"Seven years ago, Zephyr Industries had no problem recruiting qualified candidates from college campuses. This year, however, Zephyr has hired only three qualified interns, fewer than one-quarter of those hired in each of the three preceding years. This suggests that the company's recruitment efforts need to be revamped. Since a growing number of potential recruits learn of career opportunities via social media and online discussion boards, Zephyr should suspend its campus recruitment efforts and instead hire social media consultants."
Response:
To suspend campus recruitment, and focus solely on social media platforms for hiring qualified candidates for internship is a very drastic, and very flawed recruitment strategy change. By taking up a new method - and completely doing away with the existing one could result in the plan backfiring, and Zephyr may have none or few candidates.
Firstly, there are many other factors to be examined by Zephyr to identify if it is really the campus recruitment efforts alone that provided the low number of qualified candidates. An immediate factor that comes to mind includes Zephyr's industry, which could have been in a decline in the past years. Perhaps, Zephyr's competitors have been more actively and effectively recruiting the best candidates. Also, what if Zephyr did not provide an attractive internship package, in terms of pay, job scope and timing, which had evolved with the times while Zephyr did not. And finally, did the requirements change from seven years ago? Perhaps a qualified candidate then, might not be a qualified candidate today.
Secondly, Zephyr's focus is rightly on the quality of candidates, not just the number of applicants it recieves. Thus, the question should be which method - either campus recruitment or social media - can most effectively reach the best quality students. While social media is the current trend, it does not fare better than campus recruitment in this aspect. Social media can reach a wide range of students, but campus recruitment can be done strategically at the relevant faculties. Recruiters do not know for sure whom they pitch to online, but through campus recruitment, recruiters can look for strong first impressions and potentially convince the student to apply to Zephyr. Through campus recruitment, recruiters can also engage with faculty members for recommendations of the top students. Thus, campus recruitment benefits far outweigh social media in terms of attracting quality candidates.
In conclusion, Zephyr has proposed a very drastic recruitment strategy change. While social media is increasingly pervasive, it does not mean that Zephyr should abandon its campus recruitment altogether. In fact, both methods should be in tandem as they would complement each other in terms of social media improving the level of awareness in terms of the internship offer and the benefits of Zephyr, followed by the invitation to visit the recruiters on site the campus for more discussions on what Zephyr, and the candidate, is looking for.
P.S. Done within a time limit of 45 minutes. First AWA essay attempt. Many thanks in advance for your comments and I look forward to learning from this community.
Response:
To suspend campus recruitment, and focus solely on social media platforms for hiring qualified candidates for internship is a very drastic, and very flawed recruitment strategy change. By taking up a new method - and completely doing away with the existing one could result in the plan backfiring, and Zephyr may have none or few candidates.
Firstly, there are many other factors to be examined by Zephyr to identify if it is really the campus recruitment efforts alone that provided the low number of qualified candidates. An immediate factor that comes to mind includes Zephyr's industry, which could have been in a decline in the past years. Perhaps, Zephyr's competitors have been more actively and effectively recruiting the best candidates. Also, what if Zephyr did not provide an attractive internship package, in terms of pay, job scope and timing, which had evolved with the times while Zephyr did not. And finally, did the requirements change from seven years ago? Perhaps a qualified candidate then, might not be a qualified candidate today.
Secondly, Zephyr's focus is rightly on the quality of candidates, not just the number of applicants it recieves. Thus, the question should be which method - either campus recruitment or social media - can most effectively reach the best quality students. While social media is the current trend, it does not fare better than campus recruitment in this aspect. Social media can reach a wide range of students, but campus recruitment can be done strategically at the relevant faculties. Recruiters do not know for sure whom they pitch to online, but through campus recruitment, recruiters can look for strong first impressions and potentially convince the student to apply to Zephyr. Through campus recruitment, recruiters can also engage with faculty members for recommendations of the top students. Thus, campus recruitment benefits far outweigh social media in terms of attracting quality candidates.
In conclusion, Zephyr has proposed a very drastic recruitment strategy change. While social media is increasingly pervasive, it does not mean that Zephyr should abandon its campus recruitment altogether. In fact, both methods should be in tandem as they would complement each other in terms of social media improving the level of awareness in terms of the internship offer and the benefits of Zephyr, followed by the invitation to visit the recruiters on site the campus for more discussions on what Zephyr, and the candidate, is looking for.
P.S. Done within a time limit of 45 minutes. First AWA essay attempt. Many thanks in advance for your comments and I look forward to learning from this community.
