Can you create a fuller plan? That will help you create goals, objectives, and tasks so that your team has consistent ways to approach past employers? Having someone out in the community is a must in our book. That means staying in constant touch with employer - past and present and future. Ask them lots of questions about how your grads are doing, what other training they need, job openings, and more. Susan
Looking through past employers that have hired our graduates.
What we felt was a great way to get our list of employers that hired our grads was to begin by getting all of our past graduates updated in a database. We did this by calling/emailing all of our students to see where they were working.
We used this as a place to start off with. From there, we built a working lost of facilities that have hired our graduates, recent and past. This is a GREAT tool for us to use, specially with admissions.
Our admissions team relies on the success of our placement team to prove how we are placing students in jobs that are getting real experience in their field.
Another way we get employers on our list is if we were to make a meeting with the hiring manager of a facility and get a list of key requirements needed to gain employement with their company. From here, we can add new facilities to our list if our students meet their employment requirements.
I totally agree with you Susan/
There are many ways to make a "short list" into a "long list"!
Of course, student surveys, close contact with students and alumni, employer surveys, etc...
But, I feel the key to success is networking.
In the Cosmetology (beauty)industry,the placement person needs to call Salons and other businesses who employ our graduates. Invite them in for a tour, career day,or to do a Demo for the students. Touch base with all of the businesses in your area. Visit them, bring the students for a field trip to see their businesses.
Build a close relationship with the Salon owners as well as the HR manager.You would be suprised how pleased they are to have an "in" at your school since they are looking for quality employees.
Yes, Networking, keeping in touch, building relationships, these are keys to a successful placement department!
Patricia Johnston
We think it is essential that someone from your school be assigned Community Outreach. The job is to visit with every employer and potential employer for a variety of reasons. These include finding out how your grads are doing in the work place and to determine what will make them work ready for each company. Also to find out who the hiring decision makers are and how to find out about jobs first. Thanks, Susan
Keeping a record of alphabetical names, phone number and addresses would be the best way to keep a good record of the employers.
You point out the reason to have an active community outreach program. Suggest that you have one person on staff out in the community continually talking with both employers and prospective employers. You will learn a lot about what makes an ideal grad, what job openings there are, and if company employees need training that you offer. Thanks, Susan
through my 3 years of experience, I have compiled a list of all the employers that has taken our graduates, and this list have been help me a lot lately. usually I have 3 or 4 calls a week from employers looking for our graduiates to fill their openings, but lately, i hardly have 1 or 2 calls a month, so i went back to my list of employers and start getting jobs opportunities very fast.
Keeping in touch is the key to developing and maintaining relationships with employers. Ideally you have their emails in a database so you can easily send out interesting and informational emails. We think that email, phone calls, and in person appointments are all a way to learn what the employer wants in a work-ready grad and for the employer to see your school as a great resource. Thanks, Susan
It seems like most everyone else covered it. We simply reach out to our community and look up reputable companies listed online. We have now started to track all our student internship companies/graduate employer's in a database and try to keep in contact with them as best as possible.
Thanks Joyce. You point to the fact that there are many ways to connect with and then build relationships with employers. Start with the places where your grads work. Ask permission to contact their employers. Then branch to companies that could hire your grads if they knew about your school. Then follow follow follow. One way is through informative emails. But personal connection is the most effective even if it takes time. Also participate in local business networking events and organizations. Also keep in mind that your Alumni are great sources for names of hiring decision makers and job openings where they work. That is the reason why Alumni Associations are so vital to every career school. Thanks, Susan
We do send Employer Surveys to build our Employer list. But what I have found to be more effective to adding new prospective employers to the list is to follow up on the current job postings. If there is a contact person named (with phone number or an e-mail) with the posting, I contact that person and ask if they would be interested in some resumes of our graduates and how they would be beneficial in that position. This isn't always successful, but what does work 100% of the time? If I can get one graduate a job then it was worth it! Then the next time the same employer has a position open, hopefully they will contact us!
Sounds like you have the formula for successful community outreach. This is a great start. Suggest you visit professional and community organizations and see which will benefit the school the most. Also attend career days and other events that bring together people from the careers you train for. Just cold calling sometimes works. You are quite right that it is essential to have some kind of customer database management system in place so you can keep all the names and contact info and have in a system to follow them. You are doing great. Thanks, Susan
The most effective ways to build a list of employers is (1) contact or visit current employers to familiarize yourself with the hiring manager (2) contact or visit potential employers, ask for the hiring manager, introduce yourself, tell about your school and offer any assistance. Once rapports are established, put the employers into a database, such as Outlook. Maintain continuous contact. Update your information often. Network, network, network as much as possible.
This is great Christine. In addition to meeting with employers of your grads, you can also reach out to any company that could hire your grads. They are just as valuable. You are right that some grads do plan to work on their own and establish their own businesses. So they also need to be tracked to see if and when they need staff. A solution is a comprehensive community outreach program. We think there should be someone from school networking in the community every day. We also believe an Alumni Association is a great way to stay in touch with grads. And meet the hiring decision makers where they work. Thanks, Susan
Some effective ways of building a list of employers that would likely hire our students is not only to retain this information on file when one of our students are placed in the field, and also visiting with employers in the industry to develop great relationships with so they want to hire our students, asking them to sit on our advisory board, etc. but also to develop an excellent relationship with the students themselves. In many instances, in our field, the students have the desire to become the owner of their own business someday. I see it as full-circle. The students that are placed are also a great source to refer another student if their employer is looking to fill another position.
Good point Marcia. The more employers gain confidence in the training offered at your school the more likely they will work cooperatively with you. We work with one school that has 100% placement from their externship sites. So it is possible. They do work hard to train their students in skills and knowledge needed during the externship and in employment skills. The student is instructed to do the best possible as the externship is really an extended interview! And even if the student doesn't get that job, s/he has great experience to put on the resume. Thanks
Hi Marcia,
This is a great story and example of how connections between the school and employers needs to be promoted and nurtured. Creating these opportunities don't come easy as you mentioned so we need to be on the lookout for potential practicum/intern sites whenever we are working with the community.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Gary
Employers who have had a good experience with an intern from our school are more likely to hire our graduates. It took me 3 weeks of constant follow-up to get an employer to agree to let one of our students intern there. Six weeks after the student completed an internship, she was hired by the employer. Later when another position opened up, the employer hired another one of our graduates.
