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Career Development International

Emerald Article: Graduate recruitment and selection in the UK: A study of the recent changes in methods and expectations Mohamed Branine

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To cite this document: Mohamed Branine, (2008),"Graduate recruitment and selection in the UK: A study of the recent changes in methods and expectations", Career Development International, Vol. 13 Iss: 6 pp. 497 - 513 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810901660 Downloaded on: 17-04-2012 References: This document contains references to 38 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

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Graduate recruitment and selection in the UK


A study of the recent changes in methods and expectations
Mohamed Branine
Dundee Business School, University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee, UK
Abstract
Purpose This paper seeks to examine the changes in the methods of graduate recruitment and selection that have been used by UK-based organisations and to establish the reasons for the main changes and developments in the process of attracting and recruiting graduates. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. Questionnaires were sent to 700 UK-based employers selected from the Prospects Directory, the Graduate Employment and Training (GET) Directory and the Times Top 100 Graduate Recruiters. The response rate was just over 50 per cent and the data were analysed by using the statistical analysis software SPSS. The variables used were organisation size, recruitment methods, selection methods, cost, skills and reasons for the use of methods. Findings The analysis has shown that all employers, regardless of organisation size or activity type, tend to use more sophisticated, objective and cost-effective methods of recruitment and selection than before. The process of graduate recruitment and selection in the UK has become more person-related than job-oriented because many employers are more interested in the attitudes, personality and transferable skills of applicants than the type or level of qualication acquired. Although some of the usual methods such as interviewing remain popular, there is a greater variety of ways by which graduates are attracted to and selected for their rst jobs. Originality/value The ndings of this study are expected to be useful for employers considering the introduction of new graduate recruitment programmes and for those wishing to improve their existing ones as well as for institutions of higher education to reconsider the type of knowledge and skills they provide in order to prepare their students for the real world of work. Keywords Graduates, Recruitment, Selection, Higher education, Skills, United Kingdom Paper type Research paper

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Received 18 February 2008 Revised 12 June 2008 Accepted 17 June 2008

1. Introduction Graduate recruitment has become one of the tough challenges for an increasing number of employers who have realised that the future of their organizations depends on the recruitment and selection of the best among an increasing number of graduates in different disciplines from a wider range of higher education institutions. Since the mid-1980s the number of people entering higher education in the UK has more than doubled, but many employers are still unable to recruit the types of employee they really need (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007a, b, c). There has been an ongoing change in the process of graduate recruitment, as many of the sectors that were traditionally for non-graduates have had to join in the race in the graduate recruitment market. It seems, however, that the list of desirable qualities from graduates becomes more sophisticated as employers searches for ideal graduates

Career Development International Vol. 13 No. 6, 2008 pp. 497-513 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1362-0436 DOI 10.1108/13620430810901660

