It has become clear from conversations with our employer partners and candidates that hybrid recruiting as the primary strategy for early-career teams, is here to stay. Although the combination of in-person and virtual sourcing has been a successful practice for many years, many campus recruiting teams relied heavily on tried and tested in-person recruiting strategies, like on-campus career fairs, before the pandemic. In the last two years, recruiters have had to get creative in an almost entirely virtual environment. As we move forward, the hybrid strategies you develop now will be the basis for how you connect with the widest range of diverse and qualified students and recent grads.
In our latest webinar, Jessie Vaccaro and Kate Choudhury from the WayUp Customer Success team, were joined by Clorox University Programs Lead Stella Yuen, to discuss the future of sourcing and how to establish an effective hybrid strategy.
When balancing your in-person and virtual sourcing investments, it is most important to consider what aspects of recruiting benefit most by being in-person and which should stay virtual. Consider in-person opportunities with either the most impact on the students or the greatest return on investment for you, especially if travel is involved. Students are not flocking to career fairs to find opportunities like they used to. Focusing instead on well-attended conferences targeting early-career candidates in your industry may yield better results. Additionally, companies can continue to source virtually when being in-person isn’t possible or isn’t as effective. Hosting coffee chats, interviews, and regular recruiting events virtually allows your company to reach and engage more diverse students across the country, without extensive travel.
For many years pre-COVID, core school strategies were a cornerstone for many campus recruiting teams. Now, many employers are reevaluating their approach to core schools and trying a school agnostic approach to drive more diversity, increase applicant quantity, and more. WayUp is so effective at helping our clients move beyond a core school approach and source qualified, diverse talent because we are purpose-built for virtual recruiting. WayUp users can share their opportunities with a larger and more diverse pool of candidates than they had been able to previously. Many early-career candidates today are finding opportunities online and largely on their own. They are engaging with services like WayUp and LinkedIn to find their next role instead of going to their school career fair or working with university career services teams. If your team can refrain from the core school strategy of mainly focusing and recruiting from a shortlist of schools, you will find significant improvement in your diverse applicant pool.
From her experience at Clorox, Stella Yuen says where Clorox interacts with candidates for the first time has changed. Before 2019, students would often have multiple interactions with a recruiter before actually applying. Coffee chats, career fairs, and other in-person events allowed the recruiters to get to know them and vice versa. Today, recruiters first interact with candidates during the first round interview and have less time to forge a personal connection.
With more interviews for candidates, less investment in networking, no travel necessary, and the ability to apply to remote roles nationwide, candidates have more options and offers than ever. Candidates are going through as many hiring processes as possible and comparing offers at the end. More negotiation and fewer accepted offers can make life stressful for recruiters, but there is a bright side. When your candidate accepts an offer, they are more likely to have compared your company to others and chose it because it was the right fit.
Hybrid campus recruiting, and especially sourcing, has become an individualized process, catered to the candidates. Asking your current interns or early-career employees what they look for in their roles is a first step in adapting your sourcing strategy to stand out to your target candidates. You also need to evaluate your technical proficiency to ensure you have the tools to compete in a hybrid recruiting environment. Stay tuned for more on building a high-performing hybrid HR tech stack. Want to dive deeper and make sure your company is set up for success no matter what the new normal might be? Reach out today to see how Yello & WayUp can help!
