Global RPO: Hiring Engineers with Niche Skills for a Global Manufacturer in LATAM and Europe
A multinational automotive components manufacturer at the forefront of electric driving technology engaged PeopleScout for a full-cycle, multi-country Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) solution. To continue supplying automotive technology for millions of the world’s cars, they needed to source the next generation of engineering talent across 54 locations in 21 countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia.
100%New Hires Completed Ahead of Schedule
80%Candidate Submissions Invited to Interview
1300Applications Received for 150 Positions
Scope & Scale
A global automotive parts manufacturer partnered with PeopleScout to initially source 150 hires across locations in Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany and India as well as facilities in Latin America. They needed a global RPO provider who could handle sourcing for niche engineering roles in English, Polish, Spanish, Italian and Hungarian languages.
Challenge
As the client expanded manufacturing into new regions to support their global growth agenda, they turned to PeopleScout to partner with their in-house talent acquisition teams to drive their transformational change projects.
Hiring in Latin America had stagnated as the region became the go-to region for automotive manufacturing. With major car brands moving more of their operations into the region, competition for talent became more and more steep.
Meanwhile in Europe, a shortage of niche engineering skills was impacting operations in Poland. The talent war between organizations in the area hiring for similar roles was driving up salary expectations, but the manufacturer lacked the labor market data to make informed decisions to adjust their strategy.
Solution
Analyzing Labor Markets on Two Continents
Our Client Delivery team started by undertaking labor market and workforce analytics in each region. We worked with the client’s HR and operational teams to support their workforce strategy through a competitive analysis which led to recommendations on salary bands for each role and level of experience. For roles in Poland, we helped them explore the possibility of relocating new hires in order to widen their talent pool to other parts of the country where there was more access to experienced engineering professionals.
“PeopleScout has done a great job to support the project, showing high commitment and flexibility in this difficult and changing environment. We’ve had great collaboration together.”
Senior Director of Engineering
Sourcing Passive Candidates with Personalized Videos
Meanwhile, our multilingual teams in Bristol and Krakow began sourcing experienced Product Application Engineers in Latin America and across multiple European locations, as well as Design & Test Engineers in Poland.
Not satisfied with one outreach, we employed a different approach with candidates who were unresponsive after the first communication. Our recruiters created and sent personalized videos introducing themselves and the opportunity to the candidate. This personal touch drove higher engagement and interest from talent who hadn’t engaged initially.
Over 80% of applicants were identified via passive sourcing, with the remaining candidates coming from ongoing advertising campaigns across job boards and social media.
Leveraging Social Media to Boost Employer Brand Awareness
Through our Social Network Awareness Package (SNAP) we identified the best social channels to reach the manufacturer’s audience and created tailored posts, including imagery and headlines. We used this social media content to boost awareness of the client’s employer brand among relevant groups and individuals based on their locations, professional details and interests. Throughout each campaign, we provided a reporting dashboard and analyzed engagement which helped shape recruitment marketing activity going forward.
Testing Technical Skills with a Custom Assessment Center
These highly specialized engineers, regardless of region, needed to have a good command of English as well as technical aptitude. We assessed for both by designing and executing a technical testing program. Our assessors administered these exams virtually, freeing up hiring managers to focus on running their operations.
Once offers were made, our team continued to keep in contact with successful candidates during their notice periods and onboarding. We notified the client’s HR team of any potential concerns of dropouts, working together to mitigate risks.
Results
In just 10 months, we filled 100% of the manufacturer’s niche engineering headcount, including all openings in Poland—two months ahead of schedule. Our team reviewed over 1,300 applications and screened over 250 candidates, supporting hiring managers with initial phone screens, technical assessments and post-offer communications.
The hiring managers were thrilled with the quality of the candidates they saw, with over 80% of candidates put forward by our team being invited to interview.
Following this success, we expanded our engagement with the client to their India operation, taking over from local third-party agencies. This Recruiter on-Demand solution will support volume hiring challenges and drive cost savings.
“PeopleScout did really great work across hard-to-fill disciplines. We had a fantastic sense of partnership across the whole project.”
Global Head of Talent Acquisition
At a Glance
COMPANY Global automotive manufacturer
INDUSTRY Manufacturing
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Recruitment Process Outsourcing
ANNUAL HIRES 150+
LOCATIONS 21 countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia
Talent Assessment: Bringing in Better with Passion, Purpose & Mindset
Most employers are still using legacy assessment processes that are ineffective in today’s competitive recruitment landscape. With the cost of one bad hire reaching as high as $50,000, it’s imperative that organizations ensure they’ve assessed candidates’ current skills, future potential and cultural fit.