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continue. In this study, the word graduate is used to mean both undergraduate (bachelors degree) and postgraduate (Masters degree) from university or college. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (1999) reported that despite receiving an average of 68 applications per vacancy and despite handling almost 4,000 applications, graduate employers still nd it hard to ll vacancies, largely because of shortages of good quality graduates. More and more employers have had to cope with high volumes of applicants in order to ll in very limited vacancies. For example, Lloyds TSB received 3,800 applications in 2004 and employed only 102 at the end of a long and laborious selection process (Pollitt, 2005). Normally the more effective recruitment programmes are those that attract large numbers of applicants because the more you have to choose from, the better the choice (Herriot, 1989, p. 22). Traditionally, it was assumed that organizations could choose among applicants and that virtually all job offers would be accepted by applicants (Lievens et al., 2002, p. 582). Nowadays, however, it seems that attracting a large number of applicants is still not a major problem but recruiting the right applicants is the main concern of many employers. A number of recent reviews of studies on personnel selection (Sackett and Lievens, 2008; Lievens et al., 2002; Anderson and Witvliet, 2008) have identied the main trends and developments in recruitment and selection methods, and their reasons, over recent years, but most of the studies reviewed tended to be about personnel selection in general rather than graduate recruitment and selection in particular. This study focuses on graduate recruitment and selection methods and graduate employers expectations in the light of recent changes in higher education and the graduate labour market. Socio-economic and political changes as well as developments in information technology have all led to the introduction of new and more sophisticated methods of graduate recruitment and selection (Sackett and Lievens, 2008). Graduate recruiters, who are the majority of employers in the UK, have to act and respond faster and more efciently not just to an increasing number of applicants but also to beat increasing competition from other graduate employers. They have had to introduce a variety of more effective recruitment and selection methods to ensure that appropriate graduates apply and are selected (Lievens et al., 2002; Sackett and Lievens, 2008; Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007a). Therefore in order to analyse the recent developments in graduate recruitment and selection, this paper starts with a brief discussion of the present conditions of higher education institutions and the graduate labour market in the UK. Then the process of graduate recruitment and selection, as reported by a number of studies, is reviewed before the ndings of the study are presented and discussed. 2. Higher education and graduate labour market One of the main objectives of higher education in universities, colleges, institutes and graduate schools is to prepare people for more complex forms of work and employment by equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed by employers. It is usually argued that higher education institutions have prominent roles to play in preparing students for employment and that it is their duty to do so (Nabi and Bagley, 1999). However, it can be also argued that higher education institutions are not employment and training agencies and that their role is to enhance knowledge and learning regardless of what employers require. Although both views are debated and each has

its supporters, in practice they are not incompatible. Neither the system of higher education nor the graduate labour market is static. There have been signicant changes and developments in both and each one has had signicant effects on the other. One of the main changes in that relationship between higher education and employability is that higher education does not cater for just one type of employer size or employment sector. The gap between large and small and medium enterprises is closing in terms of attracting and employing graduates. Although large organisations still dominate the graduate recruitment market, an increasing number of small and medium-sized organisations employ graduates (Association of Graduate Recruiters, 1995, 1999; Williams and Owen, 1997; Stewart and Knowles, 1999, 2000; Raybould and Sheedy, 2005). The Association of Graduate Recruiters (1995) predicted that the greatest potential is likely to be in smaller businesses which have not tended to recruit graduates in the past (p. 5) and this is what has happened over the last ten years. Moreover, Williams and Owen (1997, p. 11) argued that although new graduates have traditionally sought employment with large organizations from within both the public and private sectors it now appears clear that this will have to change and the markets for the increased pool of new graduates must be found in the expanding SME sector. Also, graduates are no longer prepared for doing just legal, medical, nancial, managerial and engineering jobs, but for serving all the different sectors of the economy including jobs which were traditionally for non-graduates. There have also been a number of signicant changes in the composition of the graduate labour market. For example, of the 216,000 students enrolled in higher education in 1963 only 4,000 (1.85 percent) were female (Goodman, 1993, p. 12). By 1998 the number went up to over 935,545 or about 53 percent of the 1,765,180 people enrolled in higher education (UCAS, 1999). Recent gures show a signicant rise in the number of female students in all disciplines, and not just in humanities and social sciences. There has also been a signicant rise in the number of mature students. However, since the introduction of tuition fees and the improvement in employment prospects the number of mature students has not increased to higher levels, but it is still signicant. These changes have had signicant implications for graduate employment such as the introduction of exible working practices and family friendly policies by many employers in their recruitment and employment processes. A further feature of graduate labour market is that graduates are no longer guaranteed employment after graduation. Having a degree does not guarantee a graduate employment position in a desired organisation. Although the level of graduate unemployment is still lower than the national average it varies from sector to sector, occupation to occupation, and from time to time. Many graduates are nding it hard to progress further than the application stage. An increasing proportion of new graduates is nding it difcult to nd traditional kinds of graduate employment and has to apply for jobs previously held by school-leavers. This is partly because of the high competition for graduate jobs and partly because of the fact that many graduates face serious nancial difculties after graduation. These recent developments in the graduate labour market and higher education institutions have led many graduate employers in the UK and in the rest of European Union member states to reconsider their approaches to graduate recruitment and selection (Steiner and Gilliland, 1996; Anderson and Witvliet, 2008). In the next section some of the literature on the process of graduate recruitment and selection in the UK is reviewed.

