The Hiring, Training, And Retention Of Fresh Graduates

Every company will have its own approach for evaluating new, recently-graduated candidates, and for onboarding and training them to get the best results. One thing is consistent throughout, though: a great deal of patience and hand-holding

- Mint Kang

Year after year, they enter the workforce: fresh graduates and interns, young talent who have just completed their studies and are stepping into the world of work for the first time. Some organizations value them enough to actively prioritise hiring them; others are more conservative, preferring candidates with at least a year or two under the belt.

Whichever the case, fresh graduates present certain challenges in hiring and retention. To begin with, they are difficult to differentiate. In terms of skills, their technical skillsets are for the most part very similar and distinguished mainly by academic performance – which is not necessarily the best indicator of work performance. Their professional skills will mostly be rudimentary. Their nonacademic knowledge is hit and miss. So how should recruiters and hiring managers choose from within this large group of more or less identical candidates?

Assess them by soft skills and culture fit

HR leaders, recruiters, and hiring managers agree that in the absence of professional experience, it's important to be more open-minded about assessing graduate candidates. For this group, three specific areas are good indicators of whether someone will be a good hire: soft skills, culture fit, and potential for growth.