Graduate Recruitment and Selection – A Linkage Between Labor Market and Higher Education

Abstract

Increasing the quality of the education system is conditioned by continuously gathering feedback from the stakeholders. Employers' requirements and their satisfaction with the quality of the university graduates, but also graduates' employment outcomes when entering the labor market represent indicators for the quality of university teaching. An in depth analysis of the employment process brings important input for higher education institutions. From a micro level approach, the present research focuses on the graduate recruitment and selection process, aiming to understand what criteria Romanian employers value during the job assignment process. Following the methodological insights brought by numerous employers' surveys, this paper tries to determine how the employing companies use educational credentials in the job recruitment and selection process. A questionnaire based survey was conducted on 120 Romanian companies. The survey focused on the recruitment and selection stages used by employers during the hiring process. The results show that employers do not base their hiring decisions on the information provided by candidates' education. The job selection process undergoes two stages: a screening phase and a hiring stage. During the screening stage the educational degree plays a crucial role. While screening the applications, the employers also consider the degree attainment, educational specialization, the level of the degree, reputation of the educational institution. On the other hand, during the hiring stage the educational degree plays a less important role. Candidates' educational outcomes are outbalanced by the information the employer gathers about the candidate during the selection process. The employer wastes resources during the hiring process by not using the information offered by candidates' educational credentials, especially when not satisfied with the quality of the education system. The more satisfied with the quality of the higher education institutions, employers will more strongly base their hiring decision on graduates' previous educational outcomes.