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3. The process of graduate recruitment and selection Graduate recruitment and selection is a process of searching for and obtaining potential job applicants from graduates in sufcient quantity and quality so that employers can select the most suitable candidates to ll in their job vacancies (Beardwell et al., 2004). In practice there is no one best way or commonly agreed procedure on how to recruit and select graduates because different employers have different recruitment and selection methods depending on their operations, size and needs (Sackett and Lievens, 2008). Normally most graduate employers begin recruiting in November and their selection processes run in the Spring for graduates to start employment in late summer or early autumn, while others recruit graduates only when they require them and have no set timescales. In the process, university careers advisory services play an important role in not only assisting graduates with their searches for employment, but also assisting employers in attracting and targeting students. A survey of 153 graduate recruiters in 1990 showed that the most preferred recruitment methods in order of preference were: (1) Milk round. (2) Recruitment brochures. (3) Recruitment fairs. (4) Direct directories. (5) Newspaper and magazine advertising. (6) Sponsorship. (7) Recruitment agencies (Schoeld, 1991, p. 36). The term milk round is used to refer to the annual recruitment programme by which companies from different sectors visit universities and colleges to give presentations, and meet and/or interview nal-year students who have shown interest or already applied to work for them. It was the most popular method of graduate recruitment in the UK before the introduction of graduate recruitment fairs. By the late 1990s the trend had changed, especially with the development of information technology and the growth of graduate student numbers. The internet started to dominate the process of graduate recruitment as more and more employers used the internet for advertising vacancies, applying online and even online testing (Cappelli, 2001; Lievens et al., 2002; Sackett and Lievens, 2008). According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters (1999), about 44 percent of graduate employers used the internet to promote vacancies and a further 21 percent planned to use it. There has been also greater use of agencies and work placements and lesser use of standardized application forms (Sackett and Lievens, 2008). However, despite the increasing use of the internet for advertising job vacancies, most companies still use the print media to reach potential applicants. A recent Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2007b) survey showed that more than 75 per cent of UK companies still advertise in local and national newspapers, magazines and journals. It seems that the internet has not replaced the print media but complemented them. Many graduate employers still use graduate recruitment literature such as Prospects and GET Directories that are directly targeted to graduates. They also use organisational recruitment brochures that are distributed at

graduate recruitment fairs or given on request (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007a). The selection of graduates also varies from one employer to another and depends on the type of vacancy being offered. It has been a common practice for many employers to select graduates through face-to-face interviews and tests, but an increasing number of employers are using other methods such as telephone interviews, assessment centres and online testing (Lievens et al., 2002; Straus et al., 2001). A survey of 320 British employers for the Institute of Manpower Studies found that in the 1980s selection tests were very often optional while the use of application forms, references and interviews was very common (Bevan and Fryatt, 1988). Another study of selection methods in ve European countries (Shackleton and Newell, 1994) found that the use of tests was on the increase while the use of application forms, references and interviews was the most popular. Many employers also used a pre-selection process. From a study of 536 organizations, Keenan (1995, p. 307) reported that 94 per cent carried out an initial pre-selection on application forms. He also found that one in ten companies did not ask for references for graduates. References were rarely used as a form of pre-selection as only 6.8 percent of those studied (Barclay, 1999) required them before an initial interview and 61.6 percent only requested them after an offer of employment had been made. All employers surveyed used interviews in their nal selection stage and 44 percent used assessment centres (Keenan, 1995, p. 309). As a result of technological developments, more and more organisations have used computerised testing and multimedia tests for selecting applicants (McBride, 1998; Salgado and Lado, 2000). A study by Straus et al. (2001) on the effects of videoconferencing on both interviewers and interviewees reactions concluded that the use of videoconferencing was as important and popular as face-to-face interviewing. The use of interviews is still the most popular selection method, not just in the UK, but in most countries in the world (Sackett and Lievens, 2008; Anderson and Witvliet, 2008). A study by Gabb (1997) found interviews to be the main part of the selection process and that there had been awareness of the danger of subjectivity in the conduct of interviews. To avoid such danger, Gabb (1997, p. 64) argued that companies often prefer an interview panel of two or sequential interviews with different people. A recent comparative study of six countries by Anderson and Witvliet (2008) found that the interview was one of the most popular selection methods. This supports the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Developments (2007a) survey that the most common selection method in the UK is the interview, despite interviews being reported very often to be subjective and unreliable. It seems that the face-to-face contact with the applicant and the possibility of assessing the candidates social and communication skills are the main advantages of the interview, and hence the main reason for using it. While the trio of application form, interview and references is still popular, there have been further developments in incorporating those with the use of assessment centres which has been reported to be in the increase (Sackett and Lievens, 2008; Lievens et al., 2002). Assessment centres are described by Corbridge and Pilbeam (1998, p. 114) as useful in penetrating behaviours relating to interpersonal relationships, leadership, inuencing ability, sociability, competitiveness, self-motivation, tolerance, persuasiveness, and decisiveness. The number of

