When advertising an entry-level job role at your business, you’ll almost definitely receive applications from recent university graduates looking to take their first step into an exciting new career. However, a lot of employers are surprisingly hesitant about hiring graduates, often put off by their lack of experience.
In reality, graduates have plenty to bring to the table. Here, we’ll take a look at why you should think twice before you dismiss applications from graduates – and why failing to consider graduates for your next job vacancy could even be a costly mistake.
What are the benefits of hiring graduates?
Graduates have untapped potential
Having just completed their degrees, university graduates haven’t had their chance to shine. As a hiring manager, you’re in the unique position of being able to offer a university graduate the chance to realise their potential. A graduate will have spent years developing their knowledge and skills at university, such as sales techniques, communications skills and more – knowledge and skills that they can demonstrate within a role at your company.
Given the right onboarding, support and training, a graduate could thrive within your business, which will benefit your business in turn whether your business operates within the world of marketing, sales or in a more industrial sector, a graduate hire could be just the person your team is missing. Helping them to release their untapped potential could breathe new life into your business, helping to secure sales, achieve targets and drive success.
Graduates are a cost-effective hire
Hiring graduates can be a very cost-effective move, especially in a challenging economy, since there’s a general understanding that graduate jobs pay lower salaries due to lack of experience.
This is mutually beneficial for the business and for the graduate. After all, you’ll give a graduate the chance to start their new career while reaping the benefits of the graduate’s talent, as well as using less of your recruitment budget. Graduates can be a particularly cost-effective hire within the world of sales, where – following their training – your new hire could be directly generating revenue right away.
Graduates can offer new perspectives
One of the biggest benefits of hiring graduates is that they can offer a unique outlook on your business because they can look at it with fresh eyes contributing innovative and new ideas. Try as they might, this is something that a more experienced employee just can’t do.
There are lots of situations where this can be particularly beneficial to your business. For example, your business can gain a brand new perspective on problem areas or challenges, which could eventually help you to reach a solution. Perhaps a graduate’s perspective could even help you to improve and develop the sales strategies used within your business.
Graduates’ knowledge is current
Recent graduates have received up-to-date training and knowledge, meaning they are well-versed in current industry knowledge. You might need to work hard to refresh the knowledge, skills or training of a more experienced professional, especially if they’ve switched careers or have worked in a different sector for a while. A more accomplished professional may have more experience but they might also have to unlearn habits and processes they have relied on in previous job roles. A graduate is like a blank canvas, ready to develop new skills and hone their expertise, as well as share fresh knowledge that they acquired during their studies.
Graduates are enthusiastic
Keen to take their first step onto the career ladder, graduates generally demonstrate great enthusiasm in the workplace. This means they’ll be keen to impress and will probably be more receptive to training, as well as keen to take on new challenges that may help them further their career within your business.
Of course, the enthusiasm that graduates bring to their roles will also show in their overall performance at work. Graduates tend to perform particularly well in sales roles, where their natural excitement and enthusiasm allow them to deliver persuasive pitches to clients and customers. They’ll also be more prepared to rise to new challenges and will be open to opportunities to work with a range of different businesses.
Graduates come with a high ROI
Hiring graduates is cost-effective and can offer a great return on investment (ROI). When you hire a graduate, you have the opportunity to mould your new hire into your ideal employee through training – with the right instruction, a graduate could become a real asset to your team.
Having only just graduated from higher education, your graduate hire will likely be very receptive to training and development initiatives, having learned to hone their knowledge and skills quickly and effectively during their studies. Graduate hires, with proper guidance and mentorship, will quickly acquire the specific skillset needed to thrive within your workplace, allowing you to achieve fantastic ROI with your new hire.
Open vacancy? Hire a graduate.
The idea of hiring a graduate is one that lots of employers shy away from, concerned that they’ll need to sink much more time, money and effort into resources and training to bring their performance up to scratch. However, this is very rarely the case – more often than not, companies hiring graduates secure a fantastic new addition to the team, give a promising individual a chance to realise their potential and get a new perspective on their business. Graduates can also help companies reach their diversity benchmarks and build a more varied, dynamic team.
If you’re looking to add some fresh talent to your sales team, we can help. Our dedicated teams have years of experience and specialist industry knowledge, allowing us to bring top talent to the spotlight within your business when you recruit with us, learn more today.
