Best Practices of NACE Employer Members

NACE asked college career services practitioners at schools that participate in the Salary Survey to identify employers who they felt best performed certain aspects of the recruiting process. The following companies were named. NACE members can read the full text of these best practices articles on NACEWeb. If you're not a member, but would like to read these and other important articles on NACEWeb, click here.

Branding: Microsoft; NVR; Plastipak Packaging
Career Fairs: 7-Eleven; Applied Materials; Schering-Plough Corporation; Target Stores; TMP Worldwide, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon, eBay, Microsoft, Sodexho, T-Mobile
Diversity: 7-Eleven; Carlson Restaurants Worldwide; IBM; Time Inc.; United Technologies Corporation
Internship/Cooperative Education Programs: Acxiom Corporation; Becton Dickinson; Beers & Cutler; Disney; Domino's Pizza; Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas; General Growth Properties; Giant Eagle; GlaxoSmithKline (GSK); Grant Thornton; KCI; L-3 Communications; Lyondell Chemical; Marsh USA; Mattress Firm; NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center; Nationwide; Northrop Grumman; PNC Financial; Texas Instruments; Turner Entertainment; Starwood Hotels & Resorts; State Farm; St. Jude Medical Center Cardiac Rhythm Management Division; USS-POSCO Industries; Weyerhaeuser
Interviewing: Corporate Executive Board; Corporate Executive Board; Corporate Executive Board; National Instruments
On-Campus Relations: Advanced Micro Devices; CDM; Dow Chemical Company; Ferguson Enterprises; Koch Industries; Liberty Mutual; NVR Inc.; Stockamp & Associates; T-Mobile
Recruiting: Amazon.Com; Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University; Beers & Cutler; Circuit City Stores; CDM; Cisco Systems; EchoStar Communications; GEICO; General Electric Global Research Center; Greenhorne & O'Mara; Harris Corporation; L'Oreal; Marriott International; NAVAIR; NBC; New York Life; Plastipak Packaging; Raytheon; Shell Oil; Stockamp & Associates; Sunoco; T-Mobile; T-Mobile; Total Quality Logistics (TQL); Travelers; Turner Entertainment; U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs; VistaPrint Limited; Washington Mutual; Watson Wyatt Worldwide
Retention: Beers & Cutler; BNSF Railways; Consolidated Graphics (2008); Consolidated Graphics (2005); Consolidated Graphics (2004); Domino's Pizza; Harris Corporation; L-3 Communications; St. Jude Medical Center Cardiac Rhythm Management Division; Total Quality Logistics (TQL); U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs
Training: Accenture; Aramark; BNSF Railways; Moog Inc.; New York Life; Northrop Grumman; PacifiCorp; Turner Entertainment; Vanguard

Branding

Employee Blogging as a Brand Builder—Microsoft

Blogging, the latest Internet phenomenon, can be an effective recruitment tool for employers. There are over 3,500 employee blogs online at Microsoft, and according to Gretchen Ledgard, marketing manager of staffing, these blogs assist recruiting efforts by putting a human face on the company, conveying a passion for Microsoft, and empowering employees.

Microsoft has seen the positive results of their blogging community:

Increased applications through their web site,
better prepared applicants and interviewees,
broader search engine discoverability,
and positive media coverage.

NACE members can read the full story on February 2, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Building Your Corporate Brand Through Strategic Campus Presentations

Making the most of strategic campus presentations is a key component to NVR's corporate employment brand.

For NVR, the country's sixth largest homebuilder, the four major goals of the strategic campus presentations are:

Providing professional development opportunities and career guidance to your target markets.
Moving beyond the traditional information session to educate students about your company.
Preparing students to be successful in your interview process.
Building recognition of your employment brand.

Developing these presentations is labor-intensive, as NVR tries to tie in all aspects of the presentation to the company's corporate employment brand. Providing anecdotal stories reinforces the corporate brand and provides professional development to students.

NACE members can read the full story on June 9, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Branding—Plastipak Packaging

For Plasticpak Packaging of Garland, Texas, branding of its manufacturing facility to college students is as important as the branding done for the products the the plastics manufacturer produces bottles for: Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, and Gatorade.

The message Plastipak tries to convey through its brand is "opportunity." Following are some of Plastipak's best practices for effective branding:

Present onsite—Plastipak recruits at 10 to 12 schools overall, primarily at two-year colleges for its technical hires and four-year schools for its nontechnical hires.

Work with career services—By doing so, Plastipak reports that an organization can have the "best and brightest" students identified for them, and word of Plastipak's opportunities are spread throughout the campuses.

Conduct interviews onsite—Plastipak tries to hold interviews with students about to graduate and recent alumni who are looking for full-time employment.

NACE members can read the full story on November 1, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Career Fairs

Virtual Career Fairs Can Take Employers to New Destinations—TMP Worldwide, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon, eBay, Microsoft, Sodexho, T-Mobile

Job seekers traveled to a newly formed island for a one-of-a-kind career fair, and they did so without leaving their dorm rooms. The event-dubbed Network in World (NiW)-was held from on "TMP Island," TMP Worldwide's space within the Second Life virtual world.

Six companies-Hewlett-Packard, Verizon, eBay, Microsoft, Sodexho, and T-Mobile-participated in NiW.

Participating companies received requests for interviews from candidates interested in attending the event via a specialized web page designed to allow access to event invitations.

"Once a candidate's resume was received, we confirmed the timeline and conducted a virtual interview," said Tim Holt, project manager, national recruiting for Verizon Communications. "Also, candidates were able to 'walk into' Verizon's building and meet with recruiters as part of a group or on an individual basis without an interview. Recruiters will then follow-up with qualified candidates to explore placement as an employee or intern."

Betty Smith, university recruiting manager at Hewlett-Packard, says her company got more out of the event than possible hires.

To read more about this program, see the June 22, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Career Fairs—Target Stores

Target Stores, a nationwide retailer headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was identified for its outstanding work at career fairs. Some of its best practices include:

Promote your brand—Target Stores brands everything it can for a career fair, including its kiosk and all of its handout materials. This allows the company to convey its values, while enabling students to differentiate Target Stores from other employers.
Solicit feedback from career centers—Target Stores contacts the career centers at each of the approximately 120 colleges and universities at which it recruits several times each year to get feedback on its recruiting program and offer support.
Adjust to the campus—Target Stores adjusts the size of its recruiting team depending on the size of the school.

NACE members can read the full story on August 22, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Career Fairs—Schering-Plough Corporation

Schering-Plough Corporation, a worldwide, research-based pharmaceutical company based in Kenilworth, New Jersey, was identified for its outstanding work at career fairs. Here, Schering-Plough shares some of its best practices:

Use recruiters who have a connection to campus—To staff a career fair, Schering-Plough includes alumni it recently hired and interns/co-ops from the school.

Ensure you have a unified strategy/vision among representatives—Prior to each career fair, recruiting teams review job descriptions and positions, the company's expectations from the career fair, and what should be communicated to attendees.

Make the experience memorable—Schering-Plough recruiters try to make the students' experience fun and interactive.

NACE members can read the full story on August 7, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Diversity Career Fairs—7-Eleven

7-Eleven, Inc. has been identified for its outstanding diversity career fairs. Some of its best practices include:

Make a connection to the school—When 7-Eleven participates in university career fairs, it includes alumni on its recruiting team. The company believes they are the best representatives to talk about their current work assignments and why they decided to join 7-Eleven.

Give students what they want—Members of the 7-Eleven recruiting teams give students who attend college career fairs practical giveaways—coupons for free products in 7-Eleven stores.

Use your time on campus wisely—Recruiters receive the names of career services contacts, professors who have been supportive of 7-Eleven's recruiting program, and key students with whom recruiters should connect.

