The Effect of Employer Recruiting Shifts On University Students in the COVID-19 Pandemic, A Literature Review

Below is a brief full-text literature review that was developed in my EdD-811 Course @ Regis College. It is offered here to the community in hopes that some of the knowledge, findings, or sources are helpful to others as they seek to understand the dynamics at play in the university recruiting market for 2022, perhaps even beyond. I welcome any feedback and constructive criticism that help those in the university recruiting space navigate a path forward in their work. Please forgive any errors of formatting as it is translated to this medium.

Overview:

Employers have made significant adjustments to the recruiting strategies for their talent pipelines as they operate within the COVID-19 pandemic. On one hand, a recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that over half of employers planned to recruit virtually in 2021 (Gray, 2020). On the other hand, the lack of in-person recruiting has caused a noticeable shift as students rely on other trusted sources of information. For example, students have significantly raised the value of receiving alumni perspectives to understand a future employment situation (Scott, 2021). Furthermore, employers are being more deliberate in their efforts to recruit a more diverse and representative workforce (Nedlund, 2020).

While employers have dramatically changed the recruiting process to accommodate the virtual recruiting (Laker, et. al, 2021) and new diversity initiatives, research has shown that students “avoid virtual fairs (almost everything virtual) as the event is outside their normal comfort zone and increases their anxiety…” (Gardner, 2020, p. 40). This dichotomy of employer action and adverse student reaction sets up the talent pipeline ecosystem with significant inefficiencies in recruiting. Yet there are both challenges, as well as opportunities. Higher Education Institutions have a role in building elements of a foundational relationship between the student and their future employer. These foundational elements are found in the sense of community theory first presented in by McMillan & Chavis (1986). In particular, HEI’s have an opportunity to develop the early stages of sense of community in both integration and membership elements of the theory (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Therefore, it is critical for Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s), specifically career services offices, to facilitate meaningful recruiting experiences with stakeholders in the talent pipeline to best integrate students as members of future workplace communities.

Shifts in Employer Recruiting

The team from Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute, currently under the guidance of Dr. Phil Gardner, has produced its “Recruiting Trends Survey & Report” for 51 years. In its most recent report discussing the 2021-2022 academic year, Dr. Gardner’s team shared that “earlier survey projections estimated that the adoption of digital technologies would occur gradually until accelerating between 2025-2030. Well, 2030 is now today!” (Gardner. 2021, p. 5). The findings also presented key advantages of the virtual recruiting environment that will likely remain in some fashion for business efficiencies. For example, “…employers have realized significant cost savings from virtual recruiting” as recruiting budget savings would be realized from reduced travel and attendance costs (Gardner, 2021, p. 3). Another advantage to virtual recruiting is the ability to be geographically agnostic (Malguri, 2020).

As Mark Lobosco, VP of Talent Solutions at LinkedIn, told Benefits News, the virtual nature of work “provides an opportunity for companies to rethink their recruiting strategies to source talent from anywhere in the world, not just their company’s location” (Nedlund, 2020). This sentiment is reinforced by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) findings in which a recent report found that “larger organizations are more likely to have the necessary infrastructure to conduct recruiting virtually” (NACE, 2020). For Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s), there may be an opportunity to discover new talent pipeline alignments with larger companies operating more virtually. In this day where virtual recruiting will remain a part of the talent pipeline, HEI’s need to discover “shared interest” with employers and work to customize approaches with students based on personality and culture (Wechter, 2021).

Student and Virtual Recruiting

Undergraduate students are being sought after at an increased rate as employers recover from year one of the pandemic. According to the 2021-2022 Recruiting Trends report, full-time job hiring is anticipated to be 26% higher than in 2020-2021 (Gardner, 2021, p.22). In parallel, at least 75% of employers have fully embraced remote hiring practices (“Pandemic…,” 2020). This means that most of the graduating undergraduate class of 2022 will experience virtual recruiting efforts as they enter the talent pipeline. This will be an experience, previously noted, that increases anxiety for undergraduate students looking to graduate (Gardner, 2020, p. 40). In fact, the studies surrounding student stress and anxiety within the pandemic are increasing with one study showing that mental health (indicated by depressive symptoms) and perceived stress levels increased significantly from a non-pandemic normal (Wilson, et al., 2021).

Research by Mary Scott, managing partner of Scott Resource Group, is helpful as it provides insight into the student perspective around virtual recruiting and how perceptions have changed in the past two years (Scott, 2021). The data is both helpful and challenging. The limitations of the data set rest in the fact that the provided charts only share percentages and rankings for student survey answers and does not share deeper data information. For example, seeing the total number of students surveyed, the geographic spread, institution types, and other more granular data information would be important to further validate the analytics and regional application of the data.

