Category Archives: Graduate Selection

There’s hard evidence that most shortlisting methods have an impact on people from non-traditional backgrounds. This week we tackle a new way to approach shortlisting of both graduates (recruited externally) and high potentials (recruited internally). In our experience, ‘effort-based shortlisting’ can have a positive impact on both diversity and social mobility.

It’s hard to pick out the most talented people in large organisations – especially in the early stages of their career. This applies when selecting people to join the organisation, and also when spotting internal talent for high potential schemes. The tools that HR have developed to assist in this process are Assessment Centres, manager assessments of potential, and (rarely) self-nomination. This article looks at why there’s a danger of choosing less talented people when using Assessment Centres.

So you’re considering hiring Professional Apprentices at 18, in addition to graduates at 21. What do those 3 years of independent study bring to graduates? What do 18 year olds potentially do better?

Organisations vary between recruiting graduates directly into a role, or providing a scheme that rotates graduates around a series of placements. The placements may be within a department (eg Finance or HR), or companywide. How do you decide which approach to take? What decisions are needed for a great rotational scheme?

How much does potential change from entry level, to senior positions? As part of building potential models for blue chip companies, we have done research into how senior managers spot potential. We asked them to describe real people they had picked out as high potential, and talked through the ‘critical incidents’ that had made them decide that the person had high potential.