NACE members can read the full story on July 24, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices at Career Fairs—Applied Materials

Applied Materials reports that it attends career fairs at approximately 24 colleges and universities each year. During times of economic growth, the company hires from 500 to 700+ students, including new college graduates, direct-hire positions, interns, and co-ops. In down years, the company hires between 300 and 400 college graduates. Some of its best practices include:

Reputation—The company's new college graduate training program targets strategic college hires for its business organizations, and has been running for 10 years throughout all cycles of business.
Ties to target schools—Alumni teams aid in the relationship development at target colleges and universities.
Good communication—Applied Materials hosts student organization events, such as workshops and information sessions, before and/or after career fairs, and recruiters conduct mini-interviews as a screening process during career fairs.

NACE members can read the full story on November 1, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Diversity

Working With Diversity Organizations—United Technologies Corporation

United Technologies Corporation (UTC) hired its first INROADS intern in 1984. This initial focus on diversity representation and the relationship with INROADS brought a new focus on promoting education within the company which led to the creation of employee scholar program, providing tuition and textbood costs, time off during the week to study, and stock awards to employees graduating through the program.

Through their employees, UTC came to recognize the value of being involved with professional organizations as a development tool for their current employees, as an aid in recruitment of new employees, and to assist in the retention of their new recruits. Close relationships with professional organizations such as INROADS, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, the National Society of Hispanic M.B.A.s, and the Natonal Black M.B.A. Association have helped UTC develop a diverse and highly qualified group of professionals.

UTC offers a few best practices for working with diversity organizations:

Understand the diversity organizations you will be working with.
Get involved.
Grow partnerships.

NACE members can read the full story on March 2, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Diversity Career Fairs—7-Eleven

7-Eleven, Inc. has been identified for its outstanding diversity career fairs. Some of its best practices include:

Give students what they want—Members of the 7-Eleven recruiting teams give students who attend college career fairs practical giveaways—coupons for free products in 7-Eleven stores.

NACE members can read the full story on July 24, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Diversity Recruiting—Carlson Restaurants Worldwide

Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, a global restaurant company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, was identified for its outstanding diversity recruiting program. Among its best practices are:

Align with like-minded organizations—Carlson Restaurants partners with the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (NSMH), a national student-run professional organization that works to establish a working relationship between the hospitality industry and minority students on 50 campuses nationwide.
Develop the internship program as a feeder system of diverse talent— According to Carlson Restaurants, the biggest measurement of success of the diversity recruiting program is the conversion of its interns, which typically is between 40 and 50 percent.
Build relationships—Carlson Restaurants accomplishes this through its work with NSMH, which often sponsors representatives of Carlson Restaurants to speak at on-campus presentations.

NACE members can read the full story on June 13, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Diversity Initiatives Help Drive College Recruiting Program—Time Inc.

Diversity initiatives at Time Inc. are helping the magazine publisher match their workforce to their customer base.

Programs such as STARS and the Logan Associates Program provide a means for the company to hire qualified diverse entry-level employees, and allows interns and new hires to work in all business units across Time Warner, which includes Time, Inc.

These diversity initiatives have led to more than 90 percent diverse hires in Time's STARS program and 100 percent in the Logan Associates Program.

NACE members can read the full story on April 13, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Best Practices for Diversity Recruiting—IBM

Bill Lawrence, senior diversity staffing program manager at IBM, shares some of the company's best practices:

Make diversity recruiting a business imperative—Diversity recruiting through programs such as Project View gives IBM the ability to have its work force mirror the marketplace.
Recruit co-ops to be full-time employees—IBM recruits its co-ops in exactly the same way as it recruits its full-time employees.
Get everybody involved—"Build a team that has two legs—one to put together the strategies and the rest of the business is the balance of the team; they're the ones that carry the strategies out," he says.

NACE members can read the full story on January 9, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Internship/Cooperative Education Programs

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas

As parents and families become more and more invested in the career decisions of their daughters and sons, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (FRB-KC) is working to make a connection with these important influencers.

Last summer, the FRB-KC hosted its first "Friends & Family Day" for its eight interns. Led by the HR department's intern, the interns were responsible for coordinating the program for the full-day event.

"This event allowed our interns' friends and families to see first-hand what we're about," explains Jennifer Greer, recruiter for the FRB-KC.

NACE members can read the full story on February 21, 2008 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Career Start Program Targets High School Seniors—Disney

Disney Theme Parks and Resorts' internship program for college students has been in place for more than 25 years. Three years ago, the company began offering work and educational opportunities to high school students through its CareerStart Program.

"There are many gifted high school seniors that are not sure of their path right after high school, or are interested in taking a 'gap year' to gain skills and work experience before starting college," explains Kent Phillips, director of new market development, college recruiting. "The Disney CareerStart Program is a paid opportunity for students to jump into life after high school, gain real-world experience on their resumes, and gain transferable skills that will be invaluable to any future endeavor.

NACE members can read the full story on January 10, 2008 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Engaging Interns Delivers—Giant Eagle

In addition to their "real work" internship assignments with the company, the 55 interns in Giant Eagle's 10-week intern development program (IDP) were charged with improving the company's retail customer service and identifying how and where to implement new web technologies.

“The purpose of the program is to identify future leaders of the company,” says Graham Knox, manager of college relations. “The way we do that is through challenging projects, group projects, and developmental seminars.”

As of mid-September, 44 percent of Giant Eagle's 2007 interns have either agreed to return for another internship in 2008 or have been offered a full-time position. Another 33 percent have successfully completed the program and are currently working with recruiters to join Giant Eagle when they graduate. And 13 percent were offered full-time positions before the program even ended.

NACE members can read the full story on October 10, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Connect With Hospitality Students Through Winter Externship Program—Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Since 2002, Starwood Hotels & Resorts has offered college students enrolled in hospitality programs the opportunity to "live the life" during their winter breaks. Starwood's winter externship program offers students one- or two-week assignments at Starwood hotels nationwide in a variety of areas, including rooms, finance, food and beverage, sales, revenue management, human resources, and catering/convention services.

We thought this would be a great way to give students an opportunity to gain more experience in hospitality," explains Mary Anne McNulty, manager of staffing and college relations. "Within the hospitality profession, there are a lot of career options. Students need experience to narrow down their career choices, or to reinforce the decision they have made. It also helps us because at the same time students are assessing us for a good match, we are assessing them."

"It allows us to connect with and build relationships with students early in their academic careers," she says.

NACE members can read the full story on September 26, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Internship Programs—PNC Financial Services

In a typical year, PNC Financial Services hires 50 interns corporate wide. This year, however, that number climbed to 91, including 71 in Pittsburgh alone. PNC targets students going into their senior year with a major in finance and/or accounting (although the company will consider other business majors).

PNC focuses on recruiting candidates who fit the company and its culture, and who recruiters envision could be converted into eventual full-time employees.

"That's the number one thing we look for outside of the academic piece," explains Brian Rider, assistant vice president, manager of university relations for PNC. "We work with strategic schools, and recruit the best and brightest on those campuses. We're looking for interns who can come in and hit the ground running and who fit into our company culture."

According to Rider, the company's internship program features four main components.

NACE members can read the full story on July 18, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Small Touches Get Big Results for Internship Program—Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton's Carolina offices (Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro, North Carolina; and Columbia, South Carolina) combine to hire between 30 and 40 interns each year. In order to create a strong bond with the interns, the company uses a blend of big practices and small touches.

Perhaps the most important connection each intern forges is with her or his mentor team. Grant Thornton assigns each intern three mentors-one at the associate level (usually with one to two years of experience), one at the manager level (usually five to eight years of experience), and one at the partner level (10-plus years of experience).

