5 Reasons You Should Hire A Graduate
Are you making the most of hiring new talent that is available now? With the educational year complete, the pool of fresh, enthusiastic applicants has grown significantly, and you need to seize the opportunity to add them to your team. There are a whole host of reasons why you should hire a graduate and we’ve compiled our top five reasons.
#1 Lower Starting Costs
For those just starting out in their career, and with less workplace experience, the salary expectations are lower to match. This doesn’t mean that you should be underpaying employees because of their age or lack of experience – remember they have just completed many years of education to develop their skillset (at a hefty cost) and will bring fresh knowledge to your team! You should be offering a fair salary that reflects their responsibilities and bearing in mind room for promotion, growth and salary increases as they develop in their career.
#2 Room for Growth
Graduates are open to learning new skills, programmes, tools, and methods. This is an important and exciting time for you to design a development plan to educate an employee with the skills for your company’s needs. It is essential you have regular 1:1 meetings and truly understand their strengths, weaknesses and goals. With this knowledge you can continue to create an exciting and empowering role for them which will keep them motivated and more loyal to your company.
#3 Unbeatable enthusiasm
We all remember our first day of our first job. The excitement was overflowing, and you were proactive and willing to turn your hand to any task. Graduates with a good work ethic will be the same and will bring a positive energy to their role which will power them through their day. Encouraging their enthusiasm and challenging their willingness will help test their abilities but also give them a sense of achievement, whilst helping you and your colleagues tackle tasks that can be easily delegated.
#4 Increase employee retention
With any employee it is essential to understand their motivators, you will find graduates are more likely to remain loyal to a job in return for coaching and management. Whether this is managed internally, or you opt for an external trainer, it’s important to create a clear training plan that will achieve the desired outcome. It is also imperative that you understand the appropriate times to reward their development. You may have heard of the concept that at every job you should either learn or earn – either is fine, both is best, but it shouldn’t be neither! Learning their goals will help establish what matters the most to them, but you should also be making your own decisions to ensure they are fulfilled mentally and financially within their role.
#5 Flexible and adaptable
Graduates also bring an adaptable and flexible approach to the job. Embrace this with a variety of tasks that will challenge them and provide some great learning opportunities. Involve them with other employees, whether it’s helping them with a project or relieving them of time consuming, yet achievable, tasks. Through this process you will learn where they thrive and can even adapt their role to suit.
We hope you can see the benefits of hiring graduates and the important role that you, as a Leader-Developer, also play in their development. If you’re looking for guidance on your developmental role, leave us a comment below and we’d be happy to help you get on the right track.
