If the world feels like it’s shifted beneath your feet this year, you’re not alone.
Many of our customers in early talent recruiting have told us that things just feel…different right now. From a rollercoaster job market to an uncertain economy and higher expectations for employers, your talent pool is more wary during their job search than they used to be.
Unfortunately, that means higher competition with other employers, and lower candidate engagement throughout your hiring process. Employers say they’re facing new challenges, like:
- Poor intern to full-time employee conversion rates
- An increase in reneges and early turnover
- Manual and time-consuming new hire program management
In short, it’s never been harder to engage and retain entry-level talent. That’s why we recently gathered a panel of experts: to discuss where there are gaps in current recruiting strategies, and to introduce Yello’s acquisition of Symba that will drive stronger connections with early talent—from your first conversation to their first day at work. Here’s what we learned.
Mapping the early career journey
A common misconception about early recruiting? “It only happens in the fall.”
Yes, fall is a busy time for entry-level hiring. But building strong talent pools, maintaining meaningful candidate relationships and extending offers with high acceptance rates? That’s a year-round job.
So as we explore where candidates might be falling through the cracks, it’s important to review the early career hiring journey as a whole. Let’s take a look at a typical internship hiring timeline, and see where engagement might fall off.
Phase 1: Fall recruiting
Fall recruiting is your bread and butter. There’s a lot of excitement and momentum as you connect with potential new hires at events, share information about your open roles, and put your best foot forward as a leading employer. You’ve extended offers and secured a strong new class of talent for the year ahead. Congrats!
Phase 2: The candidate engagement gap
This is where things get tricky. 🚨
Put yourself in the shoes of your early talent hires. You’ve gone through the recruiting process, evaluated several internship opportunities, and finally accepted an exciting offer. Then…crickets. For the many long months between fall recruiting season and when your summer internship starts, you hear nothing from your new employer.
That’s the unfortunate reality for many candidates. And it’s also where your organization runs the greatest risk of losing new hires before their internship event starts. From November to May, top talent is keeping their eyes peeled for better opportunities, and may even accept a different role.
So if you don’t have a structured communication plan in place during this critical period? You’re at risk of losing those new hires you worked so hard to attract.
Now’s the time to reconnect with your new hires, express your excitement about their start date, and remind them about why your company offers the best opportunities for them.
Not sure where to start?
Here’s a playbook to help you bridge the post-offer gap, keep talent engaged and prevent reneges.
Phase 3: Summer internship season
Now, we’re in the full swing of things. Your new hires are onboarded, managers and leadership are participating in your internship program, and you’re seeing the fruits of your labor. Your hard-earned recruiting efforts have paid off!
Phase 4: Post-internship keep-warm
The goal of most internship programs? Discover a new pool of qualified early talent so that they’ll eventually transition into full-time roles. That means most early recruiting teams already have a strong post-internship communication strategy. They’ll follow up with top performers, stay connected about open roles, and invite many of them to return as a full-time hire.
Still, there could be additional opportunities to improve your reengagement strategy in phase 4. How structured is your outreach? How frequently are you checking in with past interns? How often are you reminding them why your organization is a valuable place to work?
Yello Acquires Symba: How we’re closing the early talent recruiting gap
Early talent recruiting has only become more complex—and disjointed, piecemeal hiring processes are driving away potential new hires.
To address the engagement gap and automate the most complicated aspects of early career hiring and onboarding, we’re thrilled to announce that Yello has acquired Symba. Together, we’ll strengthen the early career hiring journey from start to finish, helping employers automate the manual work of running internship and new grad programs while maximizing candidate engagement and conversion rates.
Why does the post-offer gap matter?
The phase between offer accepted to internship start has historically been a quiet period. Recruiting teams have assumed that their work is done: they have signed acceptance letters in hand, all of their open positions are filled, and it’s time to move on!