So, how can you adjust your assessment process to bring in talent that will support their business now and into the future? In this book, Talent Assessment: Bringing in Better with Passion, Purpose and Mindset, we explore how employers can rethink their assessments to hire talent that will thrive.
In this ebook you will learn:
Why assessing only for knowledge and skills puts you at risk
How investing in technology helped one retailer modernize their assessments and improve the candidate experience
How to customize your assessments to find the right passion, purpose and mindset
Supporting Service Members with Career Counseling for a Major Retail Chain
A major multinational retail chain partnered with PeopleScout to support its counseling program for transitioning members of the military, veterans, military spouses, and National Guard and Reserves who are looking to take the next step in their career.
Dedicated career coaches for all program participants
Customizable career paths for participants
Virtual intake meetings and ongoing calls
Situation
This retailer has partnered with PeopleScout since 2013 to support its veteran hiring initiatives. In 2013 when the program launched, veteran unemployment was higher than civilian unemployment. PeopleScout supported the client with direct placement, helping veterans honorably discharged on or after Memorial Day 2013 to find jobs at the retailer. The spouse component was added in 2018.
In 2019, while the veteran unemployment rate had dropped to just under 3%, the retailer was aware of the challenges that military service members were still facing when transitioning to civilian employment. The client wanted to reinvent the program to put an emphasis on career coaching and counseling for all service members to help them apply their leadership skills and teamwork experience to new careers.
Solution
The new program, which officially launched in May 2021, broadens the umbrella of the program to include veterans of any era and actively serving members of all branches of the military, military spouses, and National Guard and Reserves as well. It connects program participants to a plethora of resources from various organizations that have been vetted by the client.
When a new member registers for the program, PeopleScout assigns them a coach who helps facilitate the transition into civilian work. The PeopleScout coach schedules a virtual coaching session with the participant to perform an initial intake. This intake assesses skills, helps identify goals and determines the time commitment they can make to the program.
From there, participants confirm three paths: employment, education, or entrepreneurship.
EMPLOYMENT
PeopleScout career counselors help participants assess their strengths, build their resume and translate their military experience in a way that it applies to the civilian workplace. They also help service members and spouses find opportunities that match their career goals—whether that means employment with the retail client or another organization.
EDUCATION
PeopleScout coaches help participants get the educational foundation they need to reach their overall career goals.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
PeopleScout helps connect participants with the right resources to start their own businesses.
This emphasis on career counseling allows the participant to drive the program at their own pace and use their coach as much or as little as they like. Service members and spouses can take what they want from the program as they build their future.
Results
3,500+ registrants since program launch
At a Glance
COMPANY Multinational retailer
INDUSTRY Retail
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
ABOUT THE RETAILER This U.S.-based retailer operates in 24 countries with 2.3 million employees. The organization has a rich history of supporting and hiring veterans and their spouses.
At PeopleScout, we are committed to providing you with information to help guide you on your DE&I journey. We aim to cover a wide range of DE&I topics, including issues regarding BIPOC, the LGBTQ+ community, gender gaps, people with disabilities and more. This article is the next in our library of DE&I resources, and specifically focuses on the Hispanic and Latinx community.
In the U.S., National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 to October 15 to honor the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latinx Americans by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
And it’s no doubt their contributions have been great—especially in the workforce and to the economy. Consider the impact this group has had and will continue to have in the future:
Creators of Jobs Within the last decade, 86% of all new businesses in the U.S. have been launched by U.S. Latinos, with Latinas creating business six times faster than any other group.
Yet, organizations still lack Hispanic representation across all seniority levels. People of Hispanic or Latinx ethnicity make up 18% of the labor force but only 4.3% of executive positions in the U.S., making the gap between the labor force and executive representation wider among Hispanics than any other group.
So how can organizations do their part in closing this gap? Employers should make conscious efforts to attract and retain this diverse group of talent and provide them with opportunities for growth and development.
Understanding the Many Names of this Diverse Group
Before you can effectively attract candidates from Hispanic and Latinx backgrounds, it’s important to understand the terminology that identifies this unique group.
According to Pew Research Center, “the terms ‘Hispanic’ and ‘Latino’ are pan-ethnic terms meant to describe—and summarize—the population of people living in the U.S. of that ethnic background.”