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employers using assessment centres increased from 4 per cent in 1973 to more than 20 per cent in 1986 (Garavan and Morley, 1998, p. 206). By the mid-1990s, assessment centres were used for the selection of managerial and professional employees by almost half of UK employers (Industrial Relations Services, 1997). Assessment centres have become popular venues for the selection of candidates, the identication of their potentials and the assessment of their training and development needs (Lievens and Conway, 2001; Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007d). The use of psychological tests has historically not been so popular in the UK, but as the number of multinational companies from the USA has increased, more and more large companies are using a variety of tests ranging from ability to aptitude, personality and intelligence, especially those companies who receive a large number of applications and those needing more skilled employees (Roberts, 2005; Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2007c). It is apparent from the above brief review of relevant studies that the process of recruitment and selection in the UK involves the use of a variety of recruitment and selection methods which have developed and changed in their type and level of use over time. There has been a general shift from a situation where applicants were put through a mechanistic administrative process of job oriented and measurable methods in an attempt to select employees for future job performance (Herriot and Anderson, 1997) to a situation where changes in labour market conditions necessitate the use of different and more technology and cost driven methods of recruitment and selection for the exible utilization of available human resources. The shift has been observed in the theory and practice of personnel selection (Sackett and Lievens, 2008; Lievens et al., 2002; Anderson and Witvliet, 2008) in general and worldwide, whereas this paper attempts to examine the shift or development, if any, in the type of methods used in graduate recruitment specically and in the UK in particular. 4. Method 4.1 Study design and procedure To ensure that a large amount of data was collected from a wider sample of graduate employers, a quantitative research method was used. Therefore data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire. Questionnaires were sent to 700 UK-based employers selected from the Prospects Directory, the Graduate Employment and Training (GET) Directory and the Times Top 100 Graduate Recruiters. The sampling method used was random selection from a pool of different types and sizes of organisations. The only criterion for the selection was that they had advertised over the previous six months jobs targeted for graduates. The questionnaire was divided into three parts: part one, Your Company, was designed to generate information about the organisations size and type of activity; part two, Graduate Recruitment, was aimed at nding the methods of recruitment and selection used by the organisation and the main reasons for using them; and part three, Graduate Education and Attributes was designed to solicit information about what employers expect from the graduate in terms of level and type of education as well as skills and personal attributes. The response rate was just below 50 per cent as only 326 usable questionnaires were returned. The distribution of the respondents is given by sector in Table I and by size in Table II.

