Earlier this month, Symba hosted a workshop at the 2022 URx Leaders Summit, an in-person event that brought together university recruiting and early talent leaders at the Thomas Fogarty Winery in Woodside, California. With layoffs, hiring freezes, and the looming recession, our workshop divided attendees into three groups to discuss these hot industry topics: rescinds, reneges, and how to repurpose early talent teams if necessary. Here are the key takeaways from each discussion group.
Rescind
You may have seen the term ‘rescind’ pop up in recent news or on your LinkedIn feed. So what does it mean? When an offer is ‘rescinded’, you and your company are taking back a job offer you have made, often for financial reasons. While rescinding offers is rare, it can be a challenging and frustrating experience for all involved.
Most leaders in the rescind group shared they have not had to rescind offers, though the possibility of having to do so next year has been weighing on their minds. They actually expressed a greater concern for new grad rescinds than intern rescinds because they generally have a bigger impact on new grad candidates. A rescinded offer could mean the loss of their full-time post-graduation job, whereas college-age interns usually have at least a year of school left before full-time employment.
Takeaway #1: Understand other levers you can pull before rescinding, and buddy up with finance
Rescinding offers can negatively impact your company’s image, which could lead to other candidates interpreting your business as risky and reneging on their offers in reaction. Word of mouth and social media may spread the news of your rescinds and make future candidates hesitant to even apply with your company.
So, what levers can you pull to avoid rescinding offers? First, and foremost, educate your leadership on how rescinds hurt your brand. Rescinding offers should be one of the last options for your organization. Instead, look for alternate ways to cut costs, such as:
- Shortening your internship program
- Removing sign-on bonuses
- Spending less on swag and events
You should also maintain an awareness of your company’s financial health. Make finance your best friend, and get a seat at the financial table to know what is going on. If your company is public, join quarterly earnings calls to understand the financial health of your company.
However, if you do have to rescind any offers, you can try to avoid rescinding more offers than necessary by predicting how many reneges you might get. It is also highly recommended that you offer some support to the interns and/or new grads whose offers were rescinded. Here are a few ways you can do so:
- Share resumes with other employers in your network.
- Encourage interns/new grads to return to the other employers they were applying to or had an offer from and see if positions are still open.
- Advocate for financial support if offers are rescinded close to the start of employment. For example, in the weeks leading up to their start date, an intern/new grad might have already relocated for an in-person opportunity. Rescinding their offer at that point would set them back financially. Work with finance and leadership to see if you can offer some sort of housing stipend in this scenario.
Takeaway #2: Be transparent and maintain morale through community building
Rescinds undoubtedly take a toll on your recruiting team and the interns/new grads whose offers still stand. How can you maintain morale among those that didn't get their offers rescinded?
- Let them have a voice and share their thoughts. As stated above, rescinded offers can create the image of a risky company. Give your hires space to express their concerns and actively work to address them.
- Have leadership give regular updates about the state of the company and the safety of their jobs. Keeping your early talent in the dark will only fuel their anxiety, but access to the leadership team can be reassuring.
- Connect them with alumni interns and new grads. In the midst of uncertainty, show your new hires that you care about their careers and want to help them succeed. Connecting them with alumni can create mentorship opportunities and a more comfortable space to ask questions.
Reneges
With some companies seeing record reneges on internship offers, UR teams are particularly concerned about keeping candidates warm between when they accept their internship offer and their first day. While your company will inevitably face reneges, there are a few ways to spot the candidates at risk and avoid reneges. Some things to look out for include:
- Are candidates filling out their HR forms before they come on board?
- Are they attending any pre-boarding events? UR leaders are noticing more traction from candidates when they make events close to the start date of their program to prevent offer reneges.
- Are they responding to questions or surveys about swag and other company offerings?
Takeaway #3: Understand WHY interns and new grads want to join your company
There are a lot of different reasons a candidate may renege on an offer. You can better prepare for this phenomenon if you know what to expect from each candidate. During the recruiting process, you need to truly understand why they want to join your company. For example, candidates have reneged on offers because of location. Be sure to suss out where they want to be and how they want to work during interviews. If the job opportunity is in person, do they want to live where your office is located? If the job opportunity is remote, does the candidate prefer to be in-person? Lack of alignment is likely to lead to a renege.
Also, it could be helpful to note which candidates have said they are recruiting with other companies. A tip for this scenario is: don't force candidates to accept your offer in too short a window of time. This could lead to a renege if a candidate feels pressured to accept your offer, but continues to interview and gets an offer that is a better fit.
Takeaway #4: Share as much information about your company and program as possible
Set clear expectations with your candidates so they know what they will be getting out of the intern/new grad opportunity, including:
- Projects they might work on
- Events and experiences
- Networking potential
- Access to leadership
Talent leaders are seeing that Gen Zers really care about the values of the companies they are applying to. Highlight your company values and show how they align with your applicants'. If they do not align, it is likely the candidate and your company are not a good fit and the candidate should be considered a renege risk.
Repurpose
Even if you are prepared for rescinds and reneges, there is still the possibility that your internship program could get canceled, you could lose new grad headcount, or your team could experience layoffs. What should you be doing during this time? It may seem like your team is in limbo, but there are ways to repurpose your role and your team to preserve your jobs and hit the ground running in 2024.
Takeaway #5: Evaluate your current processes and improve for the future
Take this time to go through a discovery phase. Revamp your recruitment and programming processes, re-evaluate your projects, and design different pillars in which your team can reinvest and repurpose their work (like diversity, culture, and experience). This can also be a great opportunity to re-evaluate your tech stack and see if there are tools out there, like Symba, that can optimize your workflows and support more streamlined processes.
“Never stop building the top of the funnel.” - Leo Cortez, Director, Global Emerging Talent Team at Hubspot.
Even if you are not hiring interns and new grads now, building those relationships is invaluable and can get you ahead of others by beginning to meet candidates sooner. For example, you can host information sessions for younger college students (who may not be eligible for recruitment yet, but will be in the future) to get face time and build brand awareness.
How to Reset for 2023
As the year comes to a close, your team should take some time to prepare for the new year of recruitment and start fresh. Here are some tips to reset for 2023:
- Research the state of the labor market, especially for the industry that you’re in, and the overall economic landscape at the start of the year.
- Look within to understand the state of your company.
- Which departments are still hiring?
- How many new grads are left to hire?
- Are there any processes that you can revamp?
- Once you’ve done your internal and external research, reset your team’s priorities for FY23 and triage projects/tasks accordingly.
- Is there any learning and development (L&D) budget that you can leverage in 2023? Ask each of your team members how they want to grow personally and professionally, and facilitate that growth.