Some have drawn distinctions between the two terms, and their widely used definitions can be summarized as the following:
Hispanic: A person residing in the U.S. with descent from Spanish-speaking countries (this excludes Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language).
Latino: A person of Latin American descent residing in the U.S. (this includes Brazil but excludes Spain).
However, this group has mixed views on how they prefer to describe their identity, with over half describing themselves by their country of origin.
In recent years, a new term has emerged as an alternative to Hispanic and Latino: Latinx. The term is one of many in the global movement around gender-neutral language. Latinx serves as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina and aims to encompass Latin American and Hispanic people from all racial backgrounds while also including those who identify as transgender, queer, agender, non-binary, gender non-conforming or gender fluid.
According to trend data from Google, the term first appeared online in 2004, but didn’t begin to gain momentum and wider usage until 2014. Today, it sees use around the world, most often in the U.S.
And much like the terms ‘Hispanic’ and ‘Latino’, surveys also reveal mixed feelings on ‘Latinx’ among the population it is meant to represent. Younger people, ages 18-29, are most likely to have heard of and use the term, while older people 65 and up are least likely. Specifically, use is the highest among young Hispanic women—14% say they use it, compared to the 1% of Hispanic men in the same age range. Here are other factors that impact how likely a U.S. Hispanic person is to have heard of Latinx and use the term:
Whether the term Latinx should be adopted as a pan-ethnic term for the U.S. Hispanic and Latino population is still up for debate, with one third of those who have heard the term believing it should be used more broadly, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
Like many scholars, journalists, activists and publications, PeopleScout will opt to use the term for the remainder of this article in an attempt to better include the many groups of people who make up the Latinx population.
Strategies to Recruit and Retain Hispanic and Latinx Candidates
If your organization is committed to improving its diversity, equity and inclusion practices, Latinx employees are a vital group to include in this initiative. Latinx individuals come from a wide variety of backgrounds, making the group extremely diverse in culture within itself. By including people from this group across your organization and in executive positions, your business will be better equipped to evolve and innovate as time goes on. Consider these strategies for recruiting and retaining Latinx candidates.
Recruit with Intention Employers need to be intentional in improving representation of Latinx employees in leadership and across the workforce. Make it a point to recruit from industries and universities that are highly diverse.
“If you do not have intentionality with diversity and inclusion, you have nothing.” – Cid Wilson, President and CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (via Invariant)
Utilize Employee Testimonials Show candidates that your organization is home to diverse talent by showcasing those employees in your recruitment marketing tactics. You can share their experiences working for your organization through quotes, videos, personal stories or recruiting case studies. It is especially important to highlight diverse talent from all levels of your business.
Expand Your Search When possible, it can be beneficial to expand your talent search nationwide, or even internationally as your organization allows. With the immense rise in remote work since the onset of the pandemic, many Latinx candidates will be looking to organizations with remote and flexible work options as they make the next move in their careers. Or, if your business requires in-person work, a competitive offer might have that top talent considering relocating for the position.
Leverage Employee Networks Look to your existing Latinx employees, as well as all employees, for diverse referrals. In addition, you should seek input from these employees on how to attract candidates with similar backgrounds, as well as hear their ideas for organizational change and goals. In other words, empower them to have a voice.
Provide Mentorship Even if your organization is highly diverse, any member of a minority group might feel excluded at times. By providing opportunities for mentorship both with individuals of the same background as well as those with different backgrounds, employees will feel more included. Encourage mentors to help employees meet their professional goals so they can grow within the organization.
How to Support Your Hispanic and Latinx Employees
Recruiting Latinx employees is the first step in improving diversity in your organization. The next is focusing on ways to make those employees feel supported and included.
For example, at PeopleScout and the broader TrueBlue organization, we have the Hispanic Opportunity & Latin Awareness (HOLA) employee resource group to embrace and support our Latinx employees and associates within the communities we serve. HOLA aims to increase cultural competency and awareness around Latinx issues and concerns throughout TrueBlue, support TrueBlue’s efforts to attract and retain the best Latinx talent and provide the development and support necessary for Latinx employees to grow both personally and professionally.