Sector Retail Finance Transport Automobile Petrochemicals Engineering Information technology Pharmaceuticals Building and construction Electronics Local authority Others Total sample size

Number 74 67 32 12 3 34 21 17 16 12 28 10 326

Percentage 23 20 10 4 1 10 6 5 5 4 9 3 100

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Table I. Distribution of the respondents by sector

Size of organisation (employees) 0-50 51-100 101-500 501-1,000 1,001+ Total sample size

Number 12 43 58 103 110 326

Percentage 3 13 18 32 34 100

Table II. Distribution of respondents by size

4.2 Measures The data were analysed by using the statistical analysis software SPSS. This tool was used because of its assumed validity and reliability in analysing such data. The variables used are mainly organisation size, recruitment methods, selection methods, cost, skills and reasons for the use of methods. The analysis allowed for the objective comparison and interpretation of quantitative data in the most appropriate and possible way. The sample of respondents represents a wide range of sectors, ranging from retail (23 per cent) to local government (9 per cent). Most of the respondents (66 per cent) were large organisations with more than 500 employees. 5. Results More than 80 per cent of the respondents indicated that they had recruitment programmes specically designed for the employment of graduates. Those who did not have graduate recruitment programmes instead had a general recruitment programme and all of these employers were small in size, with fewer than 100 employees. Most of the respondents (63 per cent) recruited between ve and 50 graduates each year. About 20 per cent recruited between 50 and 100, and about 13 per cent recruited between 100 and 200 graduates per annum. Only 7 per cent recruited more than 200 graduates each year. More than 76 per cent (248 employers) had lled in their advertised vacancies in the previous year, so that 24 per cent (78 employers) were unable to nd suitable graduates or made offers that were not accepted. The lack of communication skills,

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poor business awareness amongst graduates, the disparity between the applicants academic performance and performance in the selection process, and shortages of transferable skills were mentioned by most of the respondents as the factors prohibiting them from nding the right graduates. Moreover, of the 78 employers who were unable to ll in their vacancies on time did not ll their vacancies, 43 reported problems in nding IT experts and 35 could not nd graduates with special skills in particular areas of expertise. About 40 per cent of the respondents employed staff whose only function had been graduate recruitment, while in others (60 per cent) it was line managers who dealt with graduate recruitment. Employers with fewer than 100 employees did not have a specic graduate recruitment function and it was the managing director, senior manager or the personnel manager who assumed the role of graduate recruitment. In organisations employing more than 500 employees, line managers very often conducted interviews. Most organisations that employed more than 1,000 employees had graduate recruitment managers. Training on graduate recruitment was provided by more than 50 per cent of those employing 101-500 people and by 73 per cent of those employing over 1,000 employees. 5.1 Recruitment The distribution of the recruitment methods used by organisation size is given in Table III. The most popular method of graduate recruitment is the internet, which was used by 91 per cent of the respondents and by all employers with more than 500 employees. Where organisations did use the internet, the most popular method was their company home page or website, followed by graduate recruitment sites. Some organisations also used universities websites and careers services sites. The second most popular method was the use of careers literature such as Prospects, the GET Directory and Prospects Today. These were used by 89 per cent of the respondents and signicantly by 78 per cent of those employers with less than 500 employees and by 95 percent of larger employers. However, the milk round, which was used by 45 percent of the respondents, appeared to be less popular than methods such as graduate recruitment fairs (55 per cent), which employers preferred because of the elements of direct contact and availability to answer prospective applicants questions. The least popular method of graduate recruitment was the use of recruitment agencies. They were used by only 15 percent of the respondents. About 45 percent of the respondents reported that they targeted students at particular universities by contacting these universities careers advisory services, directors of programmes and heads of department. About 14 percent of the 326 graduate employers studied indicated that they had targeted only universities that offered particular degree courses with good reputations. Only 9 percent of the respondents indicated that they preferred the old universities. More than a third (37 percent) preferred universities where graduates undertook work placements as part of their studies. The variation in the recruitment methods used depended on the number of graduate vacancies created each year and the resources available for graduate recruitment. However, when the recruitment and selection costs per graduate recruited are compared by organization size it becomes apparent that employers with fewer than 500 people spend more per graduate recruited than employers with between 501 and 1,000 staff (see Table IV). In total, 25 out of the 113 organizations (22 percent) which

