Ways Employers Can Strengthen Valuable Relationships With Career Centers

Employers looking to maximize their campus recruiting efforts should establish and grow relationships with career services. There are several key steps they can take to do so.

Organizations responding to NACE’s Recruiting Benchmarks Survey indicate the relationship with career services is important to their on-campus recruiting success, which manifests in several ways, including: 

• Branding—97.9% of respondents say it’s important for career services to help

  them brand their organization on campus.

• Relationship-building—95.3% look to career services to provide them with access to other campus departments and organizations, and 90.6% say it’s important for career services to help them connect with faculty and the curriculum. A substantial number—89.2%—also look to career services to help them engage informally with students.  
• Engaging through campus events—91.2% look to career services to manage career events effectively and help them with their scheduling needs. In particular, 93.2% see career services’ role in hosting career fairs as important.
• Providing insight—Nearly all respondents—94.6%—consider advice from career services on how to reach students as important.

Employers can galvanize relationships with university career services by moving beyond simple transactional interactions—job postings and career fairs, for instance—toward strategic partnerships that address each other’s goals. Several ways to accomplish this is to:

• Communicate and act—Get to know the goals and challenges of each career center through regular communication, and share your organization’s recruitment goals and challenges with the career center. Then, tailor a recruiting approach that addresses challenges and drives toward goals for each campus.
• Get involved—Strengthen your relationships and presence with the career center by volunteering the expertise of your recruiting team to conduct information sessions, assist with mock interviews and resume reviews, sponsor events and activities, join the employer advisory board, and more.
• Connect with other key campus partners—Have career services staff facilitate connections with other key campus partners, such as faculty and student organizations. Provide all partners with data-driven organizational and industry updates, volunteer to speak to the various groups, and offer to assist with curriculum development.
• Don’t be a “one hit wonder”—Become a trusted partner with key schools by maintaining ties throughout all job market and industry fluctuations. That way, career centers and other campus partners will know you care about their success as well as your own.
• Be transparent about your goals and processes—Help manage expectations by updating campus partners on, for instance, hiring goals and internship opportunities for each year. Let them know about your recruitment timelines for entry-level and internships, be transparent about salaries for these positions, and be equitable by addressing potential barriers to employment.

The 2025 Recruiting Benchmarks Report is an analysis of the data acquired through the 2025 NACE Recruiting Benchmarks Survey, conducted April 21 through May 23, 2025, and distributed to 790 organizations holding NACE membership; 197 NACE members participated, a 24.9% response rate. In addition, 15 nonmember companies responded to the survey. The majority of respondents recruit in the United States for U.S. positions only, and more than half represent organizations with more than 5,000 employees. Members at participating organizations and those who have purchased the report can access them in MyNACE.