Here are examples of other companies with impressive initiatives to support their Latinx employees:
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola’s “Hispanic Leadership Business Resource Group” offers its Hispanic and Latinx employees development, networking, community involvement opportunities and helps the company drive innovative business ideas. In 2017, the group had an idea for a Point-of-Sale Spanish Adaptation Tool which allowed bilingual employees to submit their interpretation of Coca-Cola taglines and phrases in different Spanish dialects to avoid the phrases losing their meaning through literal translations.
Furthermore, the company showed their commitment to Hispanic and Latinx employees when there was uncertainty about Dreamers in the U.S. by covering the $500 DACA renewal fees for employees in the program.
Ellucian Ellucian, a software and solutions development company for higher education, gave employees a sense of belonging by celebrating their heritage. The company planned volunteer events, office potlucks celebrating Latinx and Hispanic culture, highlights of influential Hispanic Americans, and an Instagram takeover for Latinx employees to share their experiences working at Ellucian. The first takeover on the company’s Instagram account came from the leader of ¡wepa!, the company’s Latinx ERG.
General Motors General Motors, a vehicle manufacturing company, supports Hispanic employees from the very beginning by specifically targeting professional Hispanic organizations and Hispanic Serving Institutions as part of their recruiting strategy. The company focuses on raising the number of Hispanic professionals in STEM through their recruiting efforts and by providing over $5 million in scholarships for Hispanic STEM students.
Leidos When the defense, aviation, IT, and biomedical research company discovered that the Hispanic and Latinx community was being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 nationwide, they made it their priority to help. Leido’s Latinx ERG partnered with the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs in Washington, D.C. and Neighborhood Health in Alexandria, VA to donate more than 6,000 face masks and 1,500 bottles of hand sanitizer to help combat the spread of COVID-19 within Latinx communities in those areas.
You can find more examples of companies who prioritize their Hispanic and Latinx employees here.
Hispanic and Latinx Inclusion in the New World of Work
The new world of work is not just about where and how work is done, but it’s about the people who are doing the work. It’s a candidate’s market, and people will choose employers who care about their employees as people. In order to be truly successful, organizations must fully understand their workforce, starting with their employees’ diverse backgrounds and identities.
By understanding your underrepresented groups of people, like Hispanic and Latinx employees, consciously recruiting them, celebrating their heritage and investing in their growth, we’ll work our way toward a workforce with equal representation and strong inclusion of diverse groups across industries and at all levels of seniority.
HSE: How a Webinar Increased Applicants for Scientists
How do you persuade valued, highly sought-after scientists to move jobs in this market? By providing an opportunity to engage with the employer and understand the work and culture—before applying.
Increased Awareness of HSE and This Niche Division Within It
55Questions Submitted to Help Inform Candidates
70%of Attendees More Likely to Apply Since the Webinar
The Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is regulatory science at its best. Work here is forward-thinking, strategic and connected to decisions made by both the UK Government and large-scale business.
In undergoing significant change, our client was evolving and working hard to meet the challenges ahead. This required the recruitment of a significant number of scientists to help ensure the safe and sustainable use of chemicals. This is science with a scale, scope and influence few organizations can match.
Situation
The vacancies were based in Bootle and York and market mapping was undertaken into the number of suitable candidates with the relevant skills and qualifications for these roles. This highlighted the scarcity of candidates available. In addition, there was the challenge of how to engage with the target audience and give them the insight and opportunity to better understand the organization, the vital work they undertake and the opportunities for career development. A recent national study found the number one question from candidates is, “What’s it like to work there?”
Solution
With this in mind, we devised and developed a webinar to introduce the work of the CRD. The webinar featured a panel of existing employees, giving the participants an opportunity to hear first-hand what the job would entail. Alongside this we offered a live Q&A so that each person could ask questions. The webinar brought the organization to life and painted a picture of what it would be like to work there.
Results
The webinar significantly increased awareness of HSE and the niche division within it. The attendees were able to view the webinar remotely and on-demand. During the Q&A, 55 questions were submitted. These filled the information gap for candidates and gave them insight as to how they would fit in. As a result, 70% of attendees said they are more likely to apply since attending the webinar.
At a Glance
COMPANY Health & Safety Executive (HSE)
INDUSTRY Government & Public Sector
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
ABOUT HSE The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is a independent regulator in the UK responsible for work-related health, safety and illness.
What’s more, the recruitment marketing ecosystem is evolving at an accelerated pace. Tactics that worked in years past may no longer move the needle with candidates. So, how can employers better attract, engage, entice and hire top talent? In this ebook, Recruitment Marketing – How to Stand Apart in the Battle for Great Talent, we explore how employers can build a world-class recruitment marketing program.
