The distribution of the recruitment methods used by organisation size is given in Table III. The most popular method of graduate recruitment is the internet, which was used by 91 per cent of the respondents and by all employers with more than 500 employees. Where organisations did use the internet, the most popular method was their company home page or website, followed by graduate recruitment sites. Some organisations also used universities’ websites and careers services’ sites. The second most popular method was the use of careers literature such as Prospects, the GET Directory and Prospects Today. These were used by 89 per cent of the respondents and significantly by 78 per cent of those employers with less than 500 employees and by 95 percent of larger employers. However, the milk round, which was used by 45 percent of the respondents, appeared to be less popular than methods such as graduate recruitment fairs (55 per cent), which employers preferred because of the elements of direct contact and availability to answer prospective applicants’ questions.
The least popular method of graduate recruitment was the use of recruitment agencies. They were used by only 15 percent of the respondents. About 45 percent of the respondents reported that they targeted students at particular universities by contacting these universities’ careers advisory services, directors of programmes and heads of department. About 14 percent of the 326 graduate employers studied indicated that they had targeted only universities that offered particular degree courses with good reputations. Only 9 percent of the respondents indicated that they preferred the old universities. More than a third (37 percent) preferred universities where graduates undertook work placements as part of their studies.
The variation in the recruitment methods used depended on the number of graduate vacancies created each year and the resources available for graduate recruitment. However, when the recruitment and selection costs per graduate recruited are compared by organization size it becomes apparent that employers with fewer than 500 people spend more per graduate recruited than employers with between 501 and 1,000 staff (see Table IV). In total, 25 out of the 113 organizations (22 percent) which