Letter from Africa…
graduate population, social media allows you to engage with a far bigger audience. Think about the Ghanaian kid that won a scholarship to Yale. She’s probably someone you’d want to be talking to, but if you’re a South African or Nigerian company, how do you make that connection with traditional graduate campaigns? Social media enables a paradigm shift when it comes to reach and allows you to considerably change your strategy with regard to which, and how many, graduates you target.
3. Education In the past potential graduates would read static websites and annual reports as well as scratching around in newspapers for relevant information about their potential employers. However this doesn’t really translate into an authentic view of the kind of work they may be involved in. Social media platforms allow organisations to educate their audience about the roles and work within their companies. In doing so, they create a platform for appropriate candidates to ‘self-select’ in to the process, and for those that are obviously not appropriate, to ‘self- select’ out.
4 Real-time engagement A real-time presence ensures that the organisation is accessible and connected to its target market in a way that traditional approaches can’t. Imagine that it is 48 hours before applications close, and students being students have all left it to the last minute to get their applications in. Despite a considerable increase in volume, your system is coping until the unthinkable happens… it crashes. Not an uncommon occurrence with African bandwidth. The tech wizards are onto it immediately but 12 hours of applications are lost and with it, the possibility of some of your best potential candidates. Even if you extend the deadline, how do you channel the message to
affected candidates? The capacity to engage with graduates in real- time is unsurpassed and allows your organisation to be flexible and responsive in its communication with the target audience.
5. Career development skills The number of graduates that benefit from career guidance and development skills far exceeds the small number of individuals that ultimately join programmes. In the African context, where unemployment is higher than developed economies, these skills are priceless. Unsuccessful candidates go on to pursue further opportunities with stronger interviewing and CV writing skills. In addition, it can play an important role in improving the selection process. Think about the star mathematician that would make an outstanding engineer or derivatives trader. While numbers are his game, weaving a great story isn’t, and applying in his second language means the process is hard work. The contribution made by providing students with the right skills is in allowing them to present their ‘best self’, ensuring that organisations don’t miss hidden gems.
Making the platform work Having a social media presence and being good at it are two very different things. It’s important to note that once you engage in social media as a graduate recruitment strategy, you will enter into a psychological contract with your audience, and with this brings assumptions and expectations.
I believe that a good social media strategy is built on authenticity, availability and functionality, and that while these are informed by a unique African context, I believe their learnings are applicable in a broader context.
Authenticity Graduate employers in Africa that are connecting with the graduate market
www.agr.org.uk | Graduate Recruiter 35
have authenticity as a cornerstone of their strategies. Some of the most successful campaigns have been the profiling of, and live chats with, past and present graduates and the reason for this is that potential candidates get an authentic perspective of their potential futures. This resonates with candidates.
Availability The benefit of engaging in real time only works if you have resources available to interact in real time. Graduates in Africa, and I suspect across the globe, are notorious for working at odd hours. More than that, they perceive anything less than instant feedback as sloppy at best and at worst, disingenuous. While logistically maintaining a 24/7 profile can be challenging, it provides a powerful message to the audience; one that says we take graduate employment seriously and we are committed to engaging in real time!
Functionality The last piece of the puzzle is functionality. The platforms you use need to be able to support optimal usage by the target audience. In the African context we have found that due to low level of internet penetration relative to mobile penetration, platforms need to be optimised for mobile use. In addition, given the developing infrastructure and limited bandwidth (relative to developed markets), applications and platforms need to use as little data as possible. Furthermore, providing end-to-end functionality is becoming critical. You need to be able to deliver more than just information; your platforms need to be able to drive the entire process.
lyndsayshaw@gmail.com n
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