Recruitment Marketing Client Showcase: the Ministry of Education
In my role as the Recruitment Marketing Consultant at Madison, I have worked on a number of large scale recruitment projects to create and deliver effective recruitment marketing strategies for our clients. The goal is always to enhance the volume and quality of applicants for our roles, while ensuring the best possible candidate experience…a happy client and happy candidate makes for a happy Marketing Consultant!
In May this year we embarked on (and are still working through) a significant piece of work with the Ministry of Education. The challenge was set: To find the cream of the crop in New Zealand to join the Ministry as part of a new leadership structure, within their Capital Works division. So, we started looking for Senior Project and Delivery Managers whose key responsibilities include building New Zealand’s schools for the future – literally, the future of our children’s education will be in their hands…no pressure then!
The message:
We identified the need to deliver the right message to attract the right people to apply. We wanted to create a message that was attractive to people with the relevant experience and, importantly, those with a genuine passion for the future of education in New Zealand. ‘Come and work for the Ministry of Education’ was simply not going to cut it for this campaign.
Our messaging focused on the candidate’s personal motivators. It included targeting their desire to contribute towards the future of New Zealand education, and building a better future for our schools, combined with a drive for results and achievement.
Be seen! Here we are! Look at us!!
The first step was to map out the potential channels and platforms that our target audience might access. We focused on reaching both active and passive job seekers, using a multi-channel approach that included online, print, social and direct approaches via referrals, and market maps. The aim was to serve our advert to our target audience, through multiple touch points and a variety of channels.
Think of any adverts that stick in your mind, I guarantee you have seen, or heard them more than once. This is what is we are striving to achieve with our campaign. For example, our ideal candidate would see the advertisement in the morning after receiving a SEEK in-mail. While perusing ‘Building Today’ or reviewing the Property Council newsletter in their lunch break—something our target candidates were likely to do—they would see another advertisement. Finally, scrolling through Stuff.co.nz on their mobile during their evening bus trip home, they will be served a banner advertisement, reinforcing their early views.
Deliver the information
Once a potential candidate clicked on the link to find out more, we wanted to provide them with as much information as possible. We wanted them to visualise themselves doing the job, before they even applied. Experience tells us that if a candidate can self-match against a role or self-select out, we are more likely to get quality applications.
To achieve this, we created a Microsite linked to the Madison website. The Capital Works Microsite profiles all of the roles we are recruiting. It provides job overviews, links to position descriptions and two videos; I am a huge fan of using video in marketing! The 1st video on the landing page profiles the Ministry of Education Capital Works team as a career choice, and the 2nd video shows informal interview style content with two employees who actually do the jobs we are recruiting for; this is imbedded in the specific job overview tabs. In the 2nd video, the employees describe their day-to-day activities, and provide the audience with a comprehensive understanding of the role, thereby creating a personal connection with the candidate.
Part of the team
Key to the success of this campaign so far, is the marketing team’s integration with the recruitment delivery team. By speaking directly with the coordinating manager at the Ministry of Education, and joining weekly project meetings, marketing has full visibility of any changes that need to be made to the campaign.
Recruitment Marketing is not an exact science, regular feedback and tweaking of any campaign is essential to make sure we continue to draw the right people in to apply.
An evolving campaign
We are still in the process of recruiting these roles so we can’t yet give you the full results, but so far, so good. We have received some great feedback from the Ministry of Education and from our candidates—they love having access to more information in one place. Most importantly, we have identified some fantastic talent across New Zealand to work for this very special client.
The link to the microsite is: www.madison.co.nz/capitalworks
We are still actively recruiting:
- Construction Observers
- Assistant – Project Delivery Managers
- Contract – Construction Project Delivery Managers
- Senior Construction Project Delivery Managers
- Programme Managers
We would love to hear your feedback, and of course if you do know of anyone that would be interested in any of the above roles, please let us know!
