Some ROI Numbers for Campus Recruiting

Campus/graduate recruiting is easy to support in a good economy but can be difficult to support in a bad one. A look at the headlines about the rising joblessness of recent graduates (such as this one from Business Week) shows that large-scale campus hiring isn’t on the priority list of many organizations today.

When times are tough, investments without a hard ROI calculation behind them are the first to go. Campus recruiting is usually in that category.

Until now. Lancaster University just released a study concluding that campus hires pay for themselves after just 20 months on the job, and over three years can bring 500% ROI. The study was based on determining the cost per campus hire and calculating how much these hires earn for the business. It looks like there’s new material out there for our business cases to keep campus recruiting on the priority list.

(Roundtable members, access other data and templates to help you build your case for campus recruiting.)