Understanding the factors that improve graduate employment – guidelines for students, academic institutes and employers

Purpose This study aimed to provide guidelines and insights for all stakeholders of the career ecosystem including students, training and placement (T&P) coordinators, higher education institutes and recruiting organizations to prepare students for the graduate labor market, resulting in enhanced graduate employment. Design/methodology/approach We have adopted a mixed methodology using a two-study approach. The first study was quantitative involving a questionnaire approach to check the factors influencing graduate first employment. Based on the result of the first study, the second study was conducted to develop guidelines for students, institutes and employers. Findings The first study resulted in ten factors significantly impacting a graduate’s first employment choice, which are the relevance of work, personal interests, growth opportunities, employee benefits, market-related factors, location-related factors, friends, societal factors, education-related factors and socio-demographic factors. Further, we developed guidelines for students, T&P coordinators and employers to enhance graduate employment based on the SEM result. Practical implications T&P cell coordinators will be able to provide better career counselling support to their students to increase their employment records, which will help them attract bright aspirants to take admission at their institute in the next academic year. The forms can help employers devise strategies in terms of the recruitment and retention of graduates to gain a competitive advantage. Originality/value This is the first of the efforts to present the proforma to be used by students, academic institutes and employers to enhance the campus placement ratio.