Brand new world

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In the old days, recruitment used to be so easy. If you needed staff you simply placed an advertisement in The Irish Times stating which positions needed filling, the qualifications required for the job, duties and responsibilities and perhaps a little snippet about the company. 

While this is still the usual practice in most European countries, recruitment advertising in Ireland has become much more creative over the last few years. This is due in part to developments in graphic design which allows for greater creativity in advertising and also because ad rates are considerably cheaper in Ireland than elsewhere. But a far greater reason for the development is that the recruitment market has become increasingly competitive over the last five years as more companies battle it out with each other for employees.

Overwhelming
Pick up any newspaper these days and you’ll be overwhelmed with stylish adverts that are aimed at persuading individuals to move company. It’s no longer enough to place a plain black and white recruitment ad in the Indo and hope for the best. Corporate branding has become such an essential ingredient in recruitment advertising, that many organisations now deem it to be as important as consumer advertising. However unlike consumer advertising, recruitment ads need to reflect company culture. They must show the advantages of working for your company, rather than your opponents.

Liam Holland, advertising sales manager of The Irish Times, which hosts the annual Creative and Effective Design in Advertising for Recruitment awards says that recruitment adverts usually contain a number of messages that are aimed at different audiences, these include applicants, current employees, general consumers and the local community. 

Holland suggests that companies need to create recruitment advertisements that not only show that they are progressive employers, but are also concerned with making people’s lives better. He cites a full-page colour advertisement campaign taken by Intel, when it first opened in Leixlip. The ad focused on the fact that the company were re-introducing Rainbow Trout to the River Rye. ‘Rather than overtly advertising for new employees, the advertisement showed that Intel were not only a good employer, but also a company that contributed to the local environment,’ says Holland. 

Standing out
In a busy marketplace, branding can help you stand out from the crowd. A good brand creates a positive first impression about your company and enables you to tell your audience about the company and its culture. As Charlaine Butler, account director for recruitment advertising with the EURO RSCG agency says: ‘Branding is very important when it comes to recruitment advertising because you’re attempting to attract quality candidates that will want to stay with your company. Since the boom started in Ireland there’s been a significant growth in branded advertisements because with the arrival of large international companies into the country, there’s more competition and more of a need to stand out from the crowd.’ 

Rather than simply listing details about particular positions as was done in the past, recruitment advertisements now tend to focus on delivering concepts to potential applicants. ‘Branding is about enticing candidates to move from one employer to another and in order to get them to do so, a company need to look as though it’s a leading-edge employer,’ says James Lavan, MD of McConnell’s recruitment advertising division. ‘In some ways it’s more important than product advertising because you’re asking people to make life-changing decisions. Therefore, rather than just selling a particular position, modern-day recruitment advertisements tend to focus on lifestyle factors; the things that will make the company appear to be a good employer.’ 

Bottom line
The main thrust of a recruitment advertisement is to sell the potential benefits of company life to employees. One method that’s proven successful in recent years is to include testimonials from employees boasting about how easy it is to move up the corporate ladder. Another has been to focus on other lifestyle benefits such as gyms or location—the latter proving to have big appeal to those who have grown weary of gridlock in our cities. These are all essential concepts in today’s climate, but even more importantly is the brand itself.

‘Branding is very important for us,’ says Clive Evans, recruiting and staffing manager at Microsoft Ireland. ‘We want to ensure we use it as an opportunity to give people a good feel for the type of place Microsoft is like to work in. The Microsoft brand tries to reflect our vibrant work force, all of whom have many challenges ahead of them and many opportunities to move within the company. We also want to show that Microsoft is a fun place to work which provides many avenues for a successful work/life balance.’

Dell Ireland’s vice president of human resources, Pat Casey whose remit covers 5,000 employees at the companies sites in Limerick, Cherrywood and Bray, says that the basic message in Dell’s recruitment advertisements echoes that of their consumer advertisements. ‘The message we are trying to get across to prospective employees is that Dell is a winning brand and a winning team. As well as making high-quality products we’re also a high-quality employer,’ he says. 

Brand value
Of course, having an instantly recognisable brand makes it much easier to reach your target audience, as a result a well-designed recruitment advertisement that uses a company’s established brand values is likely to get a higher rate of response from applicants. However branding is also important in recruitment advertising because it can be used as an aid to staff retention, says James Lavan. ‘In terms of retention, branding creates a feel-good factor. Existing employees can feel good about opening the newspaper and seeing their company well represented. It shows them that they work for a good, progressive organisation that’s expanding rather than retracting.’

Medium is the message
Even though the recruitment market has gone quiet in recent months following the slowdown in the IT sector, companies still need to recruit. But which medium is the best one to use? According to Charlaine Butler, print advertising remains a better option than solely advertising vacancies online. She says: ‘While people may use the Internet to find out information or to book a plane ticket, generally, they’re less likely to look for a job online. Newspapers, in particular, benefit from the word of mouth factor, whereby someone will ring a friend if they see an advert that they think would suit them.’ 

Print doesn’t have all the advantages though, Pat Casey says particular media suit particular job vacancies. ‘It’s hard to say which is the best medium for recruitment advertising because it depends on whom the advertisement is targeted at. If we’re looking for manufacturing specialists to work at our Limerick site, then local radio is the best fit, however, we’re more likely to use the Internet or print if we’re looking for, say, a mobile professional.’

Whichever choice of media is chosen, one thing’s for sure. HR personnel have an important role to play in making recruitment advertisements work. Although they may often work together with marketing departments and an outside agency, HR Managers ultimately bear responsibility for the campaign. Furthermore, even though good branding may be an essential tool in helping to recruit new employees, nothing beats good HR practice in helping to keep them.

Read More: People