Management Toolkit
Story: Demand for tech graduates still strong
Stop graduate recruitment
I am sorry to see that graduate hiring plans are unaffected by the recent turbulence in financial markets.
Organisations would be more effective if they hired and promoted people with practical experience. For example, an MBA graduate does far more harm to organisations than a trade union member.
When I recently undertook an assignment in central government I was struck by the lack of understanding of the real world - what is a prison like, who is in prison, how does a drug addict fill their day, what's it like to raise children on your own, why can't I get tax credits owed to me, why do the police come the next day instead of now?
Northern Rock, lost data, central government IT projects, NHS targets and any other number of recent failures are caused by a lack of connection. It is embarrassing to acknowledge that the only person in recent politics who ever actually had a proper job was John Prescott.
I don't know what we can do about incompetence in government but we might have some influence on incompetence in organisations.
My first step would be to ban all formal graduate recruitment by organisations with over 100 staff and all salaries dependent on practical achievement and community work.
You may have already recognised the major flaw in my argument - these plans would be managed by the HR department.
Mike Westwood
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