Attracting graduates to North Staffordshire

At Sellick Partnership we are in the fortunate position of needing to grow our Stoke on Trent office. It is however, with some trepidation that I start the search for graduate calibre candidates with some sales focussed work experience. Within our network of offices it is our North Staffordshire office where we struggle to attract the hardworking and talented individuals that will succeed in this competitive, challenging and rewarding environment.
 
 My question is 'why is this?' and, more importantly, 'how do we address this?'
 
North Staffordshire is a growing and developing area seeking to attract new organisations and grow those already based in the area. To succeed, these organisations need a wide and varied workforce with a range of skills and experiences. Often the graduates we speak to are attracted to our larger neighbours Birmingham and Manchester. How do we compete with our 'glamourous' neighbours? How do we retain the talent coming from Keele and Staffordshire University? Is it an issue with our location or is it that today's graduates are seeking alternative careers outside of the sales arena?
 
A major survey (click here for the survey results) published this month showed that students graduating from Britain's top universities this summer have made a record number of job applications.

Having recently recruited graduate roles for clients in the area and from our own experiences we are not seeing this volume of applicants reflected in the area - what can we do as a region to attract the best and input to the growth and development we all want for the area?
 
Connect with me on LinkedIn or call our office on 01782 572700 to discuss further.
 

Tuesday
31 May, 2011

By Gill Bellchambers

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Comments

#1 Jeremy Snell @ May 31, 2011

An interesting observation and one that has impacted on the area since the reduction of manufacturing based businesses. Presently 27% of graduates from the Staffordshire based Universities move out of the county upon graduation (and I would expect this could include some of the more up and at ‘em graduates). Interestingly Staffordshire also has a very high disparity between the average household salary and the average workplace salary in the county. This means there are a large number of residents of Staffordshire travelling out of the county to work. With Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham so close there are those who are willing to travel out of the county to work in the types of businesses that offer the salaries that don’t seem to be available in North Staffordshire. Long term the local areas needs a significant level of regeneration to attract more businesses to the local area and the assist those that are here to achieve growth. The focus needs to be on upskilling the available workforce to attract those businesses. This will take some time to achieve and clearly financial investment. Marketing and brand awareness amongst the local undergraduate population will help you find your new recruits, though your biggest competition to securing them is likely to be outside of the ST postcodes. When I used to recruit graduates in Stoke, I found that many had aspirations of working outside Stoke within the next few years - securing talent into your business with opportunities to move and develop may prove to be the opportunity to capture the best of the local graduate pool.

#2 Laura @ May 31, 2011

I think a problem that graduate recruiters within the local area face is the pool of competitors around them. It is hard to attract high quality graduates when there may only be a small handful of organisations recruiting to graduate level positions in the area - in comparison to the larger cities which have a magnitude of graduate/entry level roles attracting volumes of applicants. Perhaps graduates have a misconception that Stoke-on-Trent doesn't have the amount/level of graduate roles that they are seeking?

#3 fiona lander @ May 31, 2011

Hi Gill, I think the real answer is - you have to play the long game! Like you, many recruitment firms all over the country are starting to expand again now their markets, in the main, are picking up. You need people on board now or soon, so you are limited to the current talent pool available - along with everyone else. Sellick already has such a great brand presence in the market that, whilst it might still be a struggle, you will eventually get the talent you want for this year. But what about next year? And the year after? To avoid the 'struggle' each year you can start now to put measures in place to secure the best talent in your area. This is where corporates are strong at building passive talent pools over time. Go to the universities, make presentations, run work placement projects, create a single purpose website, use all the social media platforms (as I know you are), build relationships - not just for this year but for the coming years. And when you can, hire an internal recruiter to work at this 24/7!

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