The Graduate Market in 2015
Graduate Recruitment Challenges in 2014-2015 With the number of graduate vacancies on offer from the UK’s leading employers rising for the third year running, it’s understandable that spending on graduate recruitment has increased at a number of organisations. Half of graduate recruiters have a similar budget to last year but twenty-four employers have allocated more resources and budget to attract and recruit university-leavers in 2014-2015 (see Chart 5.2 ), with four employers – including a leading media company, one of the Armed Forces and a consulting firm – reporting that their spending had ‘increased considerably’. Graduate recruiters from over twenty organisations warned they have had less money to spend on recruitment this year – including three of the Big Four accounting & professional services firms, several engineering & industrial companies and two of the largest employers from the oil & energy sector. Recruiters taking part in the research were asked about their main challenges and focuses during the current 2014-2015 graduate recruitment round (see Chart 5.3 ). More than two- thirds confirmed that one of their key priorities was to improve students’ perceptions of their organisations, half were keen to step up their profile on campus and three-fifths hoped to improve the quality of graduates they recruited. More than a third of recruiters feared heightened competition for graduates from other employers this year, whilst almost half warned they had insufficient resources in their graduate recruitment teams. Three-fifths of employers said that they were working to achieve diversity targets for their graduate recruitment, such as the number of women or ethnic minority applicants, and nearly a third of recruiters now have social mobility targets, to recruit graduates from a wider range of backgrounds and circumstances. Few employers wanted to increase the total number of graduate applications that they received but almost half of recruiters hoped to attract more applicants for specific job functions. There was also an increased emphasis on work experience at many organisations, with two-fifths looking to improve the quality of students recruited for internships or other work placements.
Chart 5.2 Employers’ Graduate Recruitment Budgets for 2014-15
4%
Budget has increased considerably
20%
Budget has increased a little
54%
Budget is similar to last year
19%
Budget has decreased a little
3%
Budget has decreased considerably
0
20
40
80
100
60
Percentage of top graduate employers
Source - The Graduate Market in 2015
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