In this ebook you will learn:
Establishing your brand narrative as a north star
Building authenticity and trust with your employees’ voice
Connect to talent with data-driven insights
Differentiating your brand through human experience
Cut through the noise and get the attention of top talent with a recruitment marketing program, including programmatic advertising, nurture campaigns, social media and content marketing.
Download this fact sheet to learn how PeopleScout’s recruitment marketing solutions can help you attract the talent you need.
Our latest research shows a detailed picture of the current state of skills in the global workforce and how HR leaders are preparing for the impending skills crisis
Sainsbury’s: Transforming a Traditional Retail Role with Recruitment Marketing
As customer experience becomes the battleground for retail differentiation, Sainsbury’s turned to PeopleScout to help them hire the next generation of store managers.
19,000Applications Received in First 12 Weeks, Beating our Target by 171%
4,500 Hires Made, Exceeding the Target of 2,400
1MCandidate Engagements
Shopping habits have changed. And in the highly competitive UK retail sector, customer experience can make or break results for retailers. To capitalize on this, Sainsbury’s, one the UK’s big five supermarkets, decided to transform one of its traditional roles—and reimagine store management in the process.
Their goal? To create a simpler, more rewarding experience for staff and customers alike. Sainsbury’s wanted to replace the traditional role of retail store manager with a new role, Customer & Trading Manager.
This new role gave managers the freedom to get out of the weeds and really lead teams—creating a new era of retail management. This required new skills and a different mindset. Some of their retail professionals would be able to transition into these new roles but some wouldn’t have what it takes. So Sainsbury’s turned to PeopleScout to help them attract new talent from the outside.
Turning Negatives into Positives
From the start, we faced some significant challenges:
The role was entirely new to the market, so we had to explain the new, unfamiliar employment proposition clearly to audiences both inside and outside of retail.
The role of retail manager had an image problem. It was seen as a transactional role that often saw you stuck on the registers.
The media was confusing the issue. We needed to counteract several misleading, negative reports of large-scale retail redundancies.
Sainsbury’s considered this to be one of their biggest recruitment challenges. They asked us to challenge and overturn negative public perceptions of retail management, introduce an entirely new type of role and hire 2,400 managers, from 24,000 applicants—in just six months.
The Core Message
First, we took apart the job profile to challenge the requirements. It was clear that the single most motivating benefit of the role was the potential to be a leader and to get the very best from a team. This suggested that the best candidates for this new type of retail role didn’t necessarily need retail experience.
We wanted to reconnect people with the emotional core of what’s great about management. It meant presenting the role—and Sainsbury’s—in a new light. So, we stripped away the language associated with the day-to-day tasks and instead put the focus back on employees as people.
We developed an overarching campaign message, Leading Starts Here, to clearly state our employment offer.
And to bring it to life, we used the following concept as our organizing thought: We all need someone to inspire us.
This universal, relatable truth was what used to capture the moving stories of individuals who have overcome huge obstacles—everything from low self-esteem to disability—with the help of inspirational leaders.
Making it Authenitic
Video was our chosen vehicle. Our diverse cast reflected Sainsbury’s approach as an inclusive employer and included people from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, people with common mental health issues and people with disabilities. While some of the responses were scripted, the strongest were spontaneous reactions to the simple prompt, tell me about someone who inspired you.
The campaign featured a blended approach of active and passive channels on- and offline:
Active channels included Indeed and a wide variety of other job boards as well as Google Search and Google Display Network.
Passive channels included billboards in key locations near major offices, newspapers, social media and other online destinations.
We used geo-location and behavioral targeting on search and social media to put our videos in front of audiences across the hospitality, travel, cabin crew, leisure and care industries.
We created 69 individual pieces of artwork, a campaign landing page with the hero video and an in-store toolkit, which included pull-up banners, poaching cards, posters, leaflets and stickers —everything a store needed to amplify the campaign.
The Results
Less than 10:1 application-to-hire ratio of high quality candidates.
Over 19,000 applications received in first 12 weeks (beating our target by 171%).
4,500 hires made, exceeding the target of 2,400.
69 content pieces produced.
£71 attraction-cost-per-hire achieved.
Close to 1 MILLION people engaged with the brand as part of the campaign.
After 12 weeks, the campaign had generated 376,986 clicks across online paid media. This has been achieved at an average cost per click of just £0.59.
