[Photo:  CCG-Catalyst.com]

Deutsche Bank is resorted to social media feeds such as Twitter and LinkedIn to find promising U.K. millennials who could be persuaded to consider a career in finance. The Financial Times reports that the bank recently launched a program to monitor the online activity of university students to identify those who might be a good fit for the bank but would not apply through traditional channels such as on-campus recruitment drives.

In the first 2 weeks of the initiative in late November, a special team at the bank identified 250 potential hires, who were then encouraged to take part in the bank’s U.K. graduate recruitment program.

Deutsche turned to the scheme following a decline in the popularity of banking among top graduates and a recognition among executives that broader skills and experience could benefit banks by producing a staff more adept at challenging existing practices and innovating.

The bank started out by looking at students in certain clubs and societies, and followed that by using publicly available social media to build a profile of students it would like to target, similar to the digital headhunting that is common for hiring experienced professionals.

Deutsche Bank initiated the program in London and will follow up with launches in the U.S. and Asia.