Insights

With all the time and money invested in recruiting talented early career candidates, getting a signed offer letter is only half the battle. Retention is important too – especially to ensure that new graduates develop into future leaders at the company. So how can you effectively manage young employees and help them develop as rising professionals?

We all know 2020 was an unprecedented year – and college recruitment teams had to adapt their strategies through it all. That’s why RippleMatch is proud to announce the 2021 Honorees of our first-ever Campus Forward Awards.

It's been an unprecedented and challenging year, and college recruitment looks different than ever before.

What makes a candidate qualified for a specific position? Most hiring managers and recruiters look to factors like past experience, references, and assessments. But for entry-level hiring, GPA is often used as a hard filter and a tool to assess and compare candidates. According to the NACE 2019 Job Outlook Survey, 73% of employers planned to use GPA to screen candidates (the highest percentage since 2013), with the most common hard filters set at 3.0.

Professional development matters, especially for Gen Z. In RippleMatch research, we’ve found that professional development ranks in the top of Gen Z’s list of priorities when searching for a job, and is one of the most influential factor when this generation considers accepting an internship or job offer. However, you don’t need to wait until you’ve already hired a candidate in order to get started on their professional development. One way to stand out to Gen Z talent while recruiting is to “show, don’t tell” your dedication to professional development. This approach is especially valuable in a time when many students lack professional resources due to remote learning, canceled internships, and limited in-person networking events. So instead of only showing up to virtual career fairs, incorporate these ideas to help potential candidates develop professionally while also expanding your employer brand.

Making your workplace accessible and friendly to potential and current employees with disabilities is not just the right thing to do—it will make your business stronger. A study conducted by Accenture, the American Association of People with Disabilities, and Disability: In found that organizations prioritizing accessibility had 28 percent higher revenue, and people with disabilities represent the third-largest market segment in the United States. By bringing in employees with different abilities and backgrounds, your business will make better products, understand your customers more, and will foster an open, strong community.

Millennials are currently the largest generation in the U.S. labor force, but it’s Generation Z that will be filling internships and entry-level roles for years to come. With the oldest members of Generation Z now entering the workforce, it’s essential for companies to understand how their youngest employees will operate in the workforce.

College recruitment teams know how important it is to curate diverse hiring pipelines. But sometimes, barriers to diversity – such as archaic role requirements or biased assessments – make their way into the hiring process, limiting the talent pool and unintentionally creating an uneven playing field.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are not only educational centers for Hispanic and Latinx students – they’re cultural centers, too. These are schools with 25% or more Hispanic and Latinx enrollment, and offer curriculum and programs centered around students’ heritage. Students may choose these institutions because they’re located close to home, cost-friendly, or because they offer an inclusive experience that non-HSIs do not.