4 perks of hiring a new college grad

Spring is the season of rebirth: millions of shiny new college graduates are entering the job market, and there's no better time to renew your own talent pool. In fact, 24 percent of small business owners are already planning to hire someone who finished college in 2016.*

Full of energy and creative ideas, new grads can be a great resource for your small business and a smart investment that can pay dividends for years. How? Here are four perks of hiring new college grads.

Trendy skillset 

Instagram ads. Prezi. Mailchimp. With graduation so close behind them in their rearview mirrors, many young job hunters are more in tune with the latest marketing, sales, and technology trends and best practices that you crave to shake up your marketing strategy and inject new energy into your business.

Combining their new ideas with your vast experience, could produce the innovation breakthrough you've been looking for!

Fresh ambition 

Close your eyes and try to remember how you felt when you graduated: probably really pumped to find an organization that would empower you to make a difference!

Recent graduates are young, full of energy, and eager to grind away at their first real job. Employees with this kind of dedication and energy can be the perfect addition to your team, so reel them in and watch those high levels of productivity roll in.

Affordable talent pool

Recent graduates are just that: recent entrants to the job market - they have a good education and maybe even a few internships under their belts. As entry-level employees, you may be able afford to bring one of them onto your team more easily than a mid-level candidate with higher salary expectations.

With all the energy and drive they have fresh off the college track, a new hire can have a strong ROI despite the natural learning curve of any greener employee. To keep them motivated once they join, however, be mindful of salary discrimination and make it clear that you have the opportunity to commend future achievements with raises, promotions and other benefits.

Chance to be a hiring hero 

Some new grads might cling tightly to their dream of landing a job at Google right out of school, but with the unemployment rate for 20-24 year olds more than twice the rate for 25-54 year olds, the job market is hyper competitive.

Your recruiting program might not be as sexy as the Silicon Valley superstar, but small businesses like yours employ half of the private sector workforce and create 63 percent of net new private sector jobs. And in smaller, more familiar environments, new graduates get more direct access to leaders (like you) who can help them develop professionally. Give them a headstart!