Welcome to this month's Sparks newsletter! We wanted to keep you up to speed with what we are doing, plus cover off a range of things that are going on in the industry, or that we think may be of interest. We intend to keep it bite sized and are open to any suggestions on content you may want to see within it in the future.
Happy reading!
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Time to get our glad rags on...
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We’re delighted to have been shortlisted for the finals of the Recruitment Marketing Awards, in the ‘Recruitment Website (below £50k)’ category for whsmithcareers.co.uk.
In 2016, we developed a new employer brand for WHSmith, to help raise their profile with potential candidates and change perceptions of them as an employer. In-depth research led to us creating a series of potential brand territories that showcased the many positive aspects to a career with WHSmith. They chose the proposition ‘No Limits’ as it resonated well, reflecting the huge scope available for internal progression - At WHSmith, you’ve found a career with No Limits.
Our website design focused on bringing this message to life through employees’ stories, showing what a progressive and exciting organisation WHSmith are.
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We moved away from the corporate visual identity, towards a more fun, vibrant style. Fully mobile responsive, with an integrated ATS, on its launch in January this year, the site immediately generated some truly great results! We’re really proud that some senior industry bods have recognised the collective hard work that went into it. The ceremony will be taking place next month – so please keep everything crossed for us.
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You're Hired!
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83% of employers believe school leaver recruitment will overtake graduate activity in the next five years, as the Apprenticeship Levy introduced in April aims to fund another three million apprenticeships in the UK by 2020.
We’ve been looking at what the current apprenticeship landscape looks like, and what this might mean for some of our clients - and the findings were pretty interesting. Unsurprisingly, numbers are growing with almost 10,000 more apprenticeships started in 2015/2016 compared to the previous year. However, during this period 44% of people starting an apprentice scheme were aged 25 and over, a dramatic change since 2010.
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Whilst these figures are changing at speed, the perception of apprenticeships seems to be standing still, with over 30% of parents believing their children are ‘too smart’ to do an apprenticeship! And with more than a third of school leavers unsure about what they want to do, a lot will turn to their parents for advice.
Employers making the most of the Apprenticeship Levy will have to make sure their advertising is covering a range of new angles to reach all audiences, and deliver new insight and information to help break this historical apprenticeship stigma. For more information please get in touch.
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“We just need bums on seats”
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Sound familiar?
Recruiting doesn’t stop, and we know that resourcing teams are under constant pressure to deliver candidates, often in high volumes. There can be a perception that it’s the level of response that matters – we just need to get people through the door, right? Think again.
Even when working to quick turnarounds and limited budgets, it shouldn’t all be about the quantity, especially when there are plenty of ways of boosting quality. If your prospective talent pool is aware of your culture and values as an employer, they’re likely to make a more informed decision about whether you’re the business for them.
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By helping them to specifically choose you, they will be more aligned to your brand, and subsequently a better, more long-term fit. Equally, those that will never make the grade are more likely to de-select themselves from the outset. All in all, saving you time and resource throughout the process.
It’s about making sure your Employer Brand ethos is fed into your advertising at every touchpoint, from a simple job posting to an all singing all dancing creative campaign. Wherever and however you’re communicating with candidates, the key is to make sure they have enough consistent information about you and your values to make an informed decision, and that you keep that continuity in messaging right up until onboarding and beyond. This way, you might just have a better strategy on your hands, and better bums on those seats…
We’ve got bags of ideas and knowledge about how to develop and feed your Employer Brand into any advertising strategy so get in touch for a chat.
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