Graduate Recruitment Conference Round Up

The Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE) annual conference was held in Sydney recently and GradSift was there. There was a lot happening, much more than previous conferences with a real sense of employers looking for change. This is what we heard.

“We need to reassess our process”

That was an expression we heard many times. Or “we’re researching to learn what other solutions are out there”. The conversations with employers, suppliers and university representatives were all consistent with the conference theme of “time to explore unconventional pathways”. Maybe “unconventional” isn’t the right word. It was the more case of what we’re doing isn’t working, it’s time to reassess.

Why? There are not enough quality applicants making their way through to hire stage. Expressions of interest, which are easy for students and proved popular, haven’t converted to application numbers. Candidates are dropping out, often baulking at the commitment level required for each assessment stage.

For employers, the real issue is how to streamline their process to make it student friendly. That covers the application process, assessments and the “keep warm” initiatives.

What People at the Conference Were Telling Us

At any conference, speakers share valuable content which provokes thought among delegates. So it's what people are saying afterwards, that is just as important.

People want to redesign their recruitment and assessment process but they’re not sure how to go about it.

If they’ve followed the traditional model of screening on psychometric assessments, followed by video interviews and that’s not working, what else? Or if resume reviews are vulnerable to gen AI manipulation, what's the alternative?

Expressions-of-Interest (or pre-registrations) haven’t converted to applications.

Why? What makes an EOI appealing to students is it's a positive user experience. They’re simple and quick to complete. But students don’t get any feedback to say “hey, your background looks great and we’re really interested in you”. Instead, they get a reminder email to say applications are now open and we will assess you just like the other hundreds or thousands of applicants. So a student asks “why did I bother?”

Senior executives (HRD) are concerned about gen AI manipulation of applications, resumes and assessments.

They want to understand if and where their processes have vulnerabilities. Equally, they want to know if there are ways to counter gen AI manipulation.

Coincidentally, GradSift recently had a hiring manager query us about two student resumes that looked suspiciously similar. Had the students used gen AI? If so, how did GradSift’s assessment detect this? We reassured the manager that the resume was for information purposes only and GradSift’s assessment does not rely on a resume or key words. It works off objective data selected from drop down fields. That’s very different to applicant tracking system resume parsing or using transcripts from video or bot interviews, where applicants can use AI to help them with key words.

How reliable are the predictive abilities of psychometric assessments?

A professional services group told us they recently assessed all of their employees, only to find there was no correlation between individual performance and cognitive abilities results. In a recent market update, we shared that an RPO provider managing a national intern program found there was no correlation between the three most common cognitive abilities assessments and hires. Again that’s consistent with a large employer who last year reported similar results, with behavioural interviews the best correlation with hires. Yet another employer who tested candidates but ignored the results for shortlisting, hired 31% more candidates for their program. Simply put, hiring managers placed greater value on other candidate information eg. behavioural interviews, video, overall background, job fit etc, overlooking a low test score in the hiring decision.

To be fair to psychometric assessments, their claim to fame is to predict job performance, not necessarily hiring decisions. But I wonder how many employers have done that analysis to correlate the performance of graduates after two to three years with their original testing results?

What Students Have Been Saying to Us

How do I get past AI in the screening and assessment process?

The answer for a GradSift user is to include their career and non-career related experiences and activities in their GradSift profile.

For AI systems that rely on key words? Start by using Chat GPT to identify key words from the job ad, role description and organisation values. Then for AI based video and bot interviews, rehearse and use those key words in responses. For an ATS that screens from parsed resumes, use white font for key word stuffing

“I want the option of a side hustle while working”

This wasn’t a direct student quote. But it came from one the of conference presenters talking about Gen Z and their career expectations.

Over the years we’re seen an evolution in what students want. In the 2000’s, they wanted an employer who offered the option to work internationally. That changed to working for an employer who was socially responsible. Which evolved to having the option to personally perform some of those CSR activities. Through to today, where it’s about “my” side hustle.

What's interesting is that most don't take up those options. They just like to know it's available.

What Does the Future Look Like?

At the conference many people were wondering what the future of student recruitment would look like. Here’s our snapshot from what we heard.

Go back five years to 2018, graduate recruitment was all about making life more efficient for recruiters. There was a surplus of candidates and most students would jump through all of the assessment hoops. If they didn’t, there were others ready to take their place. Covid accelerated the adoption of digital interviews, making the interview process even more efficient for recruiters. (But maybe not when it comes to evaluating all those videos).

Today, the student market is different. Fewer candidates, who are very selective with their time. They now have the power and their user experience matters. What we’re seeing today is the start of a structural shift, which will focus on a much improved student experience.

So what about in five years time, in 2028?

User experience dominates

The way of the future will definitely be an easier and streamlined experience for applicants. A simpler recruitment and assessment process, with few steps, completed on a mobile device.

It’s not just the applicant user experience either. In a world where fewer quality candidates make it through to shortlist stage, hiring manager experience is just as important. Giving them a greater to say on who they want to interview.

An arm wrestle with AI

AI will make it even easier for candidates to apply for roles (maybe even to help in their assessments?).

Have you heard about AI apps that facilitate bulk job applications? We’re talking hundreds of applications where AI does all the work, including finding the appropriate jobs and completing the application.

Right now, the apps are used for general employment, targeting major job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed. But, what happens when someone develops/modifies an app for graduate/intern recruitment? And instead of LinkedIn, they can apply through graduate job boards or even your own organisation’s job portal. Yikes! Now that will make screening even more important.

Some students will use AI to do bulk applications. While for those who personally apply, they won’t accept a time-consuming process with multiple steps. Even if an economic downturn causes a surplus of graduates and gives power back to employers, the fundamental behaviour and expectations of students won’t change. The future is a shorter and faster assessment process.

The emergence of pre-qualified student talent pools

Whole-of-government programs have already been adopted by Australian Federal and State government employers. One department manages a program for a specific discipline to attract, assess and shortlist candidates. Other government agencies then tap into the shortlisted pool. It makes it easier for candidates completing a one-off application and assessment to then be considered by multiple employers. In a similar way, GradSift supports a state government's digital graduate program.

There are very early discussions of collaboration by private sector employers to create pre-qualified talent pools for specific disciplines/role types.

The traditional recruitment campaign evolving

Hiring throughout the year may become more common aided by AI and other technologies. We also foresee programs that will continue to morph beyond graduates and interns to include candidates with different levels of education and experience.

The conclusion?

That was a jammed packed conference. More so than other years and it all points to change.

#graduaterecruitment #campusrecruiting #AI