Verity journal

With plenty of graduating students every year, one of the questions that probably looms on your mind as an employer is: what are the benefits of hiring a fresh graduate?

There is a general assumption that a fresh graduate should be like: a templated, fresh-out-of-the-oven worker trained in theoretical practice and ready to take on the workforce. They are also more competitive salary-wise, and more easily moulded but at the same time inexperienced and have all the inherent negatives of their age group ie. millennials.

Taking a closer look, some of the risks involved with a fresh graduate includes not being able to stay at the job for a suitable amount of time or even finding that they are unable to perform well in their tasks. These seem to be justified, especially when the data doesn’t exactly paint a rosy picture.

In a research conducted by Monster.com on the expectations and challenges of fresh graduates, around 36% of fresh graduates gave in their resignation letters in less than 12 months of working in their first job. Most graduates attribute leaving their companies because of a disparity in expectations. In Malaysia, 74% of the surveyed early-leavers also said they left because they wanted more professional growth and 43% wanted a better salary.

Image by Monster.com

On top of statistics, there are still potentially other risks when it comes to hiring graduating students. If you are unlucky, your candidate may not have as clean of a slate as they would lead you to believe. Some of these unforeseen risks could include being unforthcoming about an expulsion history, lying about the kind of qualifications they have or even hiding a bad track record. And, there’s always a possibility that they may possess a criminal record despite their young age.

So how do you identify and manage your expectations when it comes to hiring someone who is trying for their first job?

One of the best ways to minimize those risks is to keep yourself informed. Like how you would screen a potential employee before hiring them, there are steps to ensure your fresh graduate truly comes from an accredited university with proper qualifications. According to research data from Monster.com, a whopping 62% of graduates working on their first job struggled most with their lack of industry knowledge. That’s over half of the freshies coming into the workforce!

Nonetheless, there are many factors at play such as the lack of practical university courses, different outlooks in goals and achievements as well as urban living costs and expectations which are some of the things that may be beyond your control as an employer.

But of course we should not assume this applies to every fresh graduate applying to your organization. Good talent is hard to come by and the key is to find and identify the right people.

And although there is no way to completely mitigate the risks, you are however in control of equipping yourself with knowledge of their education backgrounds, potential criminal records, fiscal statuses and whatever else that’s relevant. These are some of the things that just may save you from a potential bad hire.

At Verity Intelligence, we are currently assisting about 700 organizations secure their human resources – from banks and hospitals to SMEs and private institutes. The Know-Your-Employee (KYE) screening has also helped employers regularly screen their hires – both new and existing employees. By applying efficient screens on your fresh graduate candidates, you can potentially prevent a bad hire and maybe even score a genuine raw diamond in your taskforce!

Want to improve your hiring process and have an edge against your competition? Stay tuned to the blog at www.verityintel.com to learn more about employee screenings.