Student Headhunters
Using peer
networks to find out about jobs is really effective, because when you hear it from someone who’s in the same situation as you,
maybe doing the same degree as you, it makes you feel like you can definitely apply to the job…
educate their peers in a friendly way and personally give them the confidence to apply. Using motivated student headhunters with links to LGBT societies, BME groups, ‘Women In’ networks and so forth should enable employers to find unearthed talent in their key demographics, thereby overcoming the common initial reaction of ‘that’s not for me’.
What other problems can a peer network fix? Grass roots brand perception. Awareness of lesser known schemes. Candidates with people skills and the right personality, not just an impressive CV. Since you can use these networks to tailor your recruitment focus to whatever the specific problem might be, the potential is pretty much endless – from
gender diversity in financial technology right through to punchy commercial schemes for large multinationals. In practice, this means that, rather than sending more of the same advert emails and job posts, holding more outreach sessions or attending more careers fairs, a peer network can find and deliver the candidates right to your door.
How would this work for employers? Building such a network is going to take time, money and a lot of careful management. For those who are lucky enough to have existing interns with the right skills, networks and motivation to work as headhunters, as well as having the luxury of time and money to engage, manage, train and incentivise them, the long term benefits will be
substantial. However, to the best of our knowledge no employer (or agency) has built a network quite like this before – mostly because the time and monetary investments required to reap the rewards appear prohibitively high. Many firms (including those quoted) prefer to use our existing network of peer2peer headhunters rather than try to build one of their own. That is not to say it is not worth the effort, especially for employers who are now focusing less on increasing application numbers and more on finding the right people. A new approach involving properly trained, incentivised, well managed and adequately rewarded student headhunters offers the potential to improve, and indeed fundamentally change, the way in which graduates and interns are recruited.
HR Managers from Baillie Gifford and Standard Life Investments give their views
Richard Barry, Head of Resourcing and Talent of the leading asset management firm Baillie Gifford talks about his experience of peer2peer networks: “Really effective graduate employment messages resonate best when speaking to people personally, which is very hard to do as a corporate entity. A truly personalised message needs someone on your behalf about what the company is looking for. It needs someone to talk coherently, confidently and knowledgeably with a degree of passion and emotion, colouring in the basics of the role, company culture and what it means to work in your organisation. This is hard to do as an employer with limited resources and only a few people in the graduate recruitment function. We can’t get to every campus and talk to everybody. Indeed, we can only reach a tiny
proportion of our target audience, so we need to have students on campus to help convey the message. It is fundamental that an organisation which values the individual in their workplace must try and attract people in same way.”
Angela Notman, Recruitment Manager of the global asset manager Standard Life Investments, also recognises that harnessing the power of student recommendations “makes a real difference to the quality of candidates coming through”. “The peer2peer method”, she notes, “has proven to be extremely effective, and has consistently provided us with exceptionally strong shortlists for graduates and interns across a dozen different business areas”. n
www.agr.org.uk | Graduate Recruiter 25
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