The core film has been played 462,168 times and counting, receiving extremely positive feedback, praising its inclusive message.
At a Glance
COMPANY Sainsbury’s
INDUSTRY Retail
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
LOCATIONS 600+ supermarkets across the UK
About Sainsbury’s Sainsbury’s in the second largest supermarket chain in the UK. Their focus is to bring high quality food and household goods to consumers in-store and online, supported by their brands, Argos, Habitat, Tu, Nectar and Sainsbury’s Bank.
Vodafone: Overcoming a Powerful Consumer Brand in Graduate Recruitment
To overcome misperceptions about their mission, Vodafone engaged PeopleScout for employer branding and a recruitment marketing campaign to support its early careers recruitment program.
16,000 Applications Received, Beating our Target by 60%
23%Increase in the Numbers of Female Candidates
27Places Jumped on the Times Top 100 Rankings
Counterintuitive as it sounds, strong consumer brands can hinder recruitment. Applicants can get an idea of what to expect that doesn’t match the reality of the careers experience being offered. This was the case with Vodafone. For consumers, the organization is a high-profile mobile phone retailer. But, behind that perception sits a multifaceted tech innovator with a mission to make the future world a better place.
In order to achieve this, Vodafone turned to PeopleScout to help it become a youth employer of choice, because changing the future meant gaining the buy-in of those who would be influential within it for years to come.
Research
As part of our research phase, we took a deep dive into Vodafone’s future jobs strategy. The client wanted to overcome high levels of youth unemployment by providing up to 100,000 young people with a digital workplace experience at Vodafone. Plus, given that one-in-five young people say they feel under-prepared for the digital economy, the business set another ambitious goal to support 10 million young people with access to digital skills, learning and employment opportunities.
So, how could Vodafone attract Millennials, Gen Z and beyond? These generations are big achievers whose ambitions soar higher than working in mobile phone retail. We needed an attraction strategy and recruitment marketing campaign that changed their audience’s perceptions about Vodafone and all the different kinds of careers—and impacts—they could make there.
The Brief
Vodafone asked us to create a campaign that would spark conversations and stand out as part of their instantly recognizable brand. They needed to generate 10,000 applications to fill 150 graduate roles and 100 intern/industrial student placements across the business. Plus, the overarching goal was to change misperceptions of Vodafone, showing it as a major tech company, not a retailer, and build its reputation as a youth employer of choice. Importantly, we were asked to reach a more diverse audience and increase female applications.
Audience Insights
Of our target audience, 90.4% regularly used social media. On top of this, 91% of all social media users access channels via mobile. So, we developed a mobile-first, social media friendly campaign. Further research revealed that many students with the right background and personal qualifications were put off from applying due to a lack of confidence. So, we needed a message that was bold, relatable and empowering.
Just as important as the audience insights were the strategic considerations. Candidates are also customers. When buying products, they expect a streamlined, user-friendly, friction-free process, and they had the same expectation when making career decisions. So, we made every touchpoint (especially the application) as slick and easy as possible.
No contemporary attraction approach can be just about advertising. Long-term connections are far more powerful. So, central to our strategy was to set Vodafone up to engage in conversations and initiatives with high-potential university students throughout their full university lifecycle. In short, the strategy was to start on day one, not year three.
The Core Message
Our message, #GenerationPossible, aimed to capture the spirit of change and possibility and draw on the opportunity young people have to make an impact on the world for the better. Our visual approach used photography that reflected our target audience combined with bold headline statements.
Social media and career site content featured current grads and interns sharing their advice for the next generation of Vodafone employees, with a #GenerationPossible video at the heart of this campaign. Our six-month social media strategy for mobile consisted of 104 social posts with 20 mini-videos/GIFs. We posted, tracked and analyzed this content on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Get to Know Us Videos
Our research had identified that our target audience felt like they weren’t good enough or lacked the skills to take on these roles. So, we created a series of videos featuring current Vodafone graduate recruits and interns. Filmed in and around Vodafone’s main campus, these videos gave real-life insights into what they could expect when it came to work, wellbeing, social responsibility, innovation, the assessment center and the interview process.
Campus Events
Away from social media, we built a series of 41 on-campus events to connect students directly with Vodafone employees. We carefully chose our campuses based on those with the highest female-to-male ratios for tech degrees, as a way to help us drive up female applications.
Results
The campaign comfortably exceeded Vodafone’s expectations.
We generated over 16,000 applications – beating our target by 60%.
