Graduates – 6 reasons you should be hiring them!

By Meri Nasaj and Liz Norman.

It can be hard to find experienced talent within Insight, but the good news is there is a lot of individuals at the start of their career that are really keen to join this exciting and rapidly evolving profession.  In addition whilst salary inflation is rife, graduates salaries are not going up as rapidly.

Recently we have had a number of graduates/starters accept roles on salaries ranging between £22,000 and £27,500.  Those with some relevant academic or internship experience are looking at the upper end of this scale.

Here’s why you should hire more graduates:

1. They naturally have lower salaries and are therefore more affordable for companies to hire. Of course, a prolonged investment in their support, training and development is needed to maximise ROI.
2. Many employers fear that once they are trained they leave, so deliver no return on your investment however the ISE survey shows that graduate retention is very high.
3. Because they have little work experience, they don’t have to unlearn old ways or bad habits that experienced hires might carry with them. They are often perceived as a ‘blank canvas’, open to new ideas, ways of working and experiences. This may actually be the most important competency.
4. Studying helps them to develop core transferable skills such as written and oral communication, problem solving, teamwork, presentation, organisation and data analysis. Technical graduates will also have up-to-date specialist or technical skills gained from studies and be very comfortable with technology.
5. The government paper ‘The relationship between graduates and economic growth across countries’ examines the positive impact of graduates on productivity. Quantifying this can be difficult but at the national level there is evidence that more graduates will contribute to economic growth, as long as businesses can make good use of them, and they are valued.
6. You are in effect recruiting for potential and future-proofing your organisation. They have huge potential to lead your organisation in the future with proper support, training and career progression for up to 40 years. Remember, many CEOs started out as graduate trainee.

For more information or support on hiring entry level candidates, get in touch: hello@elizabethnorman.com