Creating a consumer-grade experience for early career professionals

Uncomplicate the application experience and focus on what you actually need to know from candidates

The shift from grad fairs to hybrid, or digital-only recruitment is the kick-off hiring teams need to shift their application process. Early career professionals of today are often put off by traditional long-form application processes that rely heavily on educational backgrounds and information organizations aren’t actually using.

Reflect on your roles and what skills and education they actually need — that’s the only information you need to ask for!

Change your mindset to skills versus education

Graduates and early career professionals of today are harnessed with a wider range of skills and experience than ever before. From soft skills to work experience and side-hustle culture, hiring teams need to look at what they place importance on, and move away from traditional criteria.

Look towards the entire skillset a candidate holds and how those skills can be used within your workforce in different roles on a full-picture scale beyond a tertiary education that can eliminate some of your best candidates from the running.

Understand what a consumer-grade and hyper-personalization experience actually means and the power behind it

Early career professionals are looking for a career that matches their skills, potential, values, and future career path — and bringing that to them takes a level of personalization, otherwise, you’re asking them to join a role that doesn’t truly apply to them.

Hiring teams who can understand the skills and potential talent possess, the current and future career pathways available to them, and where they’re at in their candidate process, can personalize each step of the experience and proactively approach candidates at the right time.

Invest in a consumer-grade pre-boarding experience that develops early career skills now, not later

Start designing early career recruitment models with skills development and support in mind, not just for employees but for candidates. Candidates are looking to choose the workplace that will get their careers moving.

Start investing in the pre-board experience where you can provide candidates with education to start working on their professional development skills, human skills, or interviewing skills before they even apply for you.

Communicate your EVP proactively and at scale

Early career candidates of today are looking increasingly towards the values of the organizations they are applying to work with. Today’s new talent are wanting organizations to communicate their stance on career development, flexibility, working environments, culture, and stability in a way that reaches them before they reach out to you.

Find authentic and accessible ways to share your values and EVP with graduates, whether it’s through a career advisor platform, social media, or virtual events that anyone can attend.

Increase the visibility and flexibility of your internal career pathways

Career development is a top priority for early career professionals. Giving talent a view into their potential career with you beyond the role they’re applying for shows an early investment in their success.

Ask your hiring teams and leaders how easy it is to view an employee’s current career pathway, and how possible it is to view that pathway if new skills are added or internal moves are made. Can you see what internal opportunities an employee can access? Do you have the ability to communicate this not just internally, but externally to candidates?