ShareThisAs a management professional working in the Graduate Recruitment space for some time, I was always excited about the prospect of meeting new people; Especially young, hungry graduates that could potentially shape the future of the organisation. When the organisation you work for is a start-up and rapidly expanding around the globe, the HR decisions you make become all the more pivotal.
In my tenure, I interviewed some of the most aspiring and accomplished graduates and also witnessed some bizaare displays from desperate students. Whether positive or negative the impression though, one thing is clear, it was always entertaining.
These days companies are focusing their efforts on hiring the right talent. This isn’t always the graduate with the highest GPA or prestigious degree, but rather the candidate that appears to be the best cultural fit. Once this match has been established, many of the hard skills can actually be trained and learned on the job. Therefore if there’s one thing that the recent economic crisis has taught us, it’s that companies who establish a strong workforce built around an unwavering culture and visionary leadership will succeed.
The question remains though, how do we mitigate hiring mistakes and ensure that employee and employer are bonded in congenial matrimony? It’s difficult to answer until the physical interview stage when a candidate’s body language, elocution, idiosyncrasies and purpose become clear. Until that point, every potential new hire is simply a one-page document in the form of their CV.
Enter the fray, social networking sites. While their primary focus is to enhance peoples’ social interactions online, some have leveraged their tools to search for jobs and develop an online profile. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can certainly complement a graduate’s online brand when used in the right way, but as the sole avenue to illustrate themselves, it has its shortcomings. Linkedin alleviates some of the indecorous aspects of popular social media, but is geared towards experienced professionals and lateral hires.
Gradkin was therefore developed to address this paradigm shift in graduate recruitment. The platform enables university students to showcase who they are and how they can add value to their future employers and allows companies to exhibit their culture and ultimately attract the right candidates. While Gradkin, along with other social media tools, will never replace the in-person interview, it can help filter through candidates that possess a “cultural fit”.