Some of the small touches used by Grant Thornton that enhance an intern's experience are:

Before the interns start, Grant Thornton has them send a headshot and answer some fun questions about themselves
Grant Thornton prepares an intern handbook to give interns on their first day.
Every Friday, interns send someone in recruiting or HR their weekly report.
Grant Thornton has business cards made for the interns just as business cards are made for full-time hires.
Grant Thornton includes events outside of work to build relationships with the interns.
At the end of the internship, the firm has its interns fill out feedback forms about the experience

NACE members can read the full story on March 16, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Student Programs Fuel Hiring—Turner Entertainment

For years, news and entertainment giant Turner has realized the value of offering student programs to help identify and attract top high school and college students, and recent college graduates.

"Using our student programs as a pipeline into entry-level job openings within the company has always been a priority," explains Katrena Davis, recruiting representative for Turner Entertainment human resources.

The company's programs include its Students@Work Internship Program, CNN's Video Journalist (VJ) Program, and the Turner Trainee Team (T3) Program. Davis says employees from these programs have been promoted to positions such as associate producer, online writer, production assistant, marketing coordinator, sales operations coordinator, and more with Turner.

NACE members can read the full story on March 16, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Internship Programs—GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will welcome the first class of college students to its Summer Talent Identification Program (STIP), a new version of the company's summer internship program. The changes to the program were necessary because of larger transformations within the company, according to Jennifer Brooks, of GSK Talent Solutions.

University recruitment convened two focus groups of career services directors, current summer interns, intern managers, and GSK human resources managers to brainstorm ideas for the program. The groups' ideas, along with feedback from other key internal stakeholders, led to the creation of STIP, which will provide opportunities to exceptional juniors, seniors, and graduate-level students who are interested in pharmaceutical careers.

According to Brooks, there are three critical components of the company's STIP positions.

NACE members can read the full story on March 2, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Early Identification—Northrop Grumman

For years, Northrop Grumman has provided speakers upon request to address freshmen engineering classes/academies. During the presentations, students are exposed to the various engineering disciplines, and they often inquire about the "typical day in the life of an engineer."

More than three years ago, the global defense company began providing these students with the opportunity to start finding out what a "day in the life" is like.

"The practice [of recruiting freshmen students for internships] started as part of our branding effort," says Yvonne Findley, university relations and recruitment lead. "The competition for talent continues, so it became apparent that we needed to expose students early in their academic career to Northrop Grumman."

NACE members can read the full story on February 2, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

High-Touch Retention Efforts—L-3 Communications

This summer human resources specialist Kayla Hanzelka of L-3 Communications Integrated Systems in Greenville, Texas, strategically altered her approach to the co-op exit interviews she conducts.

Based on a suggestion she heard during the 2006 NACE National Meeting, Hanzelka began asking departing co-ops to identify the three people who were most valuable to them during their time with L-3.

Within one week of the co-ops' last day, Hanzelka contacts the three employees the co-ops identified to thank them for supporting the program.

She then explains that L-3 wants to bring the co-op back either full-time after graduation or to take another assignment, and asks the employees to keep in touch with the student throughout the academic year.

Not only does the co-op feel more connected to L-3 Communications, but it gives the current employees a boost in morale knowing the positive role they played in the co-op's experience, Hanzelka says.

So far, L-3 Communications' high-touch approach to co-ops has been working, she says.

NACE members can read the full story on October 27, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Interns Offered Performance-Based Awards—Mattress Firm

Sales and management internships at Mattress Firm allow students to gain real-world sales and management experience while working in a professional business environment. Interns develop skills in direct consumer sales, internal and external marketing strategies, advertising strategies, vendor relations, merchandising, customer service, basic accounting, and business management.

Interns are rewarded in a few different ways. They are paid a base salary bi-monthly and then have the opportunity to earn commission based on their performance on the sales floor. Housing is provided for out-of-state interns. At the end of the summer, an "Intern of the Year" scholarship is awarded to an intern in each host city.

The company has found that "Intern of the Year" students serve as an incredible resource in its recruiting efforts in the year following their award, and have been responsible for recruiting and referring new students for both intern and full-time positions.

NACE members can read the full story on October 12, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Internship Programs—Weyerhaeuser

Weyerhaeuser, an international forest products company in Federal Way, Washington, has a six-month internship model.

At the conclusion of the internships, Weyerhaeuser interns give a short presentation about the key things they learned to an audience of the company's IT senior leaders, IT managers, team members, mentors, supervisors, and former interns. Visitors from colleges and universities often attend the intern presentations, as well.

The presentation program has become a major part of Weyerhaeuser's IT culture and a great affirmation of the value of the internship program.

Presentations don't just focus on the interns' work assignments, but on the value they got out of the internship and what they learned through their experiences. The interns often have some very inspirational things to share, and visitors from the colleges and universities give very positive feedback about seeing what a tremendous experience the interns have at Weyerhaeuser.

NACE members can read the full story on August 31, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Retention—St. Jude Medical Center Cardiac Rhythm Management Division

Every year, St. Jude Medical Center's Cardiac Rhythm Management Division (CRMD) hires approximately 45 percent of its engineering staff from colleges and universities.
Retention for engineering and associated research is estimated at 97 to 98 percent this year, while the rate for manufacturing is about 93 percent.

How does the CRMD achieve such a high retention rate?

A great deal of effort is spent in the universities on training and getting to know engineers before hiring for full-time work. In addition, recruiter training is a foundation for achieving and maintaining a high retention rate for CRMD.

NACE members can read the full story on July 20, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Streamlining the Intern Hiring Process—Becton Dickinson

Becton Dickinson, a manufacturer of medical and diagnostic healthcare products and instruments, invests a lot of time and resources in its internship program, with a goal toward converting its interns to full-time hires.

This year Becton Dickinson is streamlining its intern hiring process to make the program more efficient.

In the past the program wasn't as efficient because hiring managers didn't formally indicate intern-hiring needs. Now, if hiring managers request interns, they must have the head count budgeted for their department.

NACE members can read the full story on June 8, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

4+1=A Solid Internship Program—KCI

KCI, a San Antonio-based corporation that develops and markets therapeutic systems, has developed a ten week summer internship program with a unique 4+1 format that blends hands-on experience with professional development.

Spending four days of the work week in their assigned department and one day in professional development sessions allows KCI's interns to experience the real work environment while enhancing and developing their communication and problem-solving skills in a structured format.

Taking interns out of their regular work environment twice during the 10-week program allows interns to visit other KCI business activities, giving them first hand knowledge of areas to which they might not otherwise be exposed.

KCI's internship program is supervised, coordinated, and funded by the HR department to maintain consistency and the curriculum.

NACE members can read the full story on May 26, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Internships—Domino's Pizza

When it comes to internships, Domino's Pizza delivers a valuable work experience that is supported by senior management. Here, Domino's Pizza shares some of its best practices for retaining co-ops:

Provide project-based assignments.
Secure senior management involvement.
Have a strong mentor program.
Recruit interns as you would full-time employees.

NACE members can read the full story on November 10, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Converting Co-ops—Lyondell Chemical

Lyondell Chemical, a manufacturer of chemicals and polymers, has a seventy-five percent retention rate for new hires after five years of service. And the chances are excellent that those new hires actually started through a co-op or internship program. Last year, Lyondell met all of the company's full time entry-level hiring needs through their experiential ed programs. Lyondell shares some of their best practices for retaining co-ops:

Make a personal connection with students throughout the hiring processs.
Have a profile of successful co-op students—Lyondell recruiters know the characteristics of successful employees, and look for students who demonstrate them.
Provide mentors to co-ops who will not only teach students about the company, but will make sure that the students have meaningful projects that challenge students

NACE members can read the full story on October 14, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Converting Interns to Employees—Beers & Cutler

For Beers & Cutler, a growing accounting and consulting firm in Washington D.C., attracting and retaining the best undergraduate and graduate candidates is a high priority.