We increased the number of female candidates by 23%.
We increased Instagram impressions by 89.3% (post-campaign vs. pre-campaign).
We saw 1.5 million Facebook impressions.
We gained 6.8 million impressions on organic posts on LinkedIn.
We created a hyper-targeted paid Facebook campaign which produced 390,510 impressions and 2,541 clicks – all from the target audience.
These numbers are backed up by audience sentiment. We improved Vodafone’s reputation as an employer significantly, jumping 27 places in the Times Top 100 rankings. As a result of its success, Vodafone asked us to develop the concept for their apprentice campaign audience and roll it out through a new assessment process design.
At a Glance
COMPANY Vodafone
INDUSTRY Telecomms
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
ABOUT VODAFONE Vodafone is a British multinational telecommunications company. They provide connectivity and digital services for over 300 million people to work, learn, stay in touch with friends and family, access healthcare and more.
NCA: Reaching Investigators Through Targeted Recruitment Marketing
The National Crime Agency (NCA) turned to PeopleScout for a recruitment marketing campaign to help them stand out in their search for crime fighting investigators.
15,703Applicants Across 143 Roles
225Job Offers Extended
800+Candidates in a Talent Pool for Future Openings
The National Crime Agency is responsible for leading the UK’s fight to cut serious and organized crime. The agency’s focus is on the big threats—targeting and pursuing serious and organized crime and criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK. The work is hugely complex, high-level and large scale. Officers operate at the forefront of law enforcement, building intelligence, pursuing the most serious and dangerous offenders and developing and delivering specialist capabilities for partner organizations.
It could have been an impressive proposition for the 1,500 investigators and other professionals the NCA wanted to recruit. But the NCA was competing with MI5, MI6, GCHQ and police forces for this talent. The intelligence organizations could be considered “sexier” brands. The police forces are better known and understood.
The NCA had been flying under the radar and needed to arrive on the scene with a bang. They turned to PeopleScout for a confident, attention-grabbing campaign to put their employer brand front-of-mind for their target audience.
Key Research
We conducted wide-ranging qualitative interviews and focus groups with key people across the agency in order to really get under the skin of the human experience of working there.
The key insights were:
When NCA investigators succeed the impact is huge and far-reaching. The criminal activity they stop covers everything from child sexual abuse to illegal firearms trafficking, cyber crime, kidnapping and extortion. The police, by contrast, have to deal with everything from shoplifting upwards.
A lot of the criminals the NCA targets feel they are untouchable. It’s very exciting to prove they are not.
The work is exciting, and we shouldn’t underplay that.
Investigators are often serving police officers or have strong links to policing. They rarely engage with usual recruitment channels, so we needed to think differently.
The agency saw location as key—they were keen to recruit candidates close to the locations of their regional offices.
The Core Message
To work in crowded streets and packed transit stations, our campaign needed to have immediate visual impact. The NCA hunts the big fish of the criminal world. So, we chose the shark as a perfect visual metaphor to illustrate the level of criminality the agency handles; it’s the ultimate hidden predator with a fin that creates an emotional reaction.
Our visuals show a huge shark fin bursting through the ground, towering over well-known landmarks and wreaking havoc in recognizable, urban UK locations in London and Manchester. Each visual represented the scale of damage caused by high-level crime, while storm clouds provided a suitable dark and menacing backdrop. These visuals were complemented with a simple message: No predator too big.
Media Strategy
We focused the recruitment campaign on outdoor media to reach the widest possible audience in our target areas. We identified outdoor locations that serve police officers on their daily commute—for example, Manchester Piccadilly station and the Metro line to Greater Manchester Police HQ—in addition to specialist online media.
The Results
We rolled out the campaign for digital, data, tech and specialist firearms audiences. The results were very impressive:
29,684 candidates to the NCA landing page. 15,703 applications across 143 roles. 2,228 candidates invited to interview. 225 job offers. 825 held in talent pool awaiting job offers.
This was a hugely successful campaign which drove a large number of applications. We exceeded NCA’s expectations, raised awareness of the NCA as an alternative employer for serving police officers and improved perceptions of the NCA as an employer with a unique offering.
At a Glance
COMPANY National Crime Agency (NCA)
INDUSTRY Government & Public Sector
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
LOCATIONS Regional offices in the UK’s urban centers
About NCA The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the UK focused on fighting organized crime, trafficking, cybercrime and fraud.
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