It is no secret that the UK job market is currently in a position that could charitably be described as “uncertain” for businesses and job seekers. The pandemic has led to the closure of companies, it has meant that employers have had to figure out working from home and furlough schemes, and it has meant that the numbers of people applying for the same position are incredibly high. We are also starting to see the impact of Brexit on all sectors across the UK.
For anyone looking to take their first step into the job market, this is a time when they need to pull out all the stops to make sure that they stand out from the crowd. For anyone looking to add someone new to their team, this is a time to take a step back, take a deep breath and think about what they want from a candidate beyond somebody who simply meets the surface criteria.
HR managers will be seeing many more people ticking all the boxes on the person specification checklist, and they will be seeing applicants with an incredibly wide range of work experience levels. Now, taking on someone who’s been in your industry for years certainly comes with its advantages and may be the right move, but there are many reasons why hiring a graduate or student should not be discounted. Here are just a few…
Graduates Are Highly Motivated
As we mentioned, the job market is nothing if not competitive right now, and recent graduates will be fighting incredibly hard to get their foot in the door. Anyone who has ever had a first job will know just how motivated you must to be at every stage, from battling through the endless string of applications that either go unanswered to the interview itself.
Once they are hired, they will be working through what may be their first-ever probationary period, and rest assured: they will remember just how much they had to go through to get where they are and they will go the extra mile. Developing A Student states that 27% of young people outside of education are expected to be unemployed by the end of the year, and they offer a range of resources to help businesses find these young people who are hungry for their first role.
Graduates Are Versatile And Cost Effective
Experience is always a bonus, of course, but a comfort level can sometimes come with an overfamiliarity when it comes to the way things are done. The last twelve months have shown that we all need to be flexible as we move forward, bouncing around through the various tools we use to work from home and how we reach our clients and customers. By their very nature, graduates and students do not have that dogged attachment to a working model and will be more flexible in the face of change. The fact that hiring a graduate is more cost-efficient than hiring someone who has been in a more senior role should also not be ignored.
Graduates Are Comfortable With New Technology And Media
With all due respect to your SEO know-how and social media presence, the chances are that a graduate or student hire will be significantly more au fait with the latest technology. If you’re looking for someone who can take shifts on social media, for example, or who can break down which channels are potentially more beneficial to your company’s than others, there is no substitute for someone who has grown up with all this stuff at their fingertips. They will also be accustomed to working remotely (significantly more accustomed than in recent years, thanks to the pandemic). While it would be incorrect to say that these are not skills that people who aren’t recent graduates would not have, there’s no denying that this is part of their lives, rather than something that they’ve worked on for their CV.