Attracting the Next Generation of Talent into Higher Education Careers

Evolving Recruitment Practices

Since I started my career in Higher Education (HE) more than a decade ago, recruitment practices have drastically changed. Recruiters serving the private sector have largely adapted their practices to stay competitive in attracting the best talent and many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have moved with the times, but the sector itself can be slow moving in comparison.

So, how can HEIs continue to attract the next generation of talent into higher education careers and what are the challenges they face to stay competitive when it comes to recruitment?

In the digital age, self-promotion is almost an essential part of getting hired and recruitment is increasingly being done via online platforms such as LinkedIn and Bluesky. Automated recruitment processes are being used more regularly, some which utilise AI tools to filter out suitable candidates. Once candidates are shortlisted, many recruiters conduct interviews on virtual platforms and often, particularly for entry level jobs, offers are made without the recruiter and the interviewee having met in person.

People buy people

As someone who started their career in a time when a face-to-face interview was an essential part of getting a job, digital recruitment is a far cry from the way I started out. Recruitment is at its core a sales practice with the product being the career of the individual, so perhaps HEIs are misunderstanding their customers when it comes to recruiting young people.

The renowned business author Bob Burg coined a now well-known quote on business networking, ‘All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like and trust’. If this still holds true, has digital recruitment contributed to a lack of emotional connection, rapport building and commitment from young job seekers? The number of interview no-shows has risen in recent years and not showing up to an interview might seem more acceptable to someone starting out in their career, someone to whom digital recruitment might feel like the norm.

My own career in HE started while I was still a student, through working for my institution as a Student Ambassador. My work as a Student Ambassador led to me find a deeper connection with my university and helped me explain the benefits of studying to my customers – prospective students – on a personal level.

For me, bringing my positive thoughts to my customers helped me not only sell the experiences and courses to them, but also made me realise that I enjoyed my work and the environment I was in. If digital recruitment is becoming standard practice and many HEIs are recruiting in this way, why are HEIs struggling to attract young talent? With digital recruitment, perhaps some of the core sales skills of emotional connection and building rapport with your customer are being lost or overlooked, or perhaps some recruiters have not yet learned how to do this well over digital platforms.

Growth Employment Areas

In HE, universities are constantly having to shift their course offerings and research focuses in response to government funding and international trends. With such focus on the financial challenges and uncertainty around HE, young talent may find the thought of pursuing a career in HE off-putting and opt for growth employment areas instead.

HEIs typically design their courses so they are more likely to attracts students but also so the courses help build skills for priority occupations and the future of work. Many courses build in work placements so students can gain experience in their chosen career path and a greater chance of employment when they graduate. For example, since their introduction in 2015, degree apprenticeships have grown rapidly and not only help industry partners employ young people with the right skills but also help the young people themselves find suitable employment to start soon after completing their studies.

Perhaps recruitment into higher education roles remains a challenge, because of the breadth of skills required from staff, the difficulty in competing with salaries from the private sector or because the recruitment processes have become or remained cumbersome.

A job for life?

Current employment trends see people stay in roles for less time than the traditional ‘job for life’ model, but given the choice, most people would prefer some job security. The trend for short term contracts in HE roles could be off-putting for potential employees and make it harder to retain good staff, plus the salaries in HE are not always competitive, particularly for research jobs. In addition to this, HE might not be considered a growth area for employment, and the skills needed for growth areas might not necessarily align with the skills needed to work in HE.

Technology is Changing Job Roles

Young people starting out in their careers have the difficulty of choosing a career that will keep them employed in the future. Technological advancement and the introduction of AI into workflow, means that many entry level tasks that previously would have acted as a starting point for on-the-job trainees, are being automated. Some job roles occupied by people with higher levels of education are also at risk from generative artificial intelligence (GAI). Many young people are turning to careers that they perceive to be more secure and focussing on areas where there is demand, such as the green skills gap where ‘demand for workers with sustainability expertise is outpacing the supply of talent’. The recent emergence of AI and its deployment has also led businesses to identify that there is a lack of expertise in AI to support business priorities and projects.

Attracting Young Talent

So, with these challenges for HEIs and potential employees in mind, how can HEIs attract talent and redefine the value proposition of a career in HE? My experience of working in HE is that there are lots of benefits and value to be gained from a career in HE. HEIs (whose business is education after all!) encourage their staff to keep learning and developing, with many offering excellent training courses and discounts to staff who register on their degree level courses.

The welcoming and inclusive culture of HEIs could also be a draw for potential employees, as well as the possibility that there might be staff access to excellent (and in some cases world leading) facilities, such as libraries, gyms, conference facilities, food and restaurants. Speaking from experience, engaging with students with a view to establishing a longer-term connection is a great place to start building trust, and doing this in person as well as on the right digital platforms could make this more meaningful and help build a longer-term connection.