Developing a quality internship program has been a key element to the growth of the firm, which converted 88 percent tax and assurance interns to full-time employees. Some of Beers & Cutler's best practices:

Select the best
Focus on firm culture
Develop a team recruiting structure.

NACE members can read the full story on April 14, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices in Internships—Acxiom Corporation

Acxiom Corporation, of Conway, Arkansas, was one organization identified for its outstanding work with its internship program. Here, Acxiom shares some of its best practices:

Buy-in from the top of the company—Even during times of economic downturn, Morgan and the rest of Acxiom's leadership team is supportive of the college recruiting program, in general, and the internship program in particular.
Value the interns—Just like full-time hires, Acxiom's interns go through new associate orientation.
Bring in top talent and work to convert it—Acxiom's number one reason for having an internship program is for recruiting purposes.

NACE members can read the full story on February 18, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Internships—General Growth Properties

General Growth Properties (GGP), a Chicago-based real estate investment trust that is the country's second-largest shopping center owner, provides internships in the shopping center management industry.

Following are some of GGP's best practices for internship programs:

Provide valuable learning experiences—GGP's interns work on important projects each semester. For example, management interns can expect to create sales, leasing, and occupancy reports; provide research and analysis for annual business plans/budgets; and interact with retailers to improve overall shopping center business.

Develop the person—At the start of the internship, students receive Intern Welcome Packets that contain information to help them assimilate into both the GGP culture and the business world.

Provide networking opportunities—Interns are exposed to the International Council of Shopping Centers, of which GGP is a member. This professional affiliation gives students the opportunity to attend conferences and meetings where they can learn about the industry while networking with successful professionals.

NACE members can read the full story on July 8, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Internships: Best Practices—Marsh USA

Marsh USA, a commercial insurance broker headquartered in New York City, markets its internship program to 17 colleges and universities and hires between 100 and 150 interns each year. Tom Moore, regional recruiting manager, notes that the acceptance rate of full-time offers by interns in the midwest region last year was 100 percent. How did the region achieve a perfect conversion rate?

Moore offered some of Marsh's best practices for its internship program:

Make sure everyone is on the same page—Marsh conducts a formal orientation with all summer interns.

Provide support—Marsh assigns a support team to each intern.

Provide feedback—Marsh conducts two formal evaluations with the intern during the summer.

Let interns explore the company—In addition to the work assigned to the interns by their local departments, Marsh includes activities designed to help interns learn more about their local office, not just their own department.

NACE members can read the full story on March 19, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Internship Programs—Nationwide

Nationwide, an insurance and financial services company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, offers internships to between 100 and 250 college students each year. Most of Nationwide's internships are offered during the summer and last from 10 to 12 weeks. It also offers some part-time internships for local students available throughout the school year. Some of its best practices include:

Incorporate diversity initiatives—Nationwide has developed partnerships with national organizations such as the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), INROADS, and the Tom Joyner Foundation to offer opportunities to African-American and Hispanic students. These partnerships aid in finding interns.

Provide interns with learning experiences—Nationwide offers a weekly "lunch and learn" series, during which an executive from the company speaks to interns about such topics as workplace ethics, business etiquette, and diversity.

Offer valuable work experiences—Nationwide's interns work on projects that have value to both the development of the interns and the company.

For more on developing your internship program, see Building a Premier Internship Program: A Practical Guide for Employers (http://www.naceweb.org/products/intern.htm).

NACE members can read the full story on December 11, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Cooperative Education—NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), of Huntsville, Alabama, was identified for its outstanding cooperative education program. Here, MSFC shares some of its best practices:

Make the co-op a meaningful work experience— It is offered each year to approximately 48 qualified students in the fields of science, engineering, professional administration, and other occupational fields. While on the job, co-op students perform duties in, or related to, their fields of study, and work under the guidance of qualified MSFC personnel.
Consider the co-op program a valuable recruiting tool—The primary objective of the co-op program is "inspire the next generation of explorers—as only NASA can."
Get the word out—MSFC markets its co-op program a number of web sites, including the MSFC co-op web site.
Make diversity a focus of your co-op program—MSFC ensures that all policies, processes, and procedures provide all individuals, including co-ops, the opportunity to develop, participate, and compete fairly and equitably.

NACE members can read the full story on June 13, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Internships—State Farm

State Farm, an insurance company headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois, was identified for its outstanding internships. Here, State Farm shares some of its best practices:

Make information about the program accessible to students—State Farm has a page on its web site specifically designed to provide visitors with information regarding the internship program, requirements, and process for application.
Plan fun activities—State Farm stresses a balance between work and life outside of work. Planned events for the interns reinforce this philosophy.
Produce effective, confident communicators—State Farm’s Speechcrafters program, which is modeled after Toastmasters International, was developed because the company realizes the importance of effective communication.
Provide one-on-one guidance—State Farm’s interns are assigned mentors who were, in most cases, interns themselves at one point, and can offer that extra guidance and day-to-day contact that new interns may need.
Make the experience valuable—Interns are given responsibilities similar to those of full-time employees in those units.

NACE members can read the full story on May 16, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Co-ops—USS-POSCO Industries

USS-POSCO Industries, a steel finishing company located in Pittsburg, California, was identified for its outstanding work with co-ops. Here, USS-POSCO shares some of its best practices:

Be flexible—Most of USS-POSCO’s cooperative education is limited to the summer break to ensure that the students’ academic progress is not affected. However, when possible, the company does accept students for the spring or fall terms.
Provide mentors and support—Student co-ops work with a supervisor and are assigned a mentor, both of whom help the students with job-related directions and problems.
Evaluate the students in the company environment—The co-op program gives USS-POSCO the opportunity to determine the co-ops’ people skills and is able to check their problem-solving skills and their ability to work with others in a diversified environment.

NACE members can read the full story on February 21, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Internships/Co-ops—Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments, a manufacturer of semiconductors based in Dallas, Texas, developed a forumula for determining its intern/co-op populations each year. It recruits interns/co-ops through on-campus recruiting; through its employment web site; and through relationships with professors, university staff, and campus organizations. It advises:

Don’t be afraid to change—TI made the decision to transform its internship/co-op program into a hiring source of college graduates in 2000 by implementing two significant changes.
Flexibility is the key—TI uses a formula based on six factors to determine the number of interns/co-ops needed to round out its exempt-hire work force.
Treat interns/co-ops as full-time employees—Among other benefits, they receive a competitive salary, paid relocation, tuition reimbursement, housing subsidy, and paid holidays.

NACE members can read a summary of the story on January 24, 2003 Spotlight Online or read the full story in February 3, 2003 Spotlight. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Interviewing

On-site Interviewing—Corporate Executive Board

How can your organization get the most out of on-site interviewing? The Corporate Executive Board (CEB), a Washington, D.C.-based business research firm, uses a structured interview day as it recruits for entry-level positions in research and sales.

In response to competition for these candidates, CEB strives to bring as many candidates as possible to its headquarters to spend a day with the firm to gain firsthand insight into its culture. Any candidate who passes a first-round interview on campus is invited to Washington, D.C. for an "interview day." Interview days are held every Friday during the Fall and Spring so that students have ample opportunity to plan for travel based on their academic, athletic, and/or social calendars.

"The interview day is a time not only for CEB to interview the students, but also for the students to interview CEB to determine if this is where they want to launch their careers," explains Stephanie Eichberg, senior recruiting manager.

CEB's interview days include several components.

To read more about this program, see the March 2, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for On-Campus Interviewing—Corporate Executive Board

Corporate Executive Board (CEB) has incorporated a Fast-Cycle interview method into its University Team Program, launched in 2004. By keeping a tight three-step process, CEB works to identify themselves as an employer of choice for students, and saves time and money in the recruiting process.

