COLLEGE RECRUITMENT: University of Aarhus: The world’s smallest brochure

Finding a way to directly reach out and address your audience's interests in a manner that applies their interests is a great way to actively involve them with your brand. Aarhus University did a great job interacting with their Molecular Biology students by creating such a small brochure that students needed a microscope to read the material. Are you reaching out to your target audience on their own turf?

via: http://copyranter.blogspot.com/ & http://www.ibelieveinadv.com/2010/07/university-of-aarhus-the-worlds-smallest-brochure/

College Recruitment - Betzalel: Grab a Chair, Sit Down & Let's Talk

As we have mentioned before, part of integrating social media into your recruitment campaign is about creating a dialogue with active and passive candidates whether they show an active interest at the time or not. Betzalel, a design college, created a great campaign to initialize the conversation with potential candidates to it's college. People we asked to design a chair and in response people from the college would review the pieces and send feedback on the people's work. This created an active dialogue between the college and the potential students before other colleges even started their initial recruitment.
Garnering that first relationship with the company or brand greatly increases loyalty, recall and recognition of what you offer your candidates in comparison of your competitors. When it stops appearing to be a straight sell and shows that you are more interested in the people involved rather than candidates just being another number in the long list of CVs/resumes, it changes the perspective the potential employees have towards your company. It may have the appearance of a long-term soft sell but at the same time, the quality and loyalty of the candidates you attract may be greatly increased.

http://www.yri.co.il/e/2010/betzalel/

NONTRADITIONAL - Promotional Material

This was a nontraditional approach taken by a university. Bedsheets were passed out with images imprinted on them. It was a unique way to spread the word about their dedication to giving exposure of great people to their students in every moment, awake or not.

COLLEGE RECRUITMENT - University Application Videos

Universities are starting to integrate the use of the internet more and more lately. Whether it is revamping their website to target their demographics better, creating a music video to help sell the university or even allowing college applicants to include videos displaying their talents/reasons for applying. Brandflakes for Breakfast posted an article about the move that Tufts has made in their application process that includes a video as one of 8 choices that can be made as submission options. Check out the post!

HR NEWS - Austrian army withdraws 'sexist' tank advert

This ad was recently pulled from television for being sexist.
For more military recruitment ads, check out: http://patriotadvertising.blogspot.com/2009/03/video-various-international-military.html
The Ukrainian Military Commercial looks awfully familiar to the Austrian ad in question. =]

Here is the article about the ad withdrawal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/7120407/Austrian-army-withdraws-sexist-tank-advert.html

Via: adfreak.com

VIDEO - Yale's Student Recruitment Video

One way to stay ahead and keep on track with your college recruitment is to look at how colleges are grabbing students themselves. It might give you an idea of what to anticipate for when these new students end up graduating. Times change and fads alter but certain ways of grabbing their attention might stick around. This doesn't mean you have to produce a musical to sell your company but maybe note the values addressed in college's approach towards students.

NONTRADITIONAL - School Recruitment: Panamericana School of Art and Design

via: http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/05/06/school-of-art-and-design-creativity-test/

PRINT - School Recruitment: Panamericana School of Art and Design

These print pieces are part of a campaign created for Panamericana School of Art and Design. The campaign extended to a wide variety of traditional and nontraditional mediums.

HR - Navy for Moms

Many times when you are recruiting for more "high risk" careers or positions, half the battle isn't recruiting your applicants, but also recruiting the support of their family and friends. By creating a forum of discussion and information, this can help tear down assumptions made about jobs and locations and help build a bond between your applicants, their families and your recruiters. The more people know and understand about positions, the better they are able to make an informed position and they might be more likely to make that decision if they have the active support of their social group.
Do you have particular positions that are hard to hire for that might fall into this kind of category? Have you found out what keeps people from applying?

For more information about Navy for Moms check out these links:

http://www.navyformoms.com/
http://www.ebrands.com.au/_blog/The_Employment_Brand_Blogging_Device/post/It

ALTERNATIVE ADVERTISING - QR Codes and Recruitment

The NSW Police Force also utilized the QR Codes for their recruitment. When candidates captured the image they receive this message before then forwarding to the police force website: "We need tech-savvy new recruits like u. www.police.nsw.gov.au"
http://outputlinks.com/html/columnists/Joe_Barber/copi_QR_IDENTIFY_TECH_SAVY_011409.aspx
A while back I talked about using QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) for Recruitment but this recent article made me think of them again. Has your company considered them yet? They are rising in popularity and I have included some shots of recent campaigns utilizing them. If you haven't experimented with them on your own, I would highly suggest you at least check them out for yourself, if not for the company yet. Imagine how you could utilize this at job fairs where people get lost in the information provided by brochures and fliers. Stand out from the crowd by also allowing people to jump directly to your company and find information out about you while they stand in line for interviews.

