In 2015 over 1.8 million students are expected to graduate from college with a bachelor’s level degree. Which means in the months leading up to all the college graduation ceremonies, 1.8 million candidates will be searching for jobs. With so many candidates how are companies supposed to manage the influx of applications, conduct interviews, and hire the best talent they can find all within a small time frame?  Here are four tips for companies looking to hire some of the 1.8 million college grads.

Make your company known:

This new group of college graduates will be applying for positions primarily online. Which means they will find out about openings and different companies primarily online. Therefore if your company does not have a strong online presence now is the time to create one. Social media plays a large role in what the younger generation is interested in. Capture their attention on social media and get them to want to apply to your company. The more buzz you can create the more applications you will receive.

Make people want to work there:

No one wants to go to work every day and secretly be counting down the seconds until the day is over. Show these college graduates that working at your company is enjoyable and that they will want to go to work every day. If you attend a college job fair bring some of your younger employees. The candidates will be able to relate to them and feel more comfortable asking them questions. Your younger employees will also be able to help determine which of the people they talk to would be a good culture fit. A candidate may be great on paper, but if there isn’t a cultural fit they may end up leaving.  The cost of turnover is very high.

Examine your last group of new employees:

With so many college graduates applying you have to narrow down the field. Take a look at what you liked about the last group of college graduates that you hired. Were they involved in any activities that made them a better fit, did they have a certain amount of experience, or did they come from a particular school? Figure out what worked well and what didn’t work with the last group of college graduates you hired. Also, ask them if anything they did prior to working for your company helped them be a better employee. They also will potentially be working closely with whomever you hire.  By examining them you can find better candidates who would be a good culture fit.

Hire an outside recruiting firm:

With the number of applications being at an all-time high in the months before college graduations, it can be overwhelming for companies to sort through them all. Between prescreening them, to setting up interviews, to actually hiring them, the entire process can be very time-consuming. Instead of spending time away from the work that is needed to be completed at your company, consider hiring an outside recruiting firm to strictly deal with hiring new graduates. They will spend the time sorting through all the applications in addition to finding you candidates that you may not have found on your own.

In the end, with that many college graduates applying at one time the process is bound to get overwhelming. If you take the time to make some small changes you will find some great candidates to add to your company.