Getting down to business

By ANGELA McCARTHY

Thousands of final-year tertiary students are eagerly waiting for the start of this year's round of campus-based graduate programme recruitment fairs. What is the attraction?

Nathan Harraway, who graduated from Otago University with a double degree, BSc (Information Science) and BCom (Accounting), set his sights singly on the Vodafone graduate training programme last year - and was one of eight to make the cut. "It is great training and suits what I want in terms of job satisfaction and work life balance."

As well as exploring the business, Vodafone's programme is about developing higher self awareness, says graduate programme manager Emily Crowther. Graduates work through three four-month placements, undergo experiential development training, and a team special project supported by coaches, programme managers and mentors.

Further graduate education and training is vitally important, says Victoria University of Wellington career development and employment manager Liz Medford. "And past students' feedback indicates they feel [graduate programmes] gave them an excellent jump start to their career."

A huge benefit, says Massey University Albany campus careers adviser Trish Fleetwood, is the insight the graduates gain about the overall business, including areas they may not have known existed.

"Graduates can be raw and the programmes give them time to mature."

There is little downside, says Medford. "Years ago when the programmes weren't well organised, students became disillusioned and felt they were really recruited as glorified clerks but that is no longer the case."

For employers the benefit is bright employees with a fresh perspective and leadership potential. New Zealand Post has been running a graduate development programme for 12 years, keen to fast-track graduates for either specialist or management roles.

"We believe in growing leaders within the business rather than recruiting at the upper level. If we get people at the beginning of their career, then we're getting people that fit our culture," says New Zealand Post corporate development adviser Philippa Beazley.

One of the biggest benefits for ANZ is graduate retention, says ANZ practice leader Mark Tod. "Graduates on programmes perform very well and tend to stay, a big issue for New Zealand employers."

The rewards are high - and selection is rigorous, often involving assessment centres that include group work, interviews, presentations and role plays. Selection begins in earnest in May and is usually wrapped up by September.

Most are coy about cost but Fonterra's industry training manager Bryce Bartley reckons Fonterra invests around $1 million in its graduate programmes' recruitment, salary and mentoring. "But we get a return quickly because graduates are given projects and become productive pretty early on."

Fonterra (ex Dairy Board) has run research and manufacturing graduate programmes since the seventies. This year they've added a new finance programme for 12 commerce graduates who will serve four six-month stints at various branches of the company's operations while completing their chartered accountancy requirements.

Statistics New Zealand is offering a new leadership development programme over and above its mathematical statistician and IT graduate recruitment.

"We want to increase our pool of potential future leaders," says Statistic New Zealand HR programme manager Michelle Foster.

The 11 graduates have a range of qualifications including public policy, Maori business, history, sociology and economics.

Recruitment starts as early as March with information on programmes available on company websites and campus websites, such as the Auckland University, AUT, Massey and Waikato graduate site jobs4grads.

Overall company programmes aren't increasing, says University of Auckland careers and employment centre manager Antony Crane. While professional graduate programmes are still going strong, Crane can count only 10 general graduate programmes.

Fleetwood says the number has dropped over the four years she has been on Massey campus. "Accounting graduates still have lots of opportunities but IT has had a big decline. ANZ is the biggest general employer for us."

Competition is fierce for the creme de la creme of students. Last year New Zealand Post changed the process, to stem two years of falling applications. "Changes included comprehensive direct marketing to students through an open letter, then email and text reminders. We ended up doubling our numbers," explained Beazley.

ANZ, who last year snapped up a mere 25 of the 1250 Kiwi applicants, is also changing some of its testing procedures to make the process "less laborious", says Tod.

Once a company has got a desired graduate interested, they're moving fast, getting offers out quickly with very short turn-around time to accept, says Crane. No one wants to be last cab off the rank, employer or graduate.