Continuing our series of Best Practices to help you recruit students with the “best fit” for your organization, the IFMA Education Foundation, through the PEOPLE FUTURE 2025 initiative, found that students are deciding earlier which industry they want to pursue and the companies they would like to work for.
In continuation of our series on best practices to help you recruit students who are passionate, dynamic, and will “best fit” your organization, the PEOPLE FUTURE 2025 initiative found that companies who invest and engage at a deeper level are able to be selective in identifying and recruiting students that have the best chance for amazing success in the organizations they join.
It is worth restating from our previous best practice article Earlier Exposure that companies willing to invest time to create awareness, identify students early, and give them experiences that complement organizational needs, are bringing new talent into their organizations that are immediately able to contribute and hit the ground running. Our research shows that companies that look at talent acquisition as a strategy, and not a task, are those that are favored by students looking to join progressive, employee focused organizations.
And as we mentioned, the fight for talent is only going to get tougher!
For your company to make a connection with students, you not only need to engage earlier, you must be visible in the places students turn to for career guidance and exposure to opportunities. Leading organizations understand this and are deliberate in creating exposure for their companies through multiple touch point.
Progressive companies also realize the benefit of partnering with other companies facing similar recruiting issues. Here is an example of collaboration and creation of opportunities for deeper engagement with students:
In upstate New York, specifically the Buffalo area, foodservice companies had a very difficult time recruiting students who were not familiar with the area and had a negative bias on opportunities in the region. Companies knew it was simply a perception issue, but a real issue that they needed to deal with. No one company had been able to solve the problem on their own, so several companies came together to find a solution. They collaborated with Niagara University to create a specific degree to expose and then educate students on the great opportunities in our industry. Niagara University’s Food Marketing Center of Excellence was created in collaboration with foodservice companies and it is delivering results. Companies now have a pipeline of students who understand and want to be a part of our vibrant industry.
Building a pipeline of talent is not easy, but it is one of the best investments companies can make!
As with engaging early, it will take 3-4 years for the first full cycle to begin paying off, once it does there will be a continuous flow of talent coming into your organization that has already been vetted, is proven to drive results, and gives you the “fit” you need to assure your future success.
Engaging early and building deeper relationships, with the right institution, is worth the effort!
If you don’t know where to start, we will be able to help you. As part of the work that PEOPLE FUTURE 2025 is doing, we are developing additional insights and tools for our member companies to use that are proven to work. We will be showcasing these at the IFMA Presidents Conference November 3-5 in