Picture this: It’s the end of an intensive 8-week attraction and recruitment campaign and you’ve just secured top graduates for your organisation. Exciting, right? But the journey is far from over.
Fast forward three months. It’s two weeks before your grads officially start, and you receive an email that every recruiter dreads: “I’m sorry, but I’ve decided to accept another offer.”
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In today’s competitive graduate landscape, securing top talent is only half the battle. The real challenge lies in keeping these promising graduates engaged and committed during the crucial period between offer acceptance and their first day.
With up to 27% of graduates receiving job offers from other organisations after accepting a position (AAGE Graduate Survey, 2024), it’s clear that a robust keep-warm strategy is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s essential.
So, what if there was a way to turn that initial “yes” into an enthusiastic “when can I start?” What if you could not only retain your graduate hires but also have them arrive on day one fully prepared and bursting with excitement?
Introducing: Mastering the Art of Preboarding. At Brightworks, we’ve developed this 5-day email mini-course to transform the way you engage and retain graduate hires before their start date. Drawing from this course, today we’re sharing five actionable strategies to help you create a preboarding strategy that reduces candidate reneges and sets your graduates up for long-term success.
1. Early Engagement: The Key to Preventing Reneges
The period immediately following offer acceptance is critical. Graduates are excited but may also be experiencing doubt or receiving competing offers. Early, consistent engagement is crucial to reinforcing their commitment to your organisation.
How can you create early engagement? You could have a team leader reach out directly to your graduates, but this can be heavily time consuming.
Instead, consider setting up an online portal where you can:
- Share exciting projects they’ll be working on
- Arrange catch-ups with mentors or other grads
- Encourage new hires to communicate on the platform
This personal touch can reignite your grads’ excitement and reinforce their commitment.
(P.S. If you’d like to see what this looks like in practice, join our BrightStart showcase here! We’ll be offering a behind-the-scenes insight into how you can use technology to seamlessly upskill and engage your early talent before day one).
2. Showcasing Your Culture Authentically
Company culture is a major factor influencing how long graduates stay with an organisation, with 55% citing it as a key consideration (AAGE Graduate Survey, 2024). However, in today’s increasingly digital recruitment landscape, it can be challenging for graduates to gain genuine insights into your company’s day-to-day culture before they start.
Your website may provide your grads with insight into your workplace, but once they’re committed, they want to know more. One effective strategy is to create a ‘Day in the Life’ series:
- Feature employees from different departments and levels
- Document typical workdays through photos, short videos, or blog posts
- Share these snippets in real-time with your incoming grads
This approach provides authentic insights into your workplace culture and help your grads envision themselves as part of the team.
3. Boost Confidence (and Productivity) with Pre-Start Skill Development
Most students finish their studies eager to make their mark in the working world, but despite this, almost half of them feel unprepared for the job market. This isn’t only a cost for organisations, its a cause of emotional stress for your new hires.
Offering skill-building opportunities before day one not only eases graduates’ anxiety but also accelerates their productivity when they start!
How can you build your grads’ skills before they step foot into your office doors? Create a Pre-Start Learning Hub:
- Identify key skills (both technical and soft) that your grads need to succeed
- Run dedicated development workshops to address these skills
- Curate micro-learning modules and resources to support these workshops
Don’t forget, your future grads are busy. To give them a streamlined experience and ensure the highest engagement rates, make these trainings easily accessible. For the best outcomes, house this in the same online portal with your other engagement strategies mentioned earlier!
Remember, everyone learns differently, so offer a mix of content types and keep it engaging for your new Gen Z workers.
4. Build a Sense of Belonging
One of the biggest challenges new graduates face is the fear of not fitting in at their new workplace. This anxiety can lead to second thoughts about following through on an offer.
That’s not all though; cultivating belonging is powerful for business and your bottom line. In a Harvard Business Review study, high belonging was linked to a 56% increase in job performance and 50% reduction in turnover risk, and a 167% increase in their employer promoter score.
Creating a multi-channel connection strategy is the best way to effectively engage grads in today’s environment. Great avenues to consider include:
- Setting up a private LinkedIn group or Slack channel
- Organising casual in-person meet-ups or team building activities
- Hosting virtual meet-and-greets or informal Q&A sessions with team members
The goal is to create a welcoming atmosphere and present opportunities that help graduates feel like they’re already part of the team.
5. Bring it all Together
While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to preboarding, a truly impactful program should be authentic, consistent and tailored to your graduates’ needs and your company’s culture.
To help ensure that you’re on the right track, we’ve developed a quick checklist for you to consider as you develop your preboarding strategy:
- Is our communication consistent and meaningful?
- Are we providing valuable pre-start learning opportunities?
- Have we created opportunities for grads to connect with the team?
- Are we showcasing our culture authentically?
- Do we have a system to identify and address potential reneges?
- Do we have a talent pooling strategy to fill any last-minute openings?
Implementing a comprehensive keep-warm program that ticks all these boxes can be complex and time-consuming, but the benefits are clear. With an effective keep warm strategy, you’ll unlock the power to:
- Reduce reneges and increase retention by up to 50%
- Increase productivity by a staggering 62%
- Enhance your employer brand
- Boost day-one readiness
By focusing on these five key strategies, you can transform your keep-warm program and set the stage for long-term graduate retention and success. This article was just the tip of the iceberg! If you’d like to dive deeper, access our Mastering the Art of Preboarding mini-course here for 5 days of snappy, actionable strategies to reduce candidate reneges and upskill your grads.
Remember, the effort you invest in this crucial period pays dividends in engagement, productivity, and long-term commitment. Your future organisational leaders are out there—make sure you’re doing everything you can to keep them excited, prepared, and committed to starting their career journey with you.