The Fast-Cycle includes:

Day one: First round, on-campus interviews with on-campus recruiters.
Day two: Final-round on-campus interviews with line managers, who send candidate evaluations back to campus recruiters within 48 hours.
Back in the office: Recruiters extend offers and invite students to participate in an Information Day.

NACE members can read the full story on May 26, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for On-Campus Interviews—Corporate Executive

For the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), a Washington, D.C.-based business-to-business content firm that creates strategic studies and reports, on-campus recruiting is a major source of talent.

Following are several of CEB’s best practices for on-campus recruiting:

Maximize time and minimize expenses—First-round interviews are conducted by recruiters on the first day. Students are informed within a few hours of their first-round interview if they will advance to the second round, which are conducted the following day by a line manager.

Have a strong training program—CEB trains its line managers who visit campus in interviewing techniques and consistency of messages. Training sessions also provide information about the campuses the individual managers will visit, so they know where they will go on campus and the career services practitioners, faculty, and administration they will meet.

Maintain ties and reinforce the benefits of working with your organization—It’s critical for CEB recruiters and managers to build upon the connections they made with students during their time on campus.

NACE members can read the full story on June 24, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Site Visits—National Instruments

National Instruments, an industrial automation and test-measurement company, headquartered in Austin, Texas, was one organization identified for its outstanding site visits. National Instruments’ model is that 75 percent of its new hires come from colleges and universities. Some of its best practices include:

Secure support from the top—National Instruments’ founder and CEO gives a presentation about the company’s history and his vision of its future to all candidates who come in for a site visit.
Make a personal connection—National Instruments views site visits not only as an opportunity for the company to evaluate students, but for students to evaluate the company to ensure a good fit.
Let the student experience the culture—National Instruments allows students on site visits to experience the corporate and community culture with a dinner and a tour of Austin.

NACE members can read the full story on May 2, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

On-Campus Relations

Establishing Partnerships Helps Streamline College Recruiting Program-CDM

CDM is a consulting, engineering, construction, and operations firm with 100 offices and almost 4,000 employees worldwide. Its national college relations program, based in the firm's Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters, partners with several internal business units to meet hiring goals. However, there are two key business units that hire the majority of CDM's entry-level engineers and scientists.

"Both of the business units have become mindful of the expectations of today's students and graduates," says Ann Davis Shaw, manager of the college relations program. "The result [of the partnership] is that we communicate with the president and division managers of the business units on a national level as opposed to at a local level with a limited number of offices."

The parties jointly decide which colleges and universities best meet CDM's anticipated hiring needs. The company has developed strategic relationships with 39 colleges and universities for new graduates and seven for interns and co-ops. In addition, CDM recruiters participate in eight national events.

NACE members can read the full story on May 30, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Educating Students—Liberty Mutual

In 2005, Liberty Mutual launched Insurance 101, a web-based program that provides interactive information about Liberty Mutual and the insurance industry. Since its introduction, Insurance 101 has had more than 1,500 visitors.

Students use Insurance 101 to gain insights into the industry and to prepare for the interview process, and career center advisers use it to gain additional knowledge of the insurance industry so that they can better advise students as they begin the career planning process.

Insurance 101 has three key components that give participants a broad perspective of the industry: Key Financial Measures; Insurance Functions; and Business Case Scenarios.

NACE members can read the full story on August 4, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Relationship Management—Stockamp & Associates

Stockamp & Associates, a small, privately held healthcare firm with nearly 400 employees, believes the high-touch approach to college recruiting is critical to success, particularly in a competitive job market.

The company benefits from this approach in terms of consistent offer/acceptance rates ranging from 72- to 76-percent, increased branding on targeted campuses, a significant drop in first-year attrition of new hires, and improvement in campus career center relationships.

To keep abreast of candidate wants and desires Stockamp collects feedback from incoming hires annually. In addition to that feedback, recruiting team members review industry periodicals and best practices. Finally, a number of campus career centers provide invaluable feedback, especially on the nuances of their respective student populations.

NACE members can read the full story on August 4, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Departments Collaborate to Select Target Schools, Distribute Funds—Advanced Micro Devices

A vice president of Texas-based Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) recognized the importance of having company executives actively involved in the recruitment process. The vice president developed a model which led to the formation of the Technical Education Committee (TEC).

The TEC is a collaboration of AMD's university relations staff and a group of executives from various engineering groups throughout the technology development group. The committee selects target schools and distributes monies to schools.

This unique partnership between company executives and university relations is "key to successfully administring the decided actions of the TEC," according to Kristin Paulson, university relations manager for AMD.

The company has benefitted by the shared information and expertise of the TEC members, and has seen better results in its recruiting efforts.

NACE members can read the full story on October 27, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Starting a College Recruiting Program—T-Mobile

Last spring, T-Mobile changed the way it handles staffing by launching a college recruiting program for sales careers.

A few tips for accomplishing this:

Securing buy-in from the company's leadership—"You have to make [leadership] understand the value of college recruiting," Waddell explains. "Without support from the top, you can't get far."

Having a solid brand—T-Mobile's college recruiting program uses a lot of recognizable branded materials that, while consistent with the look and feel of its product branding, is specifically directed at college students.

Following through with hiring students—"I feel that there is nothing worse than an employer that goes to career fairs, but then doesn't hire anybody," Waddell notes.

NACE members can read the full story on December 2, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices in Campus Presentations—NVR Inc.

NVR Inc., a homebuilder and financial services company based in McLean, Virginia, established a presentation library to ensure the information recruiters provided was consistent.

Following are some of NVR's best practices for creating a successful presentation library:

Divide and conquer—Recruiters do the research and development of the presentations, and are responsible for cross-training the other staff to deliver them.

Solicit feedback and act upon it—The company plans to grow its presentation library by three or four topics each academic year.

Provide information students can use—NVR markets its presentation library topics to students, faculty, and career centers rather than making them information sessions about NVR.

NACE members can read the full story on May 27, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Best Practices for Working With Student Organizations—Dow Chemical Company

Dow Chemical Company, of Midland, Michigan, was identified for its outstanding work with student organizations. Here, Dow shares some of its best practices:

Give control of the budget to the recruiting teams—Each team includes a captain, a key executive, a minority liaison, and recruiters (at some smaller schools, a single person may fill more than one role).

Find methods of support that best meet the organization's needs—Some of Dow's recruiting teams designate a portion of their budget to financial support of the student organizations.

Use your work with student organizations to evaluate students—This interaction allows Dow recruiters to observe and evaluate firsthand students through their participation in the company's various activities.

NACE members can read the full story on October 2, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Information Sessions—Ferguson Enterprises

Ferguson Enterprises, a national distributor of plumbing supplies for the construction industry, was identified for its outstanding work with information sessions. Some of its best practices include:

Honesty is the best policy—Ferguson's reps are up front about the company's expectations of college hires.
Be well-represented—Ferguson's corporate recruiters attend information sessions along with managers and recent college graduates, who detail the benefits of working at Ferguson.
Content, content, content—Information sessions cover company history, present operations, and future plans; ensuring students are prepared for the next day's interviews.
Work with career centers—Ferguson holds many information sessions in college and university career centers.

