NCR celebrates award-winning intern and early career program with UGA, GSU, NACE, WayUp and Yello

In the 2020-2021 school year, we welcomed more than 400 university new hires and interns to our North America (NAMER) offices. These students were entering the corporate world after enduring one of their most difficult school years ever. They had to navigate a global pandemic and virtual learning environment while trying to define their career goals and secure jobs.  

For nearly five years, the NAMER University Recruitment (UR) team has developed new-hire and internship programs for providing students and recent graduates with  authentic and holistic work experience, as well as networking opportunities. These include engagement with employees, executive leaders and  programmatic involvement with topics such as building work relationships, overcoming the fear of failure and the importance of work-life balance.  

CEO Mike Hayford celebrates the team that helps recruit our incredible university hires and interns. “The University Relations program we have at NCR is world-class - from an internship program that, in my opinion, could be the best-run program in the technology industry, to full-time university hiring which truly impacts our bottom line at NCR. Most impressive of all is the NCR brand reputation the UR team has built on the campuses of the universities where we recruit,” Hayford says. 

Our program focus hasn’t changed, even as the world has. For the 2020-2021 recruiting class, the NCR NAMER UR team had to quickly pivot from primarily on-campus to virtual engagement. NCR prioritizes local universities in a tiered system, so even virtually, NCR UR built on partnerships, brand recognition and previous student connections to have strong and impactful new student interactions. Additionally, the team dedicated time to learn new technologies, mapping out internal strategies for maximum on-screen,off-campus engagement. 

Even facing the challenges of the pandemic, the NAMER University Recruitment (UR) Program has continued to prioritize student interaction, on-site or onscreen. In the 2020-2021 school year, NCR was recognized as the: 

• ​Top 25 Employer for the class of 2020 from the University of Georgia – for the third year in a row  
• 2021 Honorable Mention distinction in Recruiting Excellence by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) – the third distinction for NCR in three years   
• 2021 Top 100 Internship Program by WayUp – for the third year in a row
• 2021 Best Hiring Practices for Full-Time Employees by Georgia State University  
• 2021 Early Talent Recruiting Award for Excellence in Virtual Transformation by Yello, a talent acquisition software company  

Our success as a company and in the community is dependent on the skills and leadership of talented employees bringing new ideas to fuel our innovation. Throughout our 130+ year history, NCR has always had strong university connections and community connections.

From recruiting new graduates to creating top-tier internship and co-op programs, NCR’s UR team has one word in mind – GROWTH. And that growth is expected to continue into the next year for both full-time and internship opportunities.

More information on NCR’s 2020-2021 Recognition 

​​Read more here about how NCR is the Top 25 Employer for the class of 2020 from the University of Georgia. 

This is the third year NACE has recognized NCR for our recruitment efforts:  

• 2021 Honorable Mention distinction in Recruiting Excellence to our NAMER UR team 
• 2020 Employer Recruiting Champion award to CEO Mike Hayford. Mike made both the university recruitment (UR) internship and full-time hire programs part of NCR’s goals in 2019 and was invested in the success of each program. In 2021, Mike Hayford’s leadership and the dedication of our University Hiring Team inspired NACE to present NCR with the 2021 Honorable Mention distinction in Recruiting Excellence. 
• 2019 Members Choice award to University Recruitment Lead Tony Burdett. Tony has helped NCR make an impact on the students and colleges in the greater Atlanta area by staying focused on improving engagement, developing strong relationships and offering valuable career opportunities. 

For the third year in a row, WayUp has recognized NCR as one of the top-100 internship programs in the United States. Read more about this accolade and how internships give students a “headstart to their careers” in Forbes.

Read more here about how NCR won the 2021 Early Talent Recruiting Award for Excellence in Virtual Transformation by Yello, a talent acquisition software company. We were recognized for our innovative use of technology to transform our internship program in 2020 amidst a pandemic, resulting in return offers hitting 90%! And we are in good company – also recognized this year was EY US and Credit Suisse.  

Thank you to our NAMER University hiring team (Tony Burdett, Valerie Byrnes, Sparkle Hodge, Jamie Hicks), who not only maintained program continuity, but went above and beyond in the university recruiting process this year.