Method 6 0 2 0 0 0 7 4 4 8 50 0 18 0 0 0 60 30 35 68 26 5 9 0 4 5 33 11 25 32 60 2 20 0 10 12 76 25 58 75 37 17 44 3 19 15 48 8 56 58 64 30 76 5 33 25 83 15 97 100 99 67 55 62 76 67 99 10 103 67 80 65 53 60 74 65 96 10 100 65 110 91 30 83 110 96 104 17 110 79

0-50 (12) Percentage n n n 97 83 27 75 100 87 95 15 100 72

51-100 (43) Percentage

Size of organization 101-500 501-1,000 (58) (103) Percentage n Percentage 1,000+ (110) Percentage

n 287 180 140 148 209 183 291 50 298 244

Total (326) Percentage 85 55 43 45 64 56 89 15 91 75

Newspapers Careers fairs Careers centres Milk round Brochures Presentation Careers literature Recruitment agency Internet Other

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Table III. Methods of graduate recruitment by organisation size

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employed fewer than 500 people spent more than 5,000 per graduate recruited, whereas only 35 out of the 213 large employers (16 percent) spent more than 5,000 per graduate. 5.2 Selection The results, in relation to selection methods, show that more than half (62 per cent) of the respondents had employment application forms designed specically for the selection of graduate applicants. The use of CVs was relatively popular, with 27 per cent of the respondents requiring them. About 30 per cent of all the respondents and more than 53 per cent of the small and medium-sized enterprises indicated that they preferred a combination of CV and covering letter. The selection process involved a variety of methods, but although the number of respondents using each method varied, assessment centres and aptitude tests were not used solely by larger employers and the interview was still the most commonly used method (see Table V). All the respondents said they used the short-listing of applicants before asking them for interviews. Normally application forms were analysed and compared with the relevant person specications. More than 50 per cent of the respondents said they used more than one interview and about 40 per cent said they used both single and panel interviews. Most of the respondents used two interviews and over 60 per cent of them involved two or more interviewers. More than 30 per cent stated that line managers carried out interviews, 25 per cent involved senior managers, 18 per cent reported interviews were carried out by personnel managers, 17 per cent reported that it was by graduate recruitment ofcers, and about 6 per cent referred to others such as administrative assistants being involved. Training was given to graduate interviewers in 53 per cent of the 326 organisations, but of the 47 per cent that did not provide training specic to graduate recruitment, most indicated that their interviewers were trained or had general experience in interviewing. A signicant number of employers (72 per cent) used aptitude tests and 50 per cent used assessment centres. Among those who used assessment centres, 74 per cent were large employers. Although more than 90 per cent indicated that they requested references a signicant number of them (34 per cent) did so only after offers had been made. This means that references were not used in selection but as conrmation of information submitted by candidates. The most common qualities asked for in references were honesty, reliability, time keeping, punctuality, and conrmation of details, character, attendance, suitability, teamwork and performance.

506

Size Table IV. Recruitment costs per graduate by organisation size

,500 Percentage 25 19 14 13 14

n 2 11 17 46 34

501-1,000 Percentage 17 25 30 45 31

1,001-5,000 n Percentage 3 15 21 28 42 25 35 36 27 38

n 4 9 12 16 19

. 5,000 Percentage 33 21 20 15 17

n 12 43 58 103 110

Total Percentage 100 100 100 100 100

0-50 3 51-100 8 101-500 8 501-1,000 13 1,001+ 15

Method 12 3 2 12 3 0 3 3 100 25 17 100 25 0 25 25 43 15 14 43 22 5 13 17 100 34 32 100 50 12 30 40 42 53 44 58 26 18 29 15 73 91 76 100 45 32 50 25 82 89 57 103 82 58 78 21 80 86 56 100 80 56 76 20 58 86 89 110 101 81 72 14