There are observed shifts in student perceptions of virtual recruiting. For example, under the “Trusted Sources” slide, the perspective of alumni significantly moved from a 2020 rank of eight out of ten presented, to a 2021 rank of third out of ten (Scott, 2021). This, coupled with the rise of rank of two-way and live video interviews jumping from twenty-third place in 2020 to tenth place in 2021, shows that students are adapting to technology while leveraging connections with alumni at a potential place of employment (Scott, 2021).

As students encounter the increased stress and anxiety of the job search and make adaptations to their trusted sources, they also may see benefits through the increased number of internships available as employers recover the temporary workforce (Gardner, 2021, p. 24). Within a recent Wall Street Journal article, Dill (2021) clearly presents data and perspective surrounding the importance of internships as pathways for college students in the season of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data presented from National Association of Colleges and Employers showed an increase from 68% of eligible interns receiving full time offers for the Class of 2019 to a rate of nearly 80% of eligible interns obtaining full-time offers within the Class of 2020 (Dill, 2021). The article laid out advantages to internships that also overlay with the Sense of Community Theory by McMillan and Chavis (1986). In this case the nature of the internship dramatically increases interactions for students within the four elements of the Sense of Community theory: membership, influence, integration, and shared emotional connection (McMillan & Chavis, 1986).

Application of Sense of Community Theory

The student-success example presented by Dill (2021) of a Colby College graduate, Elizabeth Stephens, is a useful one to inspect the overlap of the sense of community theory with the recruiting process. In the study, Elizabeth is an undergraduate student who interned remotely at Maslansky & Partners and successfully obtained a full-time position as a result. This likely was a result of the student earning trust by individuals in the company community as Elizabeth integrated herself into the work. There is potentially a direct comparison between the work of an intern and the four elements of the sense of community theory by McMillan & Chavis (1986). The four elements are as follows; 1.) Membership 2.) Influence 3.) Integration & Fulfillment of Needs and 4.) Shared emotional connection (McMillan & Chavis. 1986. p. 9). The table, below, compares the theory with the application of an internship, such as Elizabeth’s.

Table 1

The application of internships within the lens of the sense of community theory

The translation of a student from a community of higher education to an employer community should be carefully crafted by an employer to increase employee retention. A study presented within the Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism research suggests that positive experiences with employee benefits, training, and leadership increases the intern’s probability to stay within the Taiwan tourism industry (Lee & Chao, 2013). This study examined student intention through review of texts from 2000-2010, followed by a survey deployed to hospitality interns in 2011 (Lee & Chao, 2013). Although the study results are regionally bound in a pre-COVID environment, there appears to be truth in that the appropriate integration of student interns into the employer community can benefit that employer’s retention of talent.

Developing a sense of community for interns became more difficult within the COVID-19 environment. Researchers at Arizona State University found that in a survey of their students, “COVID-19 has led to a large number of students delaying graduation (13%), withdrawing from classes (11%), and intending to change majors (12%)” (Aucejo, et al., 2020, p. 1.). Furthermore, a number of students lost their existing jobs and “13% of students had their internship or job offers rescinded” (Aucejo, et al., 2020 p. 5.). As employers look to rebound their staffing in an emerging post-COVID environment and as higher education institutions manage disrupted student population, careful considerations must be made in developing paths forward.

?Adapting Career Services & Higher Education

A collection of case studies composed by Fain (2021) highlights this talent-gap between higher education institutions and employers. The case studies and expert opinions by leaders in the field begin to offer a glimpse of how to overcome these gaps through skill development, projects, micro-internships, and credentialing. Of particular interest is a section in the report discussing areas where higher education institutions are integrating more industry-facing projects (Fain, 2021). Although the author presented new areas of growth, there were no historically successful models provided in this area. However, the programs offered in this report highlight some best practices between corporations and universities. Smaller projects and touchpoints generate an approachable pathway for students to begin engaging with corporations through integration and membership, related to Table 1, above. Therefore, this article offers more evidence validating experiential education as a key driver of building integration and membership from the sense of community theory (McMillan and Chavis, 1986).

?Conclusion and Potential for Future Work

As there is a gap in the literature surrounding career services offices, employer recruiting efforts, and the observation of student behaviors and adaptations in an emerging post-COVID environment, there is a need for further research in this ecosystem. Case studies from the Fain (2021) publication that were offered validated the need for incremental approaches for employers to develop community. Some recommendations for career services offices to succeed in this time include the development of more focused and customized events catered smaller groups of students yearning for engagement. These programs could be targeted to departments or populations of interest in a more deliberate and customized approach, for example “one-on-one recruiting management whether virtual or on-campus” (Gardner. 2021. p. 6).

