Don’t cut graduate places, warns AGR
Monday, 16 March 2009The Association of Graduate Recruiters has just published a new briefing paper urging British businesses to continue investing in the development of graduate talent throughout the downturn.
Written by AGR operations manager Gary Argent, the paper - ‘What is the Return on your Investment?' - is designed to help employers evaluate the benefits that a graduate scheme can bring to their business, both quantitative and qualitative. As the report notes, "Graduate and placement schemes are in no way immune to the drive towards increased efficiency and the need to understand the return that they generate, and recruiters need to be better prepared to answer these questions."
Providing practical advice, ideas and suggestions, the paper demonstrates how a business case for investing in graduate talent can be built by identifying, collecting and analysing the various types of data needed to measure ROI. It also features case-studies from a number of organisations that are already looking at ways to measure the effectiveness of their graduate schemes.
Factors under the quantitative category typically include everything from cost per hire to salaries, training expenditure and graduate marketing activity. On the qualitative side, employers are encouraged to consider the value of the graduates' contribution (both actual and ‘hidden'), the benefits of having a more diverse workforce, the impact on motivation levels, and the advantages of knowledge transfer to more junior staff (thus mitigating the risks to the business when senior individuals leave).
AGR chief executive Carl Gilleard says "Talent development has always been important to business and it would be a disaster if firms decided to drop their graduate and placement schemes to save money in the short term. HR directors know how beneficial it is to recruit graduates and it is important that this is recognised at board level."
The full report is available to AGR members free, and can be obtained by non-members on payment of £20.
