12 strategies to hire the best fresh graduates in Singapore
If you’re serious about growth, then hiring competent people should be a priority. Let’s not waste time and resources on recruiting subpar talent. No matter where you look, you’re gonna want the best – we know you do. And there’s no better place to look for fresh and energetic future employees than within universities, where – if you apply the right methods – you can hire the best fresh graduates in Singapore.
Fair warning: millennials aren’t like the generation before them. What does this mean? Your approaches to hiring need to evolve and adapt in order to attract a younger workforce. Here are 12 strategies and ideas you can use to kick things up a notch.
It’s a new age of Insta-stories, Snapchat filters, and passionate Twitter threads. Millennials and young professionals are expressing themselves in ways you might not understand right away. One thing’s for sure: to hire the best fresh graduates is to level with them and be willing to step into their world.
SGAG does a perfect job of this by regularly getting their employees to share about what they do in the office on Instagram Stories.
Get your company on different social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. It might seem like a lot of work, but think about the communities you could be getting access to. Millennials and fresh grads aren’t big fans of scouring through Classified ads or JobStreet anymore.
Not only do you have to be approachable, you need to be accessible as well. Blow the dust off your company website and step things up with a blog. Show your potential candidates what it’s like to work in the office. Tell them about your achievements and what the next exciting venture is.
Instead of hiding in your ivory tower and waiting for them to tell you about who they are, beat them to it and make introductions first! Being transparent and open about the goings-on in your firm will help to strengthen your branding and attract candidates. These days, millennials want to know exactly who they’re working for.
It could be as simple as posting a photo on LinkedIn to show off your swanky office and employees, just like how Circles.Life has done.
Enough with the dull and dreary lingo of cubicle offices. If you want to hire the best fresh graduates, then you have to be relevant and relatable. Millennials are on the lookout for employers who are not only approachable and accessible but also able to relate to their younger workers. If you don’t yet know what it’s lit means, it’s high time you find out. ?
But seriously – do some research and figure out what millennials are most concerned about nowadays. What matters to you might not matter as much to them. Most importantly, find out why. Interact with them about it and engage with them, genuinely.
Much like a company blog, getting your past and present employees to pitch in can do wonders for your recruitment.
Let your employees become your advocates on public platforms like Glassdoor or even on your organisation’s site. Showcase your most inspiring and exciting success stories and get fresh graduates hooked on the possibilities. Show them that you’ve always treated your people right because you’ll be treating them the same way.
Grab has one of the best ratings among employees at Glassdoor – read these reviews here and see what employees love so much about Grab.
When you meet your candidates, you need to get out of the mindset that you’re meeting a bunch of greenhorn millennials. Treat them the way you’d treat someone with five years of experience. Don’t make them feel small, insignificant, or inadequate. That’s a sure-fire way in ensuring you’ll never hire the best fresh graduates.
To sift through the great mountain of applications, you’re going to need a more stringent quality check on your candidates. Try and make full use of portfolios made available to you and check out what each fresh graduate has been up to. Past projects can give you a rough idea of the quality of work they’ll give you, which can help with identifying the best fresh graduates possible during your hiring period.
We love Raphael’s sleek online portfolio, where he shows us his designs and written pieces, along with a short resume.
It’s time to stop prioritizing standard, stale questions like, “What’s your strength and weakness?” They’re getting over-used.
Use your interviews to really get to know your potential candidates, like finding out who they are outside of work. Even better if you can get a story or two out of them about their greatest struggles and how they powered through. Getting these insights will help you to hire the best fresh graduates.
Millennials aren’t the hopeless idealists the media’s been making them out to be. They’re passionate, energetic and prize meaning in their work. So get on the same frequency and show them the value of taking up a full-time position with you.
Put things into place for them like future development opportunities. It’s a two-way street: if you want to hire the best fresh graduates, you need to show them how they can derive value from a 9-to-6 job at your office, whether it’s being taught new industry skills or being appreciated.
If you want to hire the best fresh graduates, you need to make your job postings as delectable and attractive as possible. That means working on your writing, organization, and the kind of information you’re releasing to potential applicants. Inject your brand’s voice into every single job description. Make a genuine introduction. No one wants to read a job manual and endless, complicated jargon.
Why not just be upfront about the benefits you’re offering potential candidates? Millennials want to know exactly how they’re going to fit into your company, yes, but they also want to know how you’re going to impact their lives, too. How many days of leave are they entitled to? What kind of insurance coverage are you granting them? Can they work on a flexible schedule to accommodate for other areas of their lives? If you want the best graduates to come onboard, then it’s time to put your money where your mouth is.
Check out what Buffer’s done here – they are very upfront about what kind of perks their employees receive upon joining. The addition of emojis are clever too!
Remember what we said about millennials prizing meaning in their work? If you manage to make your candidates feel like they’re contributing to something awesome and way beyond the confines of a cubicle seat, then you’re well on your way to winning them over. Show them how your company is impacting the industry – even the world! If you can show them the kind of value you offer to the community and society, then they might be just a bit more inclined to join you.
You don’t have to be Google to do that. Take a cue from Saturday Kids, which has an awesome mission of helping kids learn how to code. Read more on their e27.co feature here.
You don’t want millennial candidates to waste your time and effort. Well, they don’t want you to waste theirs, either.
Make sure your fresh graduate candidates feel like you’re ready to invest in them. They’re not just there to fill an open position or two – you’re gonna need to be a bit more committed than that.
Build possible career roadmaps with them. They’ll appreciate knowing what’s headed their way in the next year and will perform better knowing the kind of impact they’re about to create. A path of progression will get them invested in their career before it even starts so think long-term. This isn’t like any other casual fling!
Times are changing. If you want to stay ahead of the competition and hire the best fresh graduates Singapore has to offer, then you have to shape up. Tweak your approach, open up, and get into the mood for some intense socialising to amp up recruitment efforts.
Millennials aren’t ditzy and naive. They’ll see right through you if you have nothing to offer them. If you can keep up with their wave, you’re already halfway there.
Work with Glints today and hire the best fresh graduates before anyone else. Click here!