NACE members can read the full story on February 6, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Faculty Relations—Koch Industries

Koch Industries, an energy company based in Wichita, Kansas, was one organization identified for its outstanding work with faculty relations. Some of its best practices include:

Get the word out—The company focuses its efforts on getting to know the right faculty members, and shows interest in their school and students by providing assistance to them, when possible. Koch educates faculty about its business, industry, and hiring practices. These relationships have resulted in at least five specific benefits.
Invite faculty to your location—At the end of each summer, the college recruiting group, with assistance from business leaders, campus coordinators, and interns, sponsors "Faculty Day," an all-expense paid trip to Koch's headquarters for between 12 and 20 faculty members. (Koch rotates the faculty invitations yearly.)
Find excited people—Fill the campus coordinator position with an employee who is not only excited about the opportunities within the company, but also is excited about the value the chosen campus's students have to offer the company.

NACE members can read the full story on December 12, 2002 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Recruiting

Education Program Targets High School Students—Sunoco

Through a partnership with Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania and school districts in the Philadelphia area, Sunoco is taking part in a unique process technology program that not only prepares high school students for work as an operator at a Sunoco refinery, but also in areas of process technology.

Sunoco works with the Philadelphia academies, a nonprofit organization that helps prepare students either for employment directly out of high school or their transition to college.

NACE members can read the full story on May 1, 2008 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Scheduling Center Eases Burden on Small Staff—Watson Wyatt Worldwide

Watson Wyatt Worldwide has just two full-time dedicated college recruiting staff members and part-time recruiting teams spread out across its 39 offices in the United States and Canada. So in order to provide a seamless experience for college candidates the company wants to bring on-site for second interviews, the college recruiting staff borrowed an idea from the firm's overall human resource staffing function.

"Our scheduling center has been very successful for human resources for the experienced hire recruiting," explains Robin Wiley, North America manager of university relations. "We saw the value it could have for the college recruiting side."

NACE members can read the full story on January 23, 2008 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Using YouTube to Reach Target Candidates and More—Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems' tagline is "We are changing the way people work, live, play, and learn." To get its message out to its target job candidates, the company has produced several recruiting videos that it has posted on YouTube.

Why make recruiting videos? And why post them on YouTube, the wildly popular video sharing site that features everything from video pranks and presidential campaign fare to Star Wars spoofs starring organic produce?

NACE members can read the full story on December 5, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

High-Touch Recruiting—VistaPrint Limited

VistaPrint Limited-an online supplier of high-quality graphic design services and customized printed products-typically recruits at 25 schools and hires 80 new college graduates and interns each year. To make a positive impression on students, the company uses several high-touch recruiting methods.

"In this very competitive environment, you want to have an impact on the students immediately," says Shannon Moffitt, campus recruiter. High-touch recruiting keeps the student informed and feeling connected. It also makes the company easily accessible."

Moffitt explains that VistaPrint identified four "project plans" that were managed throughout recruiting: outreach to students, interviews, and the company's final-round and offer processes. It then applied high-touch methods to its outreach, interviewing, and conversion efforts.

NACE members can read the full story on May 11, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

New Marketing Initiative Touts Benefits of Working at VA—U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

In the past five years, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has experienced unprecedented growth. With this expansion, the demand for employees has also grown.

Traditionally, the VA promoted many of its clinical and administrative support positions under the general recruitment campaign of "Build your career with VA. The career you want, the future you deserve…" However, as the industry evolved, and key and critical positions were identified, the VA created its "The Best Care, The Best Careers" campaign-which it launched in the summer of 2006-to focus primarily on the clinical side of the organization.

"The Best Care, The Best Careers" campaign provides a brand to the initiative, and to help strengthen this brand, VA tied it into all brochures, advertisements in magazines and trade journals, its web site (www.vacareers.va.gov), trade shows and conference displays, e-mail bulletins, flyers, and through career fairs and national job postings.

The campaign continues to be a successful tool in the VA's overall goal of recruitment of new talent and retention of existing employees in a very competitive healthcare industry.

NACE members can read the full story on March 30, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Benefits From "Ingenius" College Recruiting Tool—L'Oréal

L'Oréal's "Ingenius" Contest is open to engineering students worldwide. It is designed to offer a hands-on overview of the industrial workplace challenges the cosmetic company's engineers have to meet.

But, it's much more.

"L'Oréal's international business games are unique and effective recruiting tools," explains Kimeth Williams, director of recruitment and career development for L'Oréal USA. "The Ingenius Contest was designed for manufacturing and allows us to identify strong high-potential engineering students at a younger age, and widen the pool of candidates at the schools we work with. It also has helped us strengthen our image on campus."

NACE members can read the full story on February 2, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Technology Use—Raytheon

Over the past several years, staffing organizations have struggled to effectively manage their college events and accurately report their activities to upper management to prove their value.

Why have they struggled?

Because they have not streamlined their process to remove any variability that causes inefficiency and can ultimately increase operating expenses, according to Kasey Arceri, Raytheon's university programs manager.

After assessment of its current state, Raytheon decided to create an in-house data base called "Rayevents." The business units wanted a tool to assist them in managing their events and one that could grow to meet their future needs.

After reengineering the process and streamlining through technology, Raytheon has saved thousands of dollars and manpower hours.

In addition, the business units can easily run company-wide college recruiting reports for upper management with very limited time and effort, giving management a value-added view into college recruiting

NACE members can read the full story on September 14, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Relationship Management—Stockamp & Associates

NACE members can read the full story on August 4, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Update: Lessons Learned Since Start of College Recruiting Program—T-Mobile

In 2004, T-Mobile began a college-recruiting program with just two full-time staff members dedicated to the effort.

The growth at T-Mobile and the positive changes to the recruiting program are evident. In 2004, T-Mobile hired 103 recent college graduates. This year, the company is on track to bring in 250.

Strategies that evolved to meet the challenges of the program include the addition of staff recruiters who can speak at college career events about the opportunities in all of T-Mobile's business units, on-campus interviewing the day after a career fair to more quickly recruit students of interest, and methods to demonstrate the value of the college recruiting program through the data they capture.

NACE members can read the full story on June 8, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Creative Competition Gets Results—Harris Corporation

Mix a healthy sense of competition between recruitment teams with creativity and hawaiian shirts and, according to the Harris Corporation, you have a recruiting program that "runs itself."

Recruitment teams at Harris Corporation include Harris employees with an active interest in a school, usually alumni. The recruiting teams develop their own competitions—all in good fun—and the result on college campuses is a reputation for Harris Corporation as a creative and fun work environment.

NACE members can read the full story on April 27, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Metrics Help Stay on Top of College Recruiting—Washington Mutual

At Washington Mutual, metrics allow the university recruiting program to continue to build an effective and efficient recruiting vehicle for the organization.

Department goals are directly aligned to Washington Mutual's business goals. To measure the success of the department and individual recruiter performance, metrics are captured that directly support the company's business goals.

Washington Mutual uses HR systems and tools to measure every step of the recruiting process. The company tracks individual hiring statistics by school, business line, function, and recruiting strategy. Candidate information, such as degree(s), skills, and years of experience, also are tracked. This information helps create a successful candidate profile for each program.

NACE members can read the full story on April 13, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Hiring Without Borders—EchoStar Communications

How do you recruit experienced professional in a brand new industry? According to EchoStar Communications Corporation—the Fortune 500 company which owns the DISH Network™ brand—you don't. Instead, you recruit candidates with the qualities needed to succeed.

This same philosophy that helped EchoStar recruit its first employees in 1980 has helped EchoStar's college recruiting program find candidates who will fit—and succeed—with the company.

The qualities sought by EchoStar's recruiters are energy, intelligence, and a need for achievement. The company's recruiting program succeeds by networking with career centers and faculty, and by taking a different approach at career fairs.

Career fairs for EchoStar are not about branding—they are about holding first interviews. The impressions given by students to the company's career fair panel members (a recruiter, a vice president, a recent alumnus, and a returning intern) can lead to a next-day interviews.

At EchoStar, if the basic qualities are there, the skills can be learned, and a future leader is hired.

