The Situation
One of Guidant Global's long-standing and biggest UK clients is a manufacturer and global brand who needed to keep pace with a full order book and unprecedented demand for its world-class industrial machinery products. Over a 12month period, Guidant Global was asked to transform them into an employer of choice through the development and refinement of their contingent employee value proposition (EVP) and hire to more than 3,000 temporary workers to support their production line operations.
A hugely competitive local employment market, coupled with, Covid-19 related absences, Brexit realities, increasing salary pressures and an ageing population meant that the Guidant Global’s talent marketing team had to employ new and creative ways of delivering the volume and quality of talent the client needed to keep their operations on track during an unprecedented period of demand.
The Challenge
Like most companies, the client struggled to attract talent in a post-Covid restrictions context. Faced with competition from other manufacturers also trying to get back to full steam, as well as finding themselves also competing with other industries which previously had not been a threat, the tried and tested methods of tapping into traditional talent pools were not delivering the results they once had.
As a result, Guidant Global’s challenge was to help them reposition their brand and open the doors to a broader range of talent, particularly with a view to encouraging more female hires.
The Solution
The expertise of our dedicated talent marketing team was fundamental to the success of the client’s direct sourcing delivery model. Working in close partnership with the client and our on-site team, our talent marketing team:
- conducted extensive competitor research and rate benchmarking to inform and guide the client’s reward and benefits strategy
- developed a female attraction strategy to drive gender inclusion within a traditionally male dominated industrial workforce and challenging perceptions by showcasing a diverse range of women at various stages of their potential career with the client
- improved the candidate application process through the creation of creative campaign landing pages and a streamlined, chatbot-enabled application process, and new compelling on-boarding and worker engagement materials
- adopted a storytelling, worker advocacy approach, driving positive perceptions of the employer’s brand in the local market. All stories and video content were hosted on a featured employer website page, designed to position the client as an inclusive and welcoming employer
- undertook public relations activities to reinforce this positive messaging coupled with extensive use of social media channels as part of a fully integrated recruitment marketing strategy
- worked in partnership with local third parties including Job Centres to drive awareness and hosted multiple recruitment days at the client’s premises
The Finer Details
This project meant we needed to employ a strategy that would transform the candidate application journey, not just in terms of making it easy for the candidates to apply, but also to do the ‘heavy lifting’ of the screening process.
To achieve this, we implemented chatbot technology from Leadoo at the front end of the application process, created with different chat flows for different roles. This ensured the user journey was smooth and simple, while collecting relevant data our recruiters needed to validate candidate eligibility. Previously, any questions would have formed the basis of a time-consuming phone call to each candidate. Now they’re captured through embedded chatbot technology, which candidates describe as “super quick and really simple to use.”
In addition, we also linked a self-service calendar to the chatbot, allowing users who met the criteria to book an assessment date on-site, on a date and time that suited them. This offered greater flexibility to prospective hires, but also meant that our recruitment team were not using their time to schedule and send invites to people manually, saving vital staff-hours for our recruiters allowing them to focus solely on the candidate’s on-site experience.
Crucially, this chatbot was embedded on a purpose-built landing page, and was added as the application route from every source. Whichever channel a candidate saw the job, whether it was on a job board, a scanned QR code or on a social media advert, it would always direct them to this autonomous application journey.
In response to this revised approach, the client’s resourcing manager said: “Guidant Global’s expertise has been essential in supporting our recruitment and has helped inform the decisions we’ve made. We’ve worked closely with them to design and deliver new advertising, and we’ve created several firsts together – including employee blogs and videos.”
The Result
Perhaps one of the most important things this campaign has achieved is not simply that it delivered the high volume of contingent staff needed to achieve manufacturing targets, but that it tapped into the idea that the business success was the sum of all its parts and that every person on the production line had a valuable role to play in creating an iconic product.
For example, the total hires of 329 women out of a total of 3,360 placements - some of whom have gone on to become permanent employees, including taking senior leadership roles in assembly. Also, in terms of ad performance, in just one two-week campaign targeted at women on Facebook we generated over 500 clicks as well as crafting the language and images used, ensuring it was appealing to women.
That sense of belonging and teamwork was highlighted by the stories of the workers - we told that story by showcasing strong women, forging careers in manufacturing in what might still be considered by many to be a male-dominated industry. We highlighted opportunities for young people to join the business and begin their career journey in an environment where they could develop new skills and flourish. We also put the spotlight on people changing careers later in life, showing that age needn’t be considered a barrier to re-training and starting over in a new industry.
With this thread running through recruitment campaigns, we asked people to ‘take [their] place’ in a campaign that had inclusion and belonging at its core.
The Future
The work on this campaign has transformed the way we approach our attraction strategies for the client. Where previously we had relied more on traditional channels to drive traffic and applications with a job advert, we’ve now moved towards employee advocacy and storytelling to promote their opportunities.
We’ve seen the benefits of showcasing the stories of the workers who do these jobs and built an advertising narrative that allows prospective candidates to get a true understanding of a role through the eyes of someone already doing that job.
Whether through blog content, video testimonials or promoting the scope of opportunities through PR content in the local and national press, we have created an omni channel approach that has now become our route to market.
While men still account for approximately 61% of all online campaign click throughs, it’s encouraging to see that women, previously much harder to reach, now representing almost 40%. We’re continuing to source new and interesting testimonials and stories from workers, to ensure that we can continue to promote fresh content which puts a spotlight on the diversity of the workforce.
About us
At Guidant Global we champion a smart, creative approach to talent management — with our clients, suppliers, candidates and each other. A people-led business, we focus on delivering solutions for clients that have diversity and inclusion at their heart. Our consultative efforts ensure that our customers’ brands are authentic and driven by the stories of the real people who work there. By harnessing the experiences of employees themselves, we truly feel we can build meaningful campaigns that stand out against much of the smoke and mirrors often associated with recruitment marketing advertising, while also still being aspirational and exciting.
We want the best talent for our clients, and we want that talent to come from all walks of life. That’s why we strive to make sure that our advertising represents people from different ethnicities, genders, age groups and abilities. Our approach to recruitment marketing is one that removes barriers for people – we want them to see themselves in a role; not just to be told they can do a job but to see someone that looks like them doing it. Our portfolio of long-standing clients is testament to the work we do to secure pipelines of emerging and diverse talent, allowing our customers to benefit from the values that underpin our own company. What truly sets us apart is our commitment to this vision and working closely with our clients to make it a reality in the recruitment space.
