Survey shows UK grads believe pay and career progression is better at corporations than at SMEs.
A survey of 200 UK graduates, commissioned by SME graduate recruiter Give A Grad A Go, shows that 91% of UK graduates think corporations pay better, 79% think they offer better job security and 74% believe they offer better career progression than SMEs.
However, 75% of the graduates felt SMEs excelled in terms of work ethic and 82% in that of the job satisfaction, while 92% of all those surveyed felt that SMEs encouraged more creativity in the workplace. With 62% smaller businesses also scored higher than corporates on work-life balance.
Cary Curtis, Give A Grad A Go founder and MD: “SMEs make up the backbone of British industry and will need to take advantage of the abundance of highly skilled graduates leaving university looking for work.
“Graduates are often unaware of the career opportunities that exist in SME organisations and certainly have no idea how to take advantage of them. The result is that smaller employers tend to struggle to source the best grads.”
The results also revealed that 54% of graduates thought public sector pay was either ‘low’ or ‘very low’, contrasting recent findings from centre-right think tank, Policy Exchange, which revealed public sector workers earning over 30% more than their private sector equivalents.
Curtis: “We encourage all SMEs to treat graduates on work placements as real employees and offer a wage with any position. The highest tuition fees on record mean many graduates can’t afford to work for free, and those that do are often demotivated due a lack of remuneration. Paid placements offer an affordable way to secure talented candidates and get the most out of them.”
Source: SME WEB
[...] What companies do you think of when applying to graduate schemes? Coca-Cola? Deloitte? Most students think of the large companies first but In fact, only 14% of students go to work for them. The true driving force of the UK are the SMEs, as they hire a significant amount of graduates and rarely have the strict application processes of larger companies. The good thing about SMEs is that you have a great opportunity to place your unique stamp on the company with the increased responsibilities, therefore creating a big difference, something you might not have the opportunity to do in a larger company. In fact, a survey of 200 students found that 82% said they would be happier in their jobs at an SME and 92% felt they encourage more creativity in the work place. [...]