Recruiting student talent could help ease the burden for your small or medium business. Find out more below.
As a business, you may have either recruited a student or graduate for a placement or even offered placement roles.
These, along with internships, have enabled students and graduates to secure entry level experience that help to build their skills and give them a step up on to the career ladder.
But why are placements so valuable? In this article we explore what exactly placements are and how they can help your business long-term.
Fresh talent, fresh ideas
With the summer months approaching and the schools ending for another academic year, people will start beginning their plans for a well-deserved break (keeping our fingers crossed for a break to the constant rain).
For businesses it’s the perfect time to bring fresh talent in. You may have projects currently waiting patiently on the ‘to do’ pile or be looking for a fresh approach to launch that new project. Either one could be solved with hiring of fresh student and graduate talent.
Depending on your own business needs and what you can accommodate, placements can range from four to six weeks, or a year-long. This means that they can be flexible to your needs as well as the student or graduate.
Supporting your business
Over the last few years, many businesses have continued to promote a hybrid model for working. Which, when looking to bring in new employees, could present some challenges – meeting new colleagues and settling into a new team can be difficult to organise when you need to navigate office days.
However, what is important to remember is office staff have adapted and so have students. Setting boundaries and the working week before a new placement starts can help you to positively embed them into both the business and the team they will be working with.
Another challenge may be resource, or lack of it, and costs.
Some universities may support available for funding placements, taking the burden off smaller businesses whilst also ensuring the student is supported. It is worth speaking to local universities to see what schemes are available and take advantage of these opportunities that could be right on your doorstep.
When thinking about resource, the time spent to onboard may seem time consuming. But in the long run, the investment could then reduce your workload, giving you more time to focus on running the business (or growing the business).
Remember though, it needs to be more than just making teas and coffees. Students and graduates can bring value to an organisation, they have studied in the industry and the wealth of expertise they can bring to a business is invaluable.
Helping your business to thrive
There are both many challenges and benefits when introducing placements into your business. It can be hard to know exactly what is right for you or where to start (or if to start).
For example, placements may not work for a short-term role and there may not be the funding for longer term. But there are alternatives that you could look at, the Institute of Student Employers lists some ways you can overcome various challenges.
One of these listed is to collaborate with other employers to create an engaging experience for students. Another benefit of this approach is you can share ideas or even solve a business problem.
There are a range of other benefits recruiting or offering a placement can bring including
- Bringing in fresh ideas and knowledge
- Training up your future workforce
- Promoting your business to a new audience
- Building on your own skills
So, why not look to hire fresh talent today?
