Most small companies are reluctant to hire freshers as they assume that hiring and retaining freshers is challenging. So, they prefer hiring experienced people.

However, hiring freshers has inherent benefits that businesses must recognise. This article explores the benefits, challenges, and methods for hiring freshers and growing the organisation.

Hiring freshers won’t work if you are looking for a senior management position, but it pays to hire freshers and then grow them to higher positions.

At Enjay, freshers form 95% of our team. All of them were freshers when they joined Enjay. Are we good? Damn good. Our clients and partners come to Enjay to study and understand the work culture. This is our best testimonial.

Benefits of Hiring Freshers:

1. No cultural baggage.
2. Talent and hunger to learn and grow.
3. Fresh perspective and innovative thinking.
4. Tech Savvy, Natively digital.
5. Open to feedback.
6. Diversity of thought.
7. It helps build a talent funnel for the organisation.

Many people from my generation complain that youngsters are not hardworking and motivated. Our parents had the same complaints as we did. It’s called the generation gap. The younger generation is an upgraded version.

Challenges in Hiring Freshers

1. Limited experience in how organisations work.
2. They may have unrealistic expectations about the work culture.
3. Skill Gaps. (It’s not their fault; it’s our education system.)
4. Challenges with communication skills.
5. High turnover. (Might not have long-term career perspective).
6. No work ethics and professionalism.
7. You can’t rely on their resumes. (Everyone in the class makes it using the same template.)

Business owners’ most significant complaint against hiring freshers is that they first don’t know anything, then you teach them everything, and then they leave. We are not a training institute.

How we have been successful in hiring and retaining freshers.

It’s a five-step process. Shortcuts won’t work, so follow these steps if you plan a long-term strategy for your organisation.

This seems long, but it is rewarding.

First, create a mindset.

Before we even started the process, we knew that this process requires patience and long-term strategy. Our mindset comes from our One-Liner HR policy.

1. We understand that we have to do hand-holding and training.
2. We do a lot of mentoring, which requires time and attention.
3. We accept failure in hiring. Even after all the diligence, someone may not be as good as we expect, or someone may leave.
4. We don’t label everyone as trustworthy and doubt their intentions.
5. Our 15+ team leaders (out of 100+ team size) understand all these.

We were compelled to go with freshers because we run a software company in Rural Gujarat. Few software companies exist, so experienced team members are in short supply.

Connecting to Freshers

How do we connect with freshers? In their college, of course.

1. From the very beginning, we have tied up with local colleges and schools that are part of our CSR project SkillXperience.org)
2. We regularly do seminars, webinars, industrial visits, and training sessions for college students.
3. When we often need a competent speaker on the topic, we get someone from outside.
4. One of the main functions of our HR Team is to coordinate with local colleges and organise sessions with them.
5. We regularly call students for company visits and explain how a software company works and what job opportunities exist in this sector.

PRO TIP: If you wait for freshers looking for jobs, you might not get the best talent. The best students get picked up in the college through campus interviews before their final exam results. If you need the best talent, connect with them and offer them a job before they search for one.

The hiring process.

We generally don’t participate in job fairs. Instead, we hold our sessions with students and invite the entire class to interview at Enjay.

1. We patiently do the entire process, focusing on helping the students get the best job.
2. We also help them get jobs in other companies.
3. For every post, we have multiple rounds of interviews. These are more of training rather than interviews. We give them tasks, and those who complete them are only evaluated for further processing.
4. Also, since we have a program called OneDotFive, we must ensure the candidate has the potential and fire to grow to that level.
5. When hiring, we discuss our four non-negotiable conditions with the candidates.

Retaining Freshers.

I suggest you read my previous two articles to understand how we retain our team members.

1. OneDotFive, 20K to 50K in 18 months
2. Beyond Hiring: Uncovering culture fit early.

Here is a summary of what we do:

1. We increase the salary based on their potential, not on their performance.
2. We found that in the past, freshers left Enjay because we were waiting for them to show performance. Meanwhile, other companies knew that this person had been trained and offered a higher salary. So, instead of losing our trained team members to competitors, we started retaining them.
3. At Enjay, we regularly discuss and explain the roadmap for Enjay with the entire team so that they know where everything is going.
4. We also explain their career roadmap while discussing what they like and don’t like.
5. We work six days a week, but on Saturdays, we don’t work but do training. We spend very heavily on training our team members. These trainings are more than just technical; management and leadership training are also provided.
6. We ensure that every new Enjay member is provided with one Buddy (who may or may not be their team leader). This Buddy takes care of the new joiner.

Growing with freshers.

We make sure that everyone gets ample opportunity to grow.

We even discontinued some low-profit products, which needed to generate more revenue and profit to sustain the team.

Many freshers who joined Enjay are now directors or shareholders.