Scholarships might be powerful enough to tackle one of the biggest problems in the job market today. Moreover, they can easily become the next cost-effective HR and marketing model for many small-and medium-sized businesses.
Deloitte’s annual Millennial Survey for 2019 examined the attitudes of 13,416 millennials (from 42 countries) towards businesses and life. Recently published report (May 20, 2019) states that the millennials’ trust in companies is at an all-time low, with 49% wishing to quit their current jobs in the next two years.
These findings indicate a shifting trend in the job market. And, based on the last eight years of research, the trend of job-hopping is not decreasing – it’s on the rise.
Where did such an alarming dissatisfaction come from and what does it mean for your business?
The survey also highlighted the overall skepticism of millennials towards businesses’ motivations. The young experts believe that a job should be about more than a paycheck and financial results. This issue is particularly important, because it hints at an underlying cause for dissatisfaction.
However, tackling the issue doesn’t mean damaging your business. In fact, it might be just the case of a more effective, improved model of managing your employees.
Leveraging Scholarships
What is the one thing that irrevocably demonstrates a business’ “good, humane side”? Over the years, we’ve witnessed serious accusations against foundations and charities for abusing their funds, with the exception of scholarships. Even if some of those are used primarily for tax deductions, there is no arguing that scholarships always make many student’s life easier.
Could scholarships be a solution to the critical dissatisfaction among young employees? I believe so.
But, in order to do that, we need to re-think their purpose and leverage them to build communities of employees and customers. We need to start thinking long-term about scholarships and see them as investments.
Investments in what, exactly? Many good things, actually.
Maximizing ROI for everyone
Every investment is judged by its expense and return on investment (ROI). In the case of a scholarship, you are helping a devoted student complete their education. For many scholarship providers, their ROI on scholarships consists of the emotional satisfaction of giving back and, potentially, a tax deduction (well, it is business after all).
And while these are by no means small things, there are ways to maximize benefits, for both the company offering the scholarship and the students.
Here is the “secret”: why not continue cooperating with the students who already appreciate you and your business? Scholarships are the first step towards mutual respect and pleasant work, and businesses have the power to continue building on that.
If you were to expose your scholarship to an enormous number of students, you would in effect get contacts from thousands, if not tens of thousands of prospective employees. Once you have a job opening, all you need to do is reach into your database, hand-pick the most promising ones and offer them a job interview.
Why stop there? If you notice a talent immediately, offer them internships prior to an actual job position. This way, you’d be nurturing them into an excellent employee, years ahead of their graduation. Not only that, but during the course of their studies – they’d know what to focus on to be the best they can be. A true star employee – in your company!
And by the time they actually started working, you will already have developed a trusting employer-employee relationship and know exactly what you can expect!
Community as the chief currency
Of course, you always run the risk of a student opting out at some point and choosing another company. Still, even then – you might find yourself networking more easily with colleagues from other businesses, seeing that at some point you played a part in their career. Talk about successful networking.
The backbone of this new scholarships-to-business model are their immense and effortless community-building powers. By giving back to communities and helping people, scholarships put your business among those that care and are not just about the profit margins. Remember the beginning of this article and how important that has become?
Such an image is invaluable in today’s job market. Furthermore, it’s becoming more important among customers. We all want to be a part of businesses that care and aren’t just greedy capitalists. Quality sells, yes. But, quality AND awareness mean so much more and, in the long run, such businesses will be more successful and profitable, because they naturally grow into communities benefiting everyone involved.
This way, scholarships translate into amazing marketing models. And we can all agree that, compared to current costs of traditional advertising, it’s a small price to pay for such a promising campaign. Especially if you add to that the HR expenditure you’d be saving by planning and hiring students whom you had helped become young professionals.
A word of warning
For this model to work, one of the key elements is exposure. You want your scholarship to be seen, as it should. By putting it in front of millions of students, you secure better choices, more contacts, and bigger marketing reach. And, consequently, better overall results.
That’s where Scholarship.app comes in.
Scholarship.app is a project that connects scholarship providers with vast number of students (approximately 4 million at the moment) in an easy, fast and professional manner. We act as an intermediary between maverick businesses who embrace current trends and future tendencies, and students who will turn into young experts and amazing employees.
If you are happy with current expenses and satisfied with exhausting hunts for dedicated employees, great! But, if you would like to give this new method a go and affect virtually all the departments within your company, and give back to the community, then head over to our website to learn more about what’s possible for your business and post your first scholarship.
