Employers must better measure the effectiveness of their youth recruitment programmes, according to a guide from Business in the Community (BITC), supported by Ricoh UK.
Measuring the effectiveness of your youth recruitment found that only 15% of employers regularly measure the effectiveness of their youth recruitment. The research warned that this can lead to difficulties in identifying barriers young people face during hiring, as well as inefficient evaluation of how successful company recruitment practices are at attracting younger talent in the long term.
The guide recommends employers collect a consistent set of diversity data through equalities monitoring across all early careers activities. This would help identify potential barriers.
Rebekah Wallis, director of people and corporate responsibility for Ricoh UK, told HR magazine that employers need to improve their systems.
“I think it’s fair to say the majority of organisations are in the process of or have experience of hiring young people,” she said. “However, a CIPD study this year found only around 4% were able to conduct predictive analytics.”
Ricoh evaluates its L&D offer on an ongoing basis to identify ways to improve outcomes and maximise apprenticeship completion rates. Apprentices have regular meetings with their buddy or mentor and line manager, who in turn liaise with their training provider to track progress. If an apprentice needs extra support their manager will then identify additional opportunities for them to gain more hands-on experience.
“Often different area of the business aren’t joined up when it comes to recruitment,” Wallis said. “But something simple like using the same tracking number for candidates can help, and HR can co-ordinate that. Make sure you measure the success rates of activities you do, and see how many of those who take part go on to join you."
Grace Mehanna, campaign director for youth employment at BITC, said the guide gives employers a good place to start.
“Our members have told us that being able to measure the effectiveness of their youth recruitment would empower them to take a more joined-up approach to creating accessible opportunities, but many are not sure where to start,” she said. “As a result, we’ve worked with Rebekah and the rest of the working group to identify the key steps employers need to take to set up a measurement system that integrates all initiatives to inspire, hire and grow young employees.”
