Recruitment Challenge
Recruiting college graduates from the best, most competitive accounting and finance programs in the U.S.
Recruiting Best Practices
Candidates from the most competitive accounting and finance programs were successfully recruited. Some of those schools included the Ivy Leagues. Others were less well-known institutions with highly rated accounting and finance programs.
After the first year, job performance ratings of those hired were favorably high. Retention of those recruited also was favorably high. In the second year of our relationship with the client, the same number of hires were requested. With job performance and retention data so strongly positive, we were curious as to why the same number of hires were being requested.
We re-ran job performance and retention statistics using an 18-month cycle (rather than the typical annual cycle). Results illustrated a retention problem. A significant number of highly performing job candidates had resigned between the 13th month and the 18th month of employment.
By statistically comparing the candidate profiles of “job stayers” versus “job leavers” we were able to identify distinguishing candidate characteristics of top performing job stayers.
The recruiting strategy, employer branding and candidate evaluation process was then shifted to address the new ideal candidate profile of top performing job stayers. Concurrently, hiring managers were trained on how to select candidates based on this new candidate profile.
Result
- 95% of hired candidates received satisfactory job performance ratings
- New hire retention increased by 50%
- Annual recruitment costs decreased due to higher retention