,50 (12) Percentage n n n

51-100 (43) Percentage

Size of organization 101-500 501-1,000 (58) (103) Percentage n Percentage 53 78 81 100 92 74 65 13

.1,000 (100) Percentage

n 237 246 206 326 234 162 195 70

Total (326) Percentage 73 76 63 100 72 50 60 21

CV/letter Employer application Standard application Interview Aptitude tests Assessment centres Work placement Other

Table V. Methods of graduate selection by organisation size

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5.3 Reasons for the methods used The respondents were asked to indicate their reasons for using such methods of recruitment and selection (see Table VI). The employer application form was seen as the most accurate and fair method by which relevant qualities for the job are requested. Application forms were used because they were expected to gather more information, to provide assessment against company competencies, and to show consistency and ease of use in the selection process. The CV and covering letter were seen as cost-saving methods and as useful means of attracting a wider pool of graduates because it was often stated that many graduates might have found it easy to send CVs and letters than to ll in an application form. It was felt that the use of CV and covering letter saved time, gave good rst impressions and provided key background information. Interviews were used because they enabled judgements based on instinct to be made, to nd more about the applicants personalities, to gather crucial information quickly and simply to see applicants. Interviews were rated as the most important method of selecting graduates because of their two-way interaction and the ability to ll gaps and validate information given in candidates application forms. More than 78 per cent of the respondents felt that interviews were used for their fairness and only 25 per cent thought they were used for their accuracy. About 67 percent of the respondents felt that assessment centres were used for their fairness, accuracy and cost. 5.4 Employers expectations Employers expectations varied depending on organisation size and nature of operations but it was interesting to note that the majority of the respondents expected newly graduated students to have good transferable skills rather than excellent academic grades. Only about 21 per cent of the respondents stated that the degree level (undergraduate, postgraduate) was more important than the degree subject. However, about 87 per cent of the respondents thought that the degree classication was important and had considered only those applicants with at least lower second class honours degrees. When asked about their perceptions of the current graduate labour market, more than 60 per cent of the respondents mentioned problems of poor quality graduates with no experience of the real life of work and limited transferable skills. Employers were also asked to rank the ve most important qualities that they looked for in graduate applicants from a list of 14 criteria (see Table VII). The most required qualities were the desire to achieve and motivation, followed by teamwork, and the least selected quality was time management, which was only selected by 11 percent. 6. Discussion The results of this study, as described above, suggest that a number of signicant changes in the process of graduate recruitment and selection will have crucial implications for higher education and graduate employment policy and practice in the UK. Traditionally, graduate recruiters sought potential graduate employees through mainly the milk round, visiting targeted universities and colleges, with the use of limited recruitment literature (Keenan, 1992, 1995; Association of Graduate Recruiters, 1995; Ryan, 1996). This study has shown that the milk round was used by fewer than 45 per cent of the graduate employers, in contrast with 54 per cent reported by Keenan (1995). The use of the milk round has been superseded by the introduction of graduate recruitment fairs. However, the most popular and common method of recruitment used

Method 260 235 228 130 182 33 49 80 72 70 40 56 10 15 137 221 205 82 276 235 170 42 68 63 25 82 72 52 183 212 212 254 290 309 205 56 65 65 78 89 95 63 205 182 183 205 218 218 180

Cost Percentage n n n 63 56 56 63 67 67 55

Accuracy Percentage

Fairness Percentage

All three Percentage

n 82 33 42 33 49 39 39

Other Percentage 25 10 13 10 15 12 12

CV/letter Employer application form Standard application form Interviews Aptitude tests Assessment centres Work placement

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Table VI. Reasons for using each selection method

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Skill/quality Desire to achieve/motivation IT skills Team work Willingness to learn Commitment Oral communication skills Problem-solving ability Drive/energy Condence/assertiveness Degree classication Written communication skills Dependability/reliability Presentation skills Time management Other (commercial awareness, competencies, critical thinking, inuence, decisiveness, potential)

