Assessment of Management Potential in Graduate Recruitment Available to Purchase

‘Demand for “good graduates” will remain highly competitive. The most successful recruiters will be those from financially strong organizations with stable recruitment records and a good training and development policy.’ Such is one informed forecast of the likely trend in graduate recruitment between 1976 and 1980. Much research has been carried out and written up on the topic of graduate recruits' attitudes both towards choosing an employer and towards their first years of employment. The conclusions reached consistently focus on the importance of the employer's reputation and economic strength, its utilisation of their knowledge and skills and its training and development policies. The success with which an employer recruits graduates will, therefore, depend a good deal on these factors. But what, or who, is a ‘good graduate’? And how can a ‘good graduate’ be identified? It is to these two questions that this article is directed, with a description of one company's experiences in attempting to answer them by developing techniques which have not been widely used in the area of graduate selection.