Behind the change is a survey carried out by the company, which highlighted that over one-third of the 400 respondents had been frustrated by the length of the recruitment processThe millennial generation – those born between 1980 and 2000 – has pushed KPMG into reworking its recruitment process, with applicants expressing their frustration at the previous drawn-out system.
Prior to the introduction of the revised recruitment process, those applying for positions at the accountancy firm would face three individual assessments, which could take a number of weeks to complete.
Frustrated applicants
Behind the change is a survey carried out by the company, which highlighted that over one-third of the 400 respondents had been frustrated by the length of the recruitment process. KPMG also wanted to take on board the finding that over 50% of applicants had hated not receiving feedback on why they were not successful in the process.
The accountancy company wants to attract the brightest talent graduating from university. To achieve this, it needs to keep up with innovative startup businesses, which generally have less rigid recruitment policies in place and can offer applicants positions far sooner.
For the business to remain successful in the future, it needs to ensure that its graduate recruitment programme is working correctly by listening to the requirements of this generation.
Future of graduate recruitment
Graduate recruitment is a major part of the HR programme of a number of large UK-based businesses. As the needs of those leaving university change, so must the systems companies have in place. This move by KPMG is not the first instance of a major corporation adapting its recruitment process to make it more streamlined.
Goldman Sachs made the decision earlier this year to stop conducting face-to-face interviews for undergraduates; instead, it has moved to video interviews. The company takes on about 2,500 students every summer as full-time and part-time analysts and this change will considerably speed up the recruitment process.
Another business that has altered the way in which it recruits is Deloitte, which last year opted to remove details of an applicant’s university from the document received by those making the decisions. This was intended to prevent any unconscious biases towards particular institutions and enables the recruiters to focus more on how an applicant thinks, giving the business a greater variety of perspectives from a range of backgrounds.
As more companies adapt the way in which they recruit millennials, we should hopefully see the implementation of faster systems that concentrate on the benefits an applicant could bring to the business rather than on how well they manage a long and convoluted recruitment process.
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