Reinventing your talent pipeline
123,000 students attend our region's colleges and universities, and they are our most immediate source of workforce talent. Keeping them in Greater Cincinnati is a high priority for NKY Works. Connecting them to jobs well before graduation is a key strategy for achieving this goal. Companies have found that waiting until students are ready to graduate is not the best recruitment strategy. Instead, they are finding ways to work with students earlier, sometimes years before graduation.
Four companies shared their experiences working with students at the University of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University during “Reinventing Your Talent Pipeline” on January 23. These companies are Safran Landing Systems, Western and Southern Financial Services, Global Business Solutions, and Bosch.
NKY Works Director Correy Eimer (left) led a panel of business professionals including (left to right) Bonnie Wathen (Western and Southern), Jim Vatali (Western and Southern), Maria Perez (Bosch), and Kevin Brummer (Global Business Solutions).
The insights they shared included:
Internships are a win/win. Safran’s CEO and General Manager Philippe Garnier said Safran hires 15-30 student interns annually. Students provide much-needed support for Safran’s workload, especially for short-term projects. Students’ reliance on technology to complete their work often results in faster, more efficient methods to move projects forward.
By working with students for two to four months, Safran can identify the “superstars” they want to hire full-time.
Because Safran is a French company, they also hire French interns for their USA operations. “The interaction between our American and French interns is an excellent experience for these students,” Garnier said. “They are learning valuable skills about communicating across cultures.”
Having a campus presence helps. Per Associate Vice President of Remote Sites Jim Vatali, Western and Southern Financial Services opened a contact center at NKU in 2022 and now hires 40 part-time students per year. The students fill a variety of customer service and sales support roles. Last year, Vatali said these students completed an amazing 173,000 client interactions.
Western and Southern added a similar center at UC last year after acquiring Gerber Life Insurance Company, initially hiring 17 students to support insurance sales. These students completed life and health insurance licenses as part of their onboarding process and played a role in the sale of 1,600 new life insurance policies in the first year of operations. Western and Southern intends to hire up to 35 students at its UC Center next year.
After working part-time, several students per year move into internships, and several graduates now annually accept full-time jobs with Western and Southern.
Building relationships within the university pays off. Like Western and Southern, Global Business Solutions (GBS) has an on-campus center at NKU where they hire IT interns. In addition, GBS Director of Strategy & Operations Kevin Brummer participates in the Advisory Committee for NKU’s College of Informatics.
“Building relationships with the people who teach our workforce is very valuable,” Brummer said. “We get to influence what is being taught. In our work at GBS, we deal with many specialized technology needs. It is unrealistic to expect students to learn about all of them. But it is helpful for us to talk with faculty about the changing technology needs of our clients so they can better prepare their students.”
Rotating interns and co-op students within the business helps them find their best pathway. Bosch, a worldwide manufacturing company with a plant in Florence, rotates their co-ops through multiple positions during their employment. “This enables the student to experience several different career pathways to see which one is the best fit for them,” said Bosch’s Maria Perez, who manages their co-op program. Perez also manages the FAME program, an apprenticeship through which students are enrolled at Gateway Community and Technical College while working at Bosch.
“We also talk to our students about continuing their education by enrolling in the ‘2+2’ degree programs at NKU,” she added. The 2+2 programs provide a seamless pathway for associate-degree graduates to pursue their bachelor's degree.
At the event, sponsored by the NKY Chamber of Commerce, the presenters also shared the following tips for establishing successful work-based learning opportunities for college students:
Create a “playbook” for managers who will be working with young people to highlight how to communicate effectively with college students.
Use Handshake to post co-op, internship, apprenticeship, and job opportunities. Handshake is a proprietary career platform used by most colleges and universities in our region. Once a company has posted its opportunities in Handshake, students nationwide can view them.
Mimic your expectations for full-time employment during your internships. If students are expected to dress professionally upon full employment, require it during their internship, too. Students should learn about the company culture through their college-level employment experiences.
Remember that working with students is, as Kevin Brummer said, “a long game.” Students will have a learning curve when they enter full-time employment, even if they worked for your company during college. However, work-based learning experiences can greatly pave the way for successful onboarding into full-time positions.
NKY Works encourages companies to explore work-based learning (WBL) opportunities such as internships and co-ops with both high school and post-secondary students. To talk more about WBL options and your company’s specific workforce needs, contact NKY Works at 859.657.WRKS (9757) or NKYWorks@NKADD.org.