3 Seismic Shifts in Campus Recruiting that Will Remain Long After Covid-19

2020 has completely transformed campus recruiting. And while some of the changes may fade away when all of this is over, a fundamental shift has occurred that will have long-term impacts on both employers and Post-Secondary institutions. In fact, the impacts will even affect how Post-Secondary institutions recruit and admit High School students and that will have (positive) ripple effects throughout the education system.

Here are three shifts with long-term implications – there will certainly be others as well.

#1:

The "distribution" of opportunities and talent has been completely disrupted by the removal of geographic barriers from recruitment.

Employers have always had their “top tier” schools where they invest most or all of their recruitment energies. These are often called “partnerships”. Many employers also have “second tier” and even “third tier” schools with those in each tier receiving a little less attention than the one above. Beyond that, employers either “hide” opportunities so that they don’t have to deal with applications outside their target schools or they make the opportunities widely available but don’t support them with much, if any, marketing to the hundreds of other campuses.

While the top argument for creating tiers is that it allows recruiters and managers to focus on the schools that have historically yielded the best results, the reality is that geography has often had a lot more to do with the decisions than most were willing to admit. (There are also other non-data-based arguments like, “it’s where our CEO went to school,” but that’s for a different article).

The result this year so far is that employers are “discovering” that many other schools – both near and far – have remarkably talented students willing to come work for them.

It’s just anecdotal at this point, but “smaller brand” schools appear to be seizing this opportunity.

So, what will happen to those big brand schools that have always relied on their reputations to attract opportunities for students?

When we look back at Covid-19 in the rear-view mirror (hallelujah!) and employers realize that they have found incredibly talented students in every corner of the country, they won’t be rushing back to their historic “partner schools” in a hurry.

#2

The focus of campus recruitment marketing and outreach has experienced a massive shift to support diversity recruitment commitments.

This has completely upended the usual priorities of building a brand on campus, attracting “top students”, and reducing both time-to-hire and cost-per-hire.

What started this year as a response to Black Lives Matter has accelerated diversity, equity and inclusion efforts for all under-represented groups. The realization (at long last) by many employers that their diversity efforts should be a fundamental part of their campus strategy will lead to ripple effects right through the education system.

A few years ago, an employer shared with me their target numbers for hiring female engineers as mandated by their company leadership. I had to tell them that their target exceeded total supply in the country!

How will employers achieve their diversity goals when they can’t find the talent they seek?

Clearly, we are in for some very exciting times as the demand in the corporate sector (and hopefully financial support as well) for diverse talent will create an opportunity to transform support for students who have traditionally met barriers to education.

These changes may have been accelerated by (or at least during) Covid-19, but they will certainly be with us long after.

#3

The barriers to in-person relationship building have resulted in many new ways for employers and students to interact.

I, among many others, have spent many years helping organizations understand the importance (and showing them the supporting data) of in-person interaction with students on campus. Every year, many have over-invested in social media and the technology-du-jour at the expense of building much more impactful relationships.

But of course, Covid-19 changed everything. Over the past several months different employers have tried everything to create virtual interactions of one type or another. With no other choice, students have jumped on board – at least to a degree. When the dust clears, we’ll see which tactics worked better than others.

There’s no question in my mind that when it is safe to do so (and fully perceived as such), the first employers to make in-person connections will win.

But it is also clear that some of the new strategies will stick. For instance, employers may travel less frequently, but stay on campus longer. And certainly, video interviews will continue to replace a lot of phone screening and in-person interviews regardless.

And I haven’t even touched on shift #4: the distribution of work as a result of a new comfort level with working from home and managing from a distance.

What else has changed? How has your work been impacted? Please let me know.

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Do you hire students in Canada? Help us summarize all of this (and much more) with concrete data by participating in our 2021 Campus Recruitment Outlook survey. All employers that respond will receive a FREE COPY of the report.

Canadian employers can participate in the 10-minute confidential survey, here: https://survey.alchemer-ca.com/s3/50090249/e4b8e7a571e6