline or renege on an offer without a genuine connection” to the employer. Over the summer, I've read loads of articles and posts specific to students’ lack of engagement throughout the recruiting and offer consideration stages of UR execution, with lots of theories about reasons for the current state. 🌟 What my research findings consistently point to is a strong correlation between candidate relationship-building and successful outcomes. And although easier said than done regardless of modality, in-person engagement continues to be what students prefer – as was the case before the pandemic.
Sr. IT Project Manager
4moWell said!