NACE members can read the full story on March 31, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Campus Recruiting Teams—Circuit City Stores

Circuit City Stores was identified for its outstanding work with its campus recruiting teams. Some of its best practices include:

Find passionate people—Identify internal associates who are passionate about the company and are focused on both internal and external customers.
Create variety—Recruiting teams are a mix of recent graduates/alumni and hiring managers.
Get the word out—Circuit City considers its campus contacts its customers.
Give and solicit feedback—Provide feedback to career services and the academic community to ensure beneficial experiences for both entities.

NACE members can read the full story on November 18, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Focus on Student Preferences—Greenhorne & O'Mara

A focus group of employees who are either in college (current co-op students) or recent college grads helps keep Greenhorne & O'Mara (G&O) on top of their recruitment game.

What started out as a focus group to help decide on career fair giveaways has grown into a valuable recruitment tool for G&O.

The focus group helps the company determine how to provide the most effective and valuable giveaways, reviews the company web site from a students perspective, and offers other suggestions to help make G&O a preferred employer by new college graduates.

NACE members can read the full story on September 1, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Recruiter Training—New York Life

New York Life Insurance trains its recruiters to ensure maximum results—with an anticipated hiring of 400 new college graduates, that is no small task. How do they do this? The GOLD system.

The General Office Leadership Development system helps ensure that recruiting processes and plans remain uniform throughout all of their offices.

Other best practices used by New York Life include:

Let the managers manage
Provide numerous training opportunities
Connect with key people on campus

NACE members can read the full story on July 7, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Converting Interns to Employees—Beers & Cutler

For Beers & Cutler, a growing accounting and consulting firm in Washington D.C., attracting and retaining the best undergraduate and graduate candidates is a high priority.

Select the best
Focus on firm culture
Develop a team recruiting structure.

NACE members can read the full story on April 14, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Strong Ties On Campus Lead to Growth and Retention—Total Quality Logistics (TQL)

Total Quality Logistics (TQL), founded in 1997, has discovered that the key to a successful recruiting program is forming strong ties on campus. By reaching out to both the career center staff and faculty members, TQL helps students understand just who they are and why TQL is the company to work for.

This proactive approach to college recruiting has helped this young company grow 52 percent in the past year, and to maintain a less than 4 percent turnover rate.

NACE members can read the full story on March 31, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Campus Recruiting and University Relations—Shell Oil

By focusing on elements that remain constant in the college recruitment field, Shell Oil developed what has become known as Attraction & Recruitment in the HR industry.

These elements are:

Shell created a focused school portfolio to ensure best value for Shell recruitment.
The company implemented a campus team concept.
The company focused on early talent identification and relationship-building.
Shell used formal employer brand management.

NACE members can read the full story on March 18, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Starting a College Recruiting Program—T-Mobile

Last spring, T-Mobile changed the way it handles staffing by launching a college recruiting program for sales careers.

A few tips for accomplishing this:

Securing buy-in from the company's leadership—"You have to make [leadership] understand the value of college recruiting," Waddell explains. "Without support from the top, you can't get far."

Having a solid brand—T-Mobile's college recruiting program uses a lot of recognizable branded materials that, while consistent with the look and feel of its product branding, is specifically directed at college students.

Following through with hiring students—"I feel that there is nothing worse than an employer that goes to career fairs, but then doesn't hire anybody," Waddell notes.

NACE members can read the full story on December 2, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Branding—Plastipak Packaging

The message Plastipak tries to convey through its brand is "opportunity." Following are some of Plastipak's best practices for effective branding:

Present onsite—Plastipak recruits at 10 to 12 schools overall, primarily at two-year colleges for its technical hires and four-year schools for its nontechnical hires.

Work with career services—By doing so, Plastipak reports that an organization can have the "best and brightest" students identified for them, and word of Plastipak's opportunities are spread throughout the campuses.

Conduct interviews onsite—Plastipak tries to hold interviews with students about to graduate and recent alumni who are looking for full-time employment.

NACE members can read the full story on November 11, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.

Best Practices for a Centralized College Recruiting Program—NAVAIR

During the 1990s, the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) noticed a troubling trend: Recruiters from its different business units were going to the same job fairs and competing with one another for the same candidates. By duplicating its efforts, the division as a whole was wasting time and money.

By centralizing its recruitment program, realigning its marketing and recruiting material and retraining recruiters, NAVAIR is the now the example for which other Naval agencies are modeled after.

NACE members can read the full story on October 29, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Speedy Hiring—Amazon.Com

Amazon.com, an e-retailer headquartered in Seattle, hires more than 100 computer science graduates each year. One of the hallmarks of its college recruiting program is its expedient hiring process. Following are several of Amazon.com's best practices for its "Speed to Hire" initiative:

Find the right people …—For career fairs, Amazon.com sends at least one hiring manager, along with other representatives who are a maximum of two years out of school so they can detail experiences that are relevant to college students.

… And empower them—"We don't make offers to tons of students," Campbell explains. "But our teams are prepared to make quick decisions on the top candidates."

Do your homework—All of the work up front allows the Amazon.com recruiters to make a quick hiring decision once they interview the candidate.

NACE members can read the full story on August 19, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Recruiting Students With Advanced Degrees—General Electric Global Research Center

The General Electric Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York, employs 1,750 researchers—including chemists, physicists, electrical and electronics engineers, microbiologists, metallurgists, and information technologists—who work together to develop technologies in areas like energy, healthcare, advanced materials, and propulsion technology. It is also one of the largest recruiters of students with advanced degrees within the GE company, according to Tim O'Hara, global recruiting and staffing leader. Following are several best practices for recruiting these students:

Select target schools—GE Global Research assesses its hiring needs on an annual basis and scales back or expands the number of schools it works with each year based on its hiring projections.

Establish and maintain relationships on campus—Recruiters meet with faculty to keep ties current and share information on new technologies and curriculum issues.

Be accommodating—In addition to recruiting students with advanced degrees, GE Global Research recruits top-notch bachelor's degree candidates for its Edison Engineering Development (EEDP) training program.

NACE members can read the full story on April 29, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Recruiter Training—GEICO

Over the next five to six years, GEICO—an insurance provider based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with nearly 23,000 associates nationwide—plans to double its work force. GEICO CEO Tony Nicely knew that the company had to recruit more proactively and aggressively in order to meet GEICO's growth goals and saw the establishment of a formal college recruiting program as a key to success. The program was launched for the fall semester of 2003, with GEICO recruiting at more than 90 colleges and universities across the nation.

To create a cohesive, well-informed college recruiting team, GEICO uses the following best practices:

Provide comprehensive training—Among the training activities, all recruiters met with key hiring managers and directors in the process management group, actuary, auto damage, management development, and information technology to assess need-areas and qualifications of entry-level candidates.

Provide valuable information—Each month, GEICO executives and/or recruiters contribute to a newsletter specifically tailored to college recruiting.

… And provide it quickly—Through a web site specifically for its college recruiters, GEICO is able to post announcements, update events calendar, share documents and college information session presentations, upload pictures and successful advertising, maintain contacts, and post various templates/boilerplates/job descriptions/etc.

Make recruiters active participants in their training—Each month, GEICO's recruiters dial in for a one-hour teleconference to discuss changes in hiring, share progress reports and information from headquarters, voice concerns, ask questions, and listen to executives.

NACE members can read the full story on February 5, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Early Identification—NBC

NBC's early identification (EID) programs offer a variety of entry-level opportunities for college graduates who want to get their "foot-in-the-door" in the media industry. Each program allows associates to learn more about their field of interest in an environment that provides training and mentoring. Ultimately, the EID programs create a pipeline of talent into various departments and positions within the company. Approximately 70 percent of the EID program associates are hired into staff or freelance positions.