Furthermore, it is important for both career services units in higher education and university relations professionals on the employer teams to evaluate their pathways in the framework of the sense of community theory to generate greater retention of recruits and to save funds on recruiting. The push to virtual-only recruiting within the COVID-19 pandemic has increased student anxiety and shifted the behaviors of college students discovering opportunities and employers. There is a clear need to develop more customized and approachable student interactions with employers and for higher education institutions and for career services offices to collaborate with employers in more approachable ways.

To effectively develop these interactions between higher education institutions and employers, more research is needed. A future mixed methods study that explores quantitative career services student engagement data by program type, as well as qualitative data from employers about program quality and effectiveness is recommended to develop more concrete outcomes. For quantitative questions, researchers may benefit from developing data from career services offices that span industry of focus, number of employers present, number of students, month of program, virtual or in-person venues, and type of program (presentation, panel, career fair, or other). For qualitative analysis for employers, a case-study or focus group approach leveraging elements of the sense of community theory for structured questions would be advisable (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Combined, these quantitative and qualitative data sets would generate useful data to for future action by both employers and career services offices to better develop the talent pipeline into industry in an emerging post-COVID environment.

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References

Aucejo, E., French, J., Araya, M. P. U., & Zafar, B. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on student experiences and expectations: Evidence from a survey. Journal of Public Economics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104271

Dill, K. (2021, June 06). Do You Need to Do an Internship Before You Graduate From College? Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-you-need-to-do-an-internship-before-you-graduate-from-college-11622983500

Fain, P. (2021, September 2). Connecting College and Careers. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/content/connecting-college-and-careers

Gardner, P. (2020). Recruiting Trends 2020-2021. https://ceri.msu.edu/_assets/pdfs/Recruiting-Trends-2020-21-report.pdf

Gardner, P. (2021). Recruiting Trends 2021-2022. https://ceri.msu.edu/recruiting-trends/recruiting-trends-2021-2022.html

Gray, K. (2021, December 04). Pandemic Prompted Significant Changes to Recruiting Methods, Not Schedules. National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/trends-and-predictions/pandemic-prompted-significant-changes-to-recruiting-methods-not-schedules/

Laker, B., Godley, W., Patel, C., & Kudrey, S. (2021). Four Steps to Successful Virtual Hiring. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/96660/

Lee, C., & Chao, C. (2013). Intention to leave or stay - the role of internship organization in the improvement of hospitality students' industry employment intentions. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 18(7), 749-765. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2012.695290

McMillan, D. W., & Chavis, D. M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14(1), 6–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6629(198601)14:1<6::AID-JCOP2290140103>3.0.CO;2-I

NACE Report Shows Larger Employers More Likely to Recruit Virtually in 2020-21. (2020). National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/trends-and-predictions/report-shows-larger-employers-more-likely-to-recruit-virtually-in-2020-21/

Nedlund, E. (2020, July 20). Recruitment and retention strategies for the post-COVID workforce. Employee Benefit News https://www.benefitnews.com/news/recruitment-and-retention-strategies-for-the-post-COVID-workforce

Pandemic Causes Rise in Remote Hiring Strategies, Robert Half Finds. (2020, Oct 7). HR Daily Advisor. https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2020/10/07/pandemic-causes-rise-in-remote-hiring-strategies-robert-half-finds/

Rosemond, M. M., & Owens, D. (2019). Coping resources and underemployment: Implications for emerging adult collegians’ mental health.?College Student Journal,?53(4), 525-529. https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.regiscollege.idm.oclc.org/eds/ pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=3f55d314-75b0-4a7a-b9ee-42619b5335a2%40redis

Scott, Mary. (2021, October 23) Scott Resource Group: Authenticity and the Challenges of Virtual Recruiting [PowerPoint slides]. www.scottresourcegroup.com

Wilson, O. W. A., Holland, K. E., Elliott, L. D., Duffey, M., & Bopp, M. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on US college students' physical activity and mental health. Journal of Physical Activity & Health, 18(3), 272-278. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2020-0325

Malguri, Abhilash. (2020, October). Why It’s Time to Embrace Virtual Recruiting Strategies. https://blog.mettl.com/virtual-recruiting-strategies/

Wechter, A. (2021, October 20,). How Students Are Navigating Changes in Career Plans. Inside HigherEd. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/10/20/career-centers-must-support-students-when-goals-change-opinion

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