There are a host of reasons why the on-campus experience leads to attracting better talent, finding hidden talent, and, perhaps most importantly, hiring talented graduates that like insurance and will stay once they are hired. These reasons are important to understand but I'll save that discussion for another time. For now, let me just give you some ideas on how you can interact with universities. I will be talking more about each of these ideas in the coming weeks, but for now I will just give an overview.

First, it's important to build a brand as an employer. Organizations often assume that their strong consumer brand image automatically transfers to employment prospects. It may help with general awareness, but they need to be doing more to build a brand as an employer. The good thing is that a smaller employer can compete with the larger well-known national brands when it comes to brand awareness of prospective college hires.

Some of the things organizations can do is to find connections with student organizations and events, especially social events, that they can sponsor. For a few hundred dollars, an organization can host an event for a student organization that attracts the best students. Student organizations have some real overachievers and these are the people you want to court.

You can really beef up that presence with a scholarship. A lot of times, organizations think that they have to contribute tens of thousands of dollars when, in fact, it is perfectly acceptable to provide a $1,000 scholarship. In following blog posts, I will talk about how to establish criteria for a scholarship.

Look for champions in the university that interact with students, and make sure that you seek their advice on how to communicate to students. There are usually career centers on campus, and these should not be overlooked. However, they usually don't have the strong relationship with students that faculty, internship coordinators, academic advisors, and others might have. There may not be an equivalent to a Katie School on campus, but there are always people who have strong relationships with students and want what is best for them. Cultivate those people and make sure that they know the benefits your organization can provide to students, either as interns or new hires.

Another great strategy is to offer internship possibilities to students, especially in the summer months. You get to see how they perform, and they get to test drive your organization. To be competitive, they usually need to be paid internships, unless they are unusually interesting. The tasks interns perform should give them a good feel for the kind of work they would be doing if they worked for your organization after graduation.

After you have met your campus champion, you will know where you can plug into campus. These might be classroom presentations on specific industry topics, company/student golf outings, pizza lunch-and-learns, or meet-the-company socials at athletic events. Make sure to have a mix of young recent hires along with more senior people. This mix not only gives them an idea of the kind of young people they will be working with but also sends a signal that management cares about investing in the next generation.

So if you want to get the best and the brightest, get out of the office and get back to school.