The desire of employers to recruit the best candidates has continued unabated whatever the state of the economy. This so-called 'war for talent' has led to accusations that graduate recruitment is elitist; that recruiters target only the top achievers at top universities. Is it a fair accusation? My opinion, for what it is worth, is that some employers have set the bar very high - to the extent that they focus on targeting 'high fliers' at the expense of the 'best fit' candidates. According to AGR research, there's an upwards trend in the minimum academic standards sought at the screening stage with three in four employers only accepting applications from graduates who achieve a 2:1 or a first. Fewer, but a growing number of, employers admit to only recruiting graduates from specific universities.
In my early days as a graduate recruiter I did not have the option of being so selective. I was recruiting to professional posts within local government. In the 1990s the public sector was not an attractive choice for graduates. We had many positions to fill and to achieve our targets we spread our net very wide and ruled out no-one on grounds of their degree class or their age or background. Yet, and this is the point, we recruited many graduates who went on to be highly successful in their chosen career.
Imagine then, how thrilled I was to read a feature on the excellent HR Grapevine website last week which looked at the recruitment approach of Google, one of the most desirable businesses to work for among graduates. In short Google focus first on general cognitive ability and learning capability. They also emphasise the importance of emergent rather than proven leadership. Google no longer look just at Oxbridge candidates or those with first class honours. Hiring managers need to have a much broader vision of who is right for the company and the roles within it.
In other words, Google adopt the 'best fit' approach to recruitment. I must thank Google and HR Grapevine for sharing this approach with us. Reading through the feature it certainly gave me hope for the future. Google are a pace-setting organisation; where they step today, others follow....
Let's hope that many more recruiters adopt the mantra 'elite but not elitist'. At GRB we have long recognised that there is no single template for talented graduates. Consultants work with clients to ensure they have the right brief to match with the talents, achievements and experience of potential candidates. And it clearly works - three out of five candidates put forward for selection are called forward and last year, GRB placed over 500 graduates into graduate level jobs.
Carl Gilleard OBE
Non-executive director at GRB