Following are some of the best practices for EID programs:

Get management on board

Create an internal staffing process that supports the conversion of EID associates.

Identify good candidates—Some of its programs require on-the-job experience in the studio, working for a college newspaper/radio station, or previous media internships. Overall, NBC prefers candidates who can offer a diverse background, leadership, proven initiative, high self-confidence, good attitude, and strong interest in media.

NACE members can read the full story on January 11, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Selecting Target Schools—Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University

Recruiters from the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins University recruit at 78 target schools that they evaluate annually and rank into three tiers. These rankings determine the level of resources the APL will devote to each school. Following are several tips for selecting target schools from Gary Gerber, coordinator of college relations for the APL:

Do your homework—Research the relative hiring success your organization has had with different schools over time. Examine your experience with each stage of the recruiting life cycle at each school.

Select which criteria are most important to your organization—Ensure that measurements of the final criteria selected are consistent (normalized) so that final numerical scores allow comparison of "apples to apples" and not "apples to oranges.” (See "An Empirical Method for Targeting Colleges.")

Use your connections—Consider targeting specialty schools/programs and using alumni personnel at your organization to establish relationships with key faculty in the specialty.

NACE members can read the full story on September 18, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Recruiter Training—Marriott International

Marriott International, Inc., a leading hospitality company headquartered in Washington, D.C., was identified for its outstanding recruiter training. Among its best practices are:

Prepare recruiters—Before members of management visit a college campus, conduct interviews, or become involved with Marriott’s campus relationship activities, they must complete the company’s recruiter certification program..
Promote the proficient—As Marriott’s certified recruiters become more proficient in their interviewing and campus relations skills, they are asked to become cadre captains and assume responsibility for a relationship at a smaller campus.

NACE members can read the full story on April 3, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Campus Recruiting Teams—Travelers

Travelers, a provider of commercial and consumer insurance and annuity products and services located in Hartford, Connecticut, was identified for outstanding work with campus recruiting teams. Here are some of Travelers' best practices:

Get employees involved—Travelers keeps coordination of recruiting activities centralized but uses employee volunteers to staff career fair booths, interview students, provide presentations, and plan other relationship-oriented events.
Establish "key school teams"—Travelers organizes its volunteers into formal teams, who build relationships on campus with students and professors. They present to organizations and run on-campus diversity events.
Provide comprehensive training—Travelers designs its volunteer training to cover everything from attending a career fair to how to run an information session.

NACE members can read the full story on March 6, 2003 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Retention

National Event Helps Develop and Retain Associates—Consolidated Graphics

Consolidated Graphics will hold its ninth annual National Associate's Meeting in Houston, TX. The event blends professional development and retention components.

“The purpose of this event is for associates across our network of companies to come together in a structured environment, learn more about our business, and take back to their home companies best practices that will help them contribute and further their professional careers,” explains Rody Grant, Consolidated Graphics’ director of recruiting, training, and development.

“We know our retention of associates improves when they see the opportunities that exist within Consolidated Graphics,” Grant says.

NACE members can read the full story on June 11, 2008 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

As Retirements Loom, Attracting Right Talent and Retaining It Keeps Company Chugging Along—BNSF Railways

BNSF Railways' management trainee program has been in existence for 30 years, and the company realizes that the cost of training a new hire in the first year-both in terms of dollars and time-is quite expensive. With this in mind, the company places a great deal of emphasis on retention.

New hires in the management trainee program begin with a three-week comprehensive corporate orientation at BNSF's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Following orientation, trainees take part in a year-long process during which they are cross-functionally trained in all operating departments.

At BNSF, retention is a top priority right from the earliest contact during college recruiting.

"We address retention at this stage by not sugarcoating the expectations of a management trainee going into operations, and [by explaining] the challenges they will face," says senior staffing specialist Kelly Abeyta. "Doing this allows us to bring in the right talent that will stay.

NACE members can read the full story on May 11, 2007 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Retention—St. Jude Medical Center Cardiac Rhythm Management Division

How does the CRMD achieve such a high retention rate?

NACE members can read the full story on July 20, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Program Assimilates New College Hires to Company, Area—Harris Corporation

Many new college graduates not only have to adjust to life in the working world but also to life in a new geographic area. Harris Corporation's assimilation program—the Graduate Acclimation and Development (GRAD) program—addresses these issues for new hires.

GRAD is designed to improve Harris's ability to recruit and retain high-potential graduates through the use of frequent communications and activities. It has had a positive effect on retention rates.

New college hires quickly associate with one another and have a better understanding of Harris's business activity. Participants connect through e-mails and web site information. In addition these employees participate in a variety of events such as organized league sports, holiday parties, bus trips, and community involvement projects.

NACE members can read the full story on June 22, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

First Year Initiative—Consolidated Graphics

Realizing they were losing 50-60 percent of new hires in the first year, retaining new talent became a top priority for Consolidated Graphics (CGX).

Researching what Generation Y looked for in new employers, CGX's Leadership Development Program (LDP) developed the First Year Initiative, comprised of four parts:

Mentor training
Orientation weekend
Softskill classes
National meeting

Kicked off at a three-day weekend event at the corporate headquarters, the program spans a new employee's entire first year. The success of the program shows in the company' now 80 percent retention rate.

NACE members can read the full story on July 7, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Converting Interns to Employees—Beers & Cutler

For Beers & Cutler, a growing accounting and consulting firm in Washington D.C., attracting and retaining the best undergraduate and graduate candidates is a high priority.

Select the best
Focus on firm culture
Develop a team recruiting structure.

NACE members can read the full story on April 14, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Strong Ties On Campus Lead to Growth and Retention—Total Quality Logistics (TQL)

This proactive approach to college recruiting has helped this young company grow 52 percent in the past year, and to maintain a less than 4 percent turnover rate.

NACE members can read the full story on March 31, 2005 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Best Practices for Developing an Employee Retention Program—Consolidated Graphics

Consolidated Graphics, a national commercial printing company headquartered in Houston, looked at the turnover among its entry-level hires within the first few months of employment and decided to formally address it. In January 2004, the company implemented an employee retention program, referred to as "FYI: The First Year Initiative."

Following are some of Consolidated Graphics' best practices for developing a retention program:

1. Determine an overall purpose for a retention program and gain support—Get together with leaders to assess your organization, identify retention problems, and determine how you're going to address them.

2. Get off to a good start—"Every good retention program needs a way to orientate employees," notes Robert Ferguson, national recruiting coordinator for Consolidated Graphics. New hires are brought to Houston to interact with the leadership development team and each other.

3. Facilitate relationships—Consolidated Graphics implemented a mentor program to develop relationships between employees and new college hires.

NACE members can read the full story on September 16, 2004 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Training

Program Helps New Hries, Interns Develop Soft Skills—Aramark

In December 2007, Aramark launched a program for all new college hires and interns to build their soft skills and help them avoid the common mistakes many new hires make on the job. The company's "Dipped in Red" program provides online modules that provide training on critical skills, proper conduct, and valuable tips for success in the workplace.

NACE members can read the full story on May 14, 2008 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)

Rotational Leadership Programs—Vanguard

Vanguard, an investment management company located in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, has used rotational programs since 2001 to help new hires gain a broad understanding of the organization and its goals.

Four rotational, leadership programs are available for recent college graduates: Acceleration Into Management; Acceleration Into Financial Professional; Analyst & Client Engagement; and Technology Leadership Program.

Each leadership program is designed to supplement Vanguard's already strong, traditional, internal talent pipelines for various business areas. Newly hired candidates receive professional training to develop networking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.

The programs also are viewed as important recruiting tools to attract high-potential individuals from college campuses.

NACE members can read the full story on August 31, 2006 Spotlight Online. (Members only. Nonmembers can find out how to join NACE here.)


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