By Ashley Bowers
College Graduates Not Ready for the Workforce?
While the National Center for Education Statistics is projecting nearly 1.8 million students to be graduating with bachelor’s degrees this month, a study by Adecco Staffing found that 58% of hiring managers are not planning to hire any of these new grads. Meanwhile, of the hiring managers that are looking at 2013 graduates, the majority only plans to hire one or two this year. This recent forecast is substantially lower than earlier projections from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, and while the hiring rate is certainly affected by some companies reluctant to add employees until their confidence in the economy improves, a great deal of hiring managers are sharing that they are simply unimpressed with graduates’ preparedness for the workforce.
But how are these hiring managers obtaining the information they need to make this judgment? According to the study from Adecco, these decisions are being based on resumes and interviews. Although today we have laws that keep us from acting on biases as they relate to gender, age and nationality, there are many people unknowingly biased on experience, education and intelligence. With nearly 30 years experience in the human capital management industry, we believe these biases can prohibit employers from hiring superior candidates who possess the behaviors, motivators, acumen and skills that will make them successful in their position and ultimately valuable to the organization itself. For example, the very behavioral (DISC assessment) style of the person reviewing a resume or conducting an interview can innocently bias that person’s opinion of a candidate. If the applicant shines in an interview, is it because he/she is properly matched to the potential job, or is there a strong connection because the applicant and the hiring manager have a similar behavioral style?
When you invest in job benchmarking, you focus on the objective factors that the job itself requires, eliminating any unwanted human bias that can prevent hiring the candidate who will truly excel in the position. We can’t teach someone to value continuous learning or be driven by a return on investment. Meanwhile, a candidate’s sense of personal accountability is going to be difficult to identify through a resume or even an interview, and it’s certainly not something that can be taught in even the most rigorous of onboarding programs.
This is why we strive to identify factors like behavioral (DISC) style, motivators, acumen and skills that contribute greatly to employee performance, determining whether the employee has the capacity to be exceptional in a particular role.
To learn more about using job benchmarking in your hiring process, read “Human Resources CAN Innovate with TTI’s Job Benchmarking System.”
via Why Are 2013 Graduates Considered Unprepared? – TTI Success Insights.
