Organization benefits from co-op students to build pipeline of future talents and increase retention rates.
Hiring coop students can bring new perspectives to your teams. It can provide 'the world's greatest interview' by allowing an employer to see first hand how a student learns, performs, and fits into the company culture. This will allow you to evaluate if the student would be someone you'd like to hire as a permanent employee. In other words, by leveraging a co-op program you can build a pipeline of future talent. This will help save a company time and money, by minimizing costs associated with advertising the role(s), interview time, as well as training and onboarding efforts, given that the coop/WIL graduate will already be familiar with the company. Additionally, by hiring co-op students, you may increase your employee retention rate as the students you hire will already have worked with you and therefore are well informed about what the job entails. They will feel comfortable with the people and culture they will be working with. Finally, by hiring a co-op student for a work term you are allowing your staff to build their leadership skills, which in turn can help in a succession strategy as you prepare your next leaders.