Campus Recruiting Pressure Points Include Stretched Resourcing, Immature Technology and Low Brand Awareness Finds WCN Campus Recruiter Poll

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - June 07, 2016) - A Poll of Almost 40 Leading Global Organizations Across Wall Street and Silicon Valley by Global e-Recruitment Pioneers WCN has Identified Critical Pressure Points in the Campus Recruiting Process. Alleviating These Concerns Can Be Done and WCN Campus Will Be Sharing Their Solutions at the NACE Conference & Expo in Chicago, June 7 - 10 2016, at Booth 815.

With the race for talent intensifying, campus recruiters are feeling the pressure from areas such as stretched staff resourcing, immature technology and low brand awareness. That's the opinion of some of the US's biggest campus recruiters in an exclusive poll conducted by global recruitment technology leader WCN.

Based on the views of campus recruitment leaders from over 40 leading firms -- including Morgan Stanley, Equinix, Prudential, Capital One, Barclays Accenture and MasterCard -- WCN's research has helped to uncover pressure points within this unique form of recruitment, as well as areas that are proving successful for hiring the best emerging talent before the rest.

The most prominent pressure points uncovered from the research included:

• 56% saying stretched staff resourcing was a challenge
• 52% saying technology they use is not up to scratch
• 46% citing low brand awareness as an issue

The recruiters polled were attendees of best practice seminars organized by WCN to help stimulate discussion and offer guidance on creating more engaging and transparent relationships between employers & applicants, recognizing the need to increase velocity and win the hearts and minds of qualified candidates sooner.

Offline events and liaison seemed to be the most prominent mechanisms used for candidate engagement in campus programs, but recruiters were slow to move this momentum online, missing out on the natural communications output preferred by millennials. Of those surveyed:

• 94% valued events for candidate engagement
• 88% said maintaining campus relationships with academics helped with engagement
• 56% used brand ambassadors to deliver engagement
• 50% had programmed in regular communications for engagement -- 22% of whom were using newsletters for this
• 48% were using social media outreach for engagement
• 34% were using video interviewing to proactively engage candidates

This appeared to correlate with their most successful campus recruitment sources which predominantly came from offline means:

• 86% said internships or co-op opportunities worked well for finding campus recruits
• 56% found candidates were inspired by employer brand and value propositions
• 52% used mentoring programmes to aid campus recruitment
• 50% valued career fairs for finding the best candidates and 48% said campus referrals worked well.

These trends indicate that a new way of thinking is needed for organizations to appear like a good cultural fit for a digital-minded candidate -- networking with applicants in the ways they talk to each other. Simple, transparent and personal at all times -- be that virtual or personal. Adaption is a must as a consequence of the behavior and technological changes in new generations.

Communicating with the students should not just be offline and it is a danger for this to fall by the wayside or end up last on the list of priorities. Whether it's time delays, poor communication with applicants, or a bad online user experience, campus recruiters and employers risk losing qualified candidates because as campus recruits are left in the dark, they consider other offers.

WCN Campus is purpose built to facilitate talent engagement online using targeted communications that will make a careers page more personalized and value-led for candidates -- be that from highlighting ambassadors/mentors or showcasing relevant films/presentations that help form emotive connections between an applicant and an organization.

Jeanette Maister, Managing Director for Americas at WCN, comments: "The ever changing landscape of campus recruiting means we continue to see large, global organizations recognize the need to transform their approaches. In this digital era, the push from employers needs to center on creating an engaging experience and personalizing the process for candidates -- and in order to this, employers need to utilize technology to ensure they form a bond from a very early stage, ages before the candidate applies, all the way through to when a candidate accepts their full-time offer. It's critical to involve an end-to-end solution that supports the entire campus process to keep emerging talent engaged every step of the way."

For more information, including a whitepaper, the ability to register for more of our exclusive events, or to just discover more about WCN Campus please visit www.wcncampus.com.

Notes to editors: WCN Campus, a proven and engaging online solution for campus recruiting, built on our decades of global talent acquisition experience. WCN Campus is focused solely on emerging talent and creating a more engaging and transparent relationship between brands and applicants. We provide insights that lead to greater hiring velocity and results. Hundreds of global clients -- including Fortune 50 enterprises -- trust WCN Campus as a proven partner to find, assess, and hire emerging talent. WCN, headquartered in London with offices in New York, is traded on the London Stock Exchange under WOR.