10 Tips for Hiring Recent College Grads

High turnover costs money, drains resources and saps morale. According to the Harvard Business Review, 80 percent of turnover is caused by poor hiring decisions. Making the right hiring decision is even more challenging when evaluating recent college graduates because you're hiring more for potential than past experience and success.

Thousands of college grads have left the friendly confines of college campuses for the dog-eat-dog world of the corporate job market. We recommend following these 10 tips to improve your chances of hiring the best employees.

Look for candidates with the right behavior, attitude and personality. Recent college grads don't have long resumés, so identify candidates who share intangibles with your top performers. At this stage, the right mindset is usually more important than the right skillset.

Focus the job description on the actual job. Again, recent college grads will have limited experience, so don't waste your time with a list of background requirements. Explain what specific tasks the job requires so you can find a person who matches the position, not a list of skills.

Keep it real. The last thing you want to hear a new employee say is, “This job is nothing like they said it would be.” Recent college grads have vast social networks, so if you misrepresent job openings to attract better candidates, word of this deception can spread quickly.

Find out if candidates know what they want to do. A lot of college graduates aren't sure what their professional future holds, and that's okay. The key is to get them to be honest so you know if someone hopes to be there for the long haul, plans to use this job as a quick stepping stone or just isn't sure.

Offer meaningful internships. The days of using interns to make coffee and take lunch orders are over � or at least they should be. When you offer internships that enable shadowing and empower students with real responsibilities, you can develop your own pool of preferred candidates based on firsthand experience.

Conduct multiple interviews with different approaches. People can be trained to perform well in interviews, so make sure one good interview wasn't a fluke. Include current employees in the interview process and get their feedback. Conduct one-on-one and five-on-one interviews. Interviews are supposed to be tough, so ask tough questions to get beyond the scripted answers.

Talk to professors. College professors probably won't speak negatively of a student, but they'll speak glowingly of their best students. They also tend to be rather selective in choosing students who are worthy of their highest praise.

Convey your values. This generation of college graduates cares about ethics, social and environmental responsibility, and work-life balance. They want to work for companies that share their values.

Find out who they admire and why. What public figures or private individuals do they consider role models? What companies do they admire? Just like candidates are looking for employers who share their values, your company should be hiring recent college grads who will fit your culture.

Avoid candidates who have had it too easy. Many graduates can point to jobs and internships with well-known companies. While that experience may be valuable, it can also lead to a sense of entitlement. People who had to wait tables, work in a factory or stock shelves to get through college know the value of hard work and tend to be driven to succeed. Don't discount this type of experience.