Employers struggle with unprepared grads

Within the past year Sarah Schupp has hired five new employees with freshly minted college degrees. She fired one on his first day for inappropriate sexual comments to a co-worker. Another lasted a week before getting a pink slip.

“When you’re hiring for sales, it’s tricky to find a good fit, and selling advertising is not for everyone,” says Schupp, founder of UniversityParent.com in Boulder, Colo. “But you can’t call in sick at 7:45 a.m. just because you don’t want to come to work at 8 a.m.”

Jeanne Achille also was disappointed with the hiring of a recent college hire, promoted by a university professor as a “superstar” and fired after three weeks when it was discovered she spent hours online at work visiting a dating site. She also tweeted about a night of partying – then e-mailed in sick the next day.

“Just who is supposed to be preparing these kids for the workplace?” asks Achille, CEO of the Devon Group in Middletown, N.J. “Is it home? Is it school? Or is there a layer we’ve missed?”

That seems to be the question that has reignited the debate about who is responsible for the quality of college graduates in the workplace. The tension has grown as young workers enter a labor force where employers are closely watching costs, including those for recruitment and training.

“I’ve been hearing these same complaints for the last 15 years,” says Steven Rothberg, founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, a job board for students seeking full-time work or internships. “Employers have always complained about a lack of hard and soft skills. The problem is that now employers don’t have the luxury of letting employees learn on the job.”

With only 15 employees, Achille says that “we don’t go into a hiring decision lightly in this economy,” and says no company can afford to put money into training new workers – those dollars are reserved for “top talent,” she says.

“We’ve decided to just not offer this position to an entry-level person anymore,” Achille says. “We’ve had some good college students come and work here in the past, but we just can’t afford to lose the productivity. It costs us money.”