While that may have been true in years past, it’s no longer safe to rest on your laurels. The truth is, there are as much as 8 full months between an accepted offer and the start of an internship. And sadly, many new hires are still looking towards greener pastures:
That means that even if you have a signed offer letter, your new hire might not even show up on day one. In the last few years, there’s been a significant uptick in new hires who have walked back their acceptance:
of candidates are still applying for jobs even after accepting a role (source)
increase in renege rates since 2021
increase in intern reneges
increase in new grad reneges (source)
The bottom line: all of those lost candidates come at a significant cost to you and your organization. Research shows that organizations lose an average of $4,700 or more per reneged offer.
How to assess your early talent engagement gap
Communication pitfalls show up differently for every company. You may have unique hiring cycles that stray from the typical fall recruiting period, or you might change your outreach tactics depending on your ability to connect in-person versus remotely.
But there are a few general ways that you can decipher where new hires are disengaging from your organization. Here are a few best practices:
1. Map out every touchpoint.
Grab a piece of paper or open a doc and outline every single point of contact you have with new hires, from offer accepted to start date.
2. Flag your silent periods.
Once you have a complete picture of your communication strategy, where are there holes? Are there long delays where you’re leaving new hires in the dark? Where could you add a touchpoint to keep them engaged?
3. Gather feedback.
Your candidates and hiring managers are sitting on valuable information, and might already know where there are gaps in your outreach strategy. Send a survey or ask for anecdotal feedback to collect their thoughts.
4. Diagnose the impact.
Take a look at your metrics. What problems are your engagement gaps creating? An increase in reneges? A drop-off in acceptance rates? If you know where your biggest issues are, you’ll be able to address them better in your hiring communications.
How to build a consistent new hire communication strategy
Okay. You’ve identified where your early talent engagement gaps are, and are ready to address them. Well done!
Here are a few expert-tested ways to keep the conversation going after your offers have been accepted:
Prioritize your gaps and focus areas.
What does a 5-star new hire experience look like? How could you go above and beyond to surprise and delight your newest team members after they’ve accepted a role? Identify where you want to make the biggest impact, and what message you most want to communicate.
Add intentional touchpoints.
No, you don’t have to reach out to candidates every day or every week. (Unless you’ve found that it’s a successful way to keep engagement up!) Instead, think about the top 3-5 messages you want to reinforce about your employer brand. Maybe it’s your great company culture, or the networking opportunities you offer for interns. Whatever it may be, make sure those top few messages are communicated frequently in your outreach.
Build human connections.
Tap into your alumni network by pairing current team members with incoming interns based on the college they attended. Connect your intern class by creating social media groups where they can get to know each other before their first day. Schedule Zoom touch-bases with your interns and their managers before their first day. Help your new hires form relationships that will drive greater connection to your organization.
Add value before day one.
There’s nothing wrong with a little gift to sweeten the deal! Send company swag to say thank you for accepting an offer. Or, plan a panel discussion or virtual networking event that helps early talent learn something about their career path before they step foot in the door.
Lean on tech.
Of course, you can’t do it all yourself! Lean on the right technology that will help you communicate more effectively and engage early talent on the platforms that they’re already using. Here’s how we’re making it happen, in partnership with Symba.
Here’s a complete pre-internship onboarding checklist to keep new hires warm before their first day.
Download, print, and start checking things off!
A final thought: stronger connections start long before day one
Early talent recruiting is no longer just about attracting great candidates in the fall. It’s about keeping them connected, excited, and confident in their decision every step of the way. The data is clear: silence costs you talent, time, and real dollars. But with a thoughtful engagement strategy, intentional communication, and the right tools in place, you can turn today’s disengagement challenges into tomorrow’s competitive edge.
Yello and Symba are partnering to help you do exactly that. By simplifying candidate management and strengthening the touchpoints that matter, you can build meaningful connections from offer to onboarding (and convert more early talent into long-term hires).
The organizations that win in this new era won’t just recruit early talent. They’ll nurture them. Support them. And show them, consistently, why they belong with you.
Watch the full conversation
