As a recruitment agency owner and regular networker, both within Oxfordshire business circles and with fellow recruitment professionals, I am increasingly hearing from businesses who are struggling to find the right person for perceived junior vacancies.

Just to stress, with my Thompson & Terry hat on, whilst we have seen the market become much more competitive at a junior level, we are still filling these vacancies! In this blog I wanted to share potentially a ‘better solution’ which we have now rolled out 70 times within Oxfordshire based businesses following such success within my own business.

Potential solution

In the summer of 2018, through my volunteer work supporting young people, I was constantly hearing the same issues. Our best graduates are often struggling to find ‘graduate programs’ post-university and the biggest feedback is losing out to a candidate with more experience, but how do you get experience if no one will give you a chance?

I did my own research and spoke to graduates and employers (large and small) to try and find graduate programs within SME’s but could only find a total of 7, which is so sad! I therefore made it my mission to create an SME graduate program (more information here), which really creates as win/win!

I approached many businesses across Oxfordshire, and none were willing to take the risk and therefore decided to put my money behind it, employing Shannon. This was so successful, so much so I have since completed the same program 3 more times with Aoife, Cara and Sam and as a result of this success, I have rolled out the program 70 times within Oxfordshire businesses.

But how?

Like anything, it’s easy if you know how!

The most important thing is that it must be a win/win for both the employer and candidate; by that, I mean normally 80% of the graduate role will be taking duties perceived as ‘low level’ or ‘mundane’ by the business owner or senior but to a graduate, who has little experience, are incredibly valuable. Equally, it might be a live role that could be tweaked to become a graduate program – past programs have come out of office administrator, finance assistant and marketing assistant type vacancies.

The other 20% should be put together, giving the graduate an opportunity to mirror other tasks and projects to really give them a rounded skill set and understanding of the world of work.

Moreover, continuing on the win/win, be sure to provide a structured 1-2-1 every month with honest feedback, action points and a plan forward with the view to working towards a promotion within 9-15 months. I must note at this point in 65 of the 70 programs it has not been possible for the role to change significantly but like any employee, the duties will grow and to add a promotion on paper early career has such value.

Next steps

Well, there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ but I am always willing to invest an hour with any business looking to explore creating your own graduate program.

In terms of spectrum, the least involvement we’ve had was with an architect that worked for himself and wanted to explore this graduate style of recruitment for his first employee but wanted to try to do it without our help to search.

The other end of the spectrum is that we will help you to build the program, we will recruit the right candidate with values to suit your business and the role and then for 12 months regularly visit your business to deliver the program.

Other examples have fallen everywhere in between. Helping businesses to deliver the program with candidates they have already selected or just help to find the right candidate – we are flexible!

The next step is book a call and together we will explore if this is right for you and if so, start to create a structured action plan.

Contact: Ben Thompson, 01235 797 177, ben@thompsonandterry.co.uk