Percentage 87 85 82 76 66 62 57 43 36 35 26 22 19 11 10

510

Table VII. Skills and qualities employers look for

by most of the respondents is the internet. Advertising vacancies online is increasingly done, encouraging e-mail applications, online applications and even online testing. For many employers, having a well designed and easy to follow website is one of the most important ways of attracting good applicants. Although there has been a signicant rise in the use of the internet in graduate recruitment there is still a high level of reliance on documentation and paperwork. Most of the employers studied (78 percent) have seen a signicant increase in the use of application forms, recruitment brochures and mail correspondence but they were very often produced through the use of university careers services, which tend to be more person-centred in their approach. The search for person-based skills has led also to the use of more person-based selection methods such as aptitude and personality tests, especially through the use of assessment centres (Sackett and Lievens, 2008; Lievens et al., 2002). More than 67 percent of the respondents said they used aptitude and personality tests not just because of their low cost, ease of use and relative fairness and accuracy, but also because they allow for individual differences to be explored in graduate applicants. It is no longer enough to have a degree to get a graduate job. Graduate employers look, more than before, beyond qualications for applicants with the qualities that enable them to cope with the demands of their jobs in an uncertain and competitive business environment. This study has shown that many employers look for graduates who are motivated, exible, pragmatic, dynamic, responsible, intellectually aggressive and able to work both independently and in a team. This supports the studies reviewed by Sackett and Lievens (2008) on the recent changes in personnel selection. There are methods of recruitment and selection which seem to be part of the countrys employment culture, such as the use of interviews in the UK, graphology in France and poaching in the USA, for example. All the respondents to this study used interviews and none of them used graphology and only 8 percent used poaching, perhaps because of their US origin. This echoes the ndings from the 1996 IRS survey (Ryan, 1996, p. 14) and those of Keenan (1995) that the interview had traditionally been used by almost all UK employers. British employers are accustomed to interviews although, as Keenan (1995)

rightly argued, assessing graduates through interviewing is particularly difcult because all candidates are often similar in terms of background, age and qualications. It is interesting to note that all the respondents had no problems with the use of interviews because it was simply something that they were used to do. This nding supports Anderson and Witvliets (2008) view that selectors use specic selection methods because they prefer them or they are used to them, regardless of their reliability or validity. In the UK there is a distinction between old and new universities. The latter are the former polytechnics and colleges of further education which gained university status in the 1990s. It is believed that old universities are better than the new in terms of research, academic staff and quality of students (Ryan, 1996). Therefore employers are expected to favour graduates from old universities. However, this study has shown that most employers did not see the type of university at which a graduate applicant studied to be very important. This is different from Ryans (1996) ndings that most employers preferred old universities rather than the new ones. It can be argued that the main reason for this change of employers attitude is that many new universities are providing courses and degrees similar in their content and modes of delivery to those offered in the older ones. Each university is known for certain disciplines, programmes and courses, and has something to offer regardless of its age or size. Moreover, the ratings of the assessments by the (Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) are also used to distinguish between universities rather than the traditional distinction between the old and the new universities. 7. Conclusion The methods of graduate recruitment and selection used in the UK seem to vary according to organisational size and the number of graduates required, but the process has generally become more rigorous and sophisticated as competition to obtain graduates has increased. There has been a move from job-related to person-related methods of recruitment and selection. As the number of graduates increases there has been more interest in cost-effective methods of graduate recruitment and selection, such as the use of the internet and assessment centres. Graduate employers are more interested in the attitude and personality of applicants than in the type or level of qualications acquired. The type of university one graduates from is less important than the type of degree and degree classication received. It seems, however, that some methods of graduate recruitment and selection such as interviews are culturally bound while the graduate labour market is no more the exclusive domain of large employers. The ndings of this study are expected to be useful for employers considering initiating graduate recruitment programmes and for those wishing to improve their existing ones as well as to institutions of higher education to reconsider the type of knowledge and skills they provide to prepare their students for the real world of work.
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