Check out the Google article:

How Google and goofy barcodes will save you money

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/12/08/how-google-and-goofy-barcodes-will-save-you-money/

Video about the QR Codes:

INTERNSHIPS - Fighting tooth and nail for a flack internship

AdFreak posted an article about Eisen Marketing Group which will be running reality webisodes about trying to hire one person for a paid PR internship. They will begin in January. What are your thoughts on how the potential candidates would feel after running through something like this?
Check out the link below and let us know what you think:
http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/11/fighting-tooth-and-nail-for-a-flack-internship.html

HR - ERE.net - Understanding the Available Social Media Recruiting Strategies — Leveraging Your Employees’ Time

Dr. John Sullivan posted two interesting articles about how to use your HR department when it comes to social media and what they should be involved with and what they should steer away from. It is important to understand it is much easier to manage when you are able to stretch the responsibilites over several people and also involve people outside of HR when it comes to recruiting. Before diving into social media it is also important to create a strategy and not rush into the various sites available.

Check out the articles and let us know what you think:

http://www.ere.net/2009/11/16/understanding-the-available-social-media-recruiting-strategies-leveraging-your-employees%e2%80%99-time-part-1-of-2/

http://www.ere.net/2009/11/23/understanding-the-available-social-media-recruiting-strategies-%e2%80%93-leveraging-your-employees-time-part-2-of-2/

NONTRADITIONAL - Government intelligence organisation targets recruits with Xbox Live ads

The British Government Agency known as GCHQ will now be running ads on XBOX Live to assist in recruiting people of ages 18-34 into their ranks. In addition to recruitment, their aim is also to get the word out about their agency and what they do because most people don't have much knowledge of the GCHQ.

Check out the links below for more information:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/20/xbox-gchq-adverts
http://kotaku.com/5408880/british-government-agency-to-run-xbox-live-recruitment-ads

Back on October of 2007 the GCHQ also ran ads online through Microsoft games:
'Become a spy' ads target gamers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/oct/18/digitalmedia.advertising

NONTRADITIONAL - Gaming works magic for u.s. army

Brandflakes for Breakfast and Game Politics posted articles about the Army's use of their video game, America's Army, and how is has been used as a recruitment tool and how effective it has been in relation to other areas of advertising. Game Politics also makes a note at the impact the video game has had on recruits as far as how they react in battle and their how they receive and understand what is happening in battle as well.

Below are the links for the articles as well as the gaming site. Check them out and tell us what you think!

http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2009/11/gaming-works-magic-for-us-army.html

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/11/17/america%E2%80%99s-army-extremely-effective-recruitment-tool

http://www.americasarmy.com/

Social Networking - Twittering and Job Fair Alerts

How are you alerting your candidates that you have job fairs approaching?
A newspaper placement is great and so is radio but what about something that is on their own time and under their own control? This is where Twitter can play a major role.
Check out Kroger's Twitter page where they include information on upcoming job fairs, local articles written about stores to be opened and other events that are going on with Kroger.
http://twitter.com/KrogerWorks

They also use their Twitter page to integrate their text campaign along with their recruitment page krogerworks.com.

What are your thoughts about using Twitter for recruitment?

BRANDING - IBMers

IBM's "Smarter" campaign creates an empowered point of view for those aspiring to be part of something greater, to do something more, and to possibly apply to IBM. They might not be hiring at full speed right now but this is a great way to reach out and really create a name for their brand among potential candidates as well as the communities they are part of. Take a look at a few of the videos but know that there are many more on YouTube.com. What are your thoughts on their direction?

Social Networking - ERE.NET: The Many Benefits of Social Network Recruiting: Making a Compelling Business Case

Times are tight and your budget's even tighter.

One of your challenges: What is a way that you can help build your brand and bolster the word about your brand among your audience and potential candidates? Social media. That's one answer.

Now here's another challenge: How do you convince your higher-ups that it is a reasonable investment of time and money when the return could be so valuable but it is still considered somewhat "new" media?

ERE.net posted a great article a few days back that offers up some great points that you might want to bring up the next time you have to defend working social media into your marketing mix for your recruitment campaigns. These range from the ROI to candidate quality to cost per hire.

Even if you are already sold on using social networking for recruitment some of these points might make you stop and rethink how you are using your resources. It is a quick and great read for those new and experienced in social networking. Check it out!

From ERE.net:

http://www.ere.net/2009/11/02/the-many-benefits-of-social-network-recruiting-making-a-compelling-business-case/

RECRUITMENT - Cheezhead's The Slice

Job Seekers - Radio Resumes Begin Airing on LA Radio Station

A couple weeks ago I was talking about radio resumes in Austin & Denver and the importance of job seekers branding themselves to stand out in today's crowded candidate pool. Los Angeles' KHHT-FM began their own radio resume program giving individuals a 30 second spot to pitch their elevator speech. Started in early July- and off to a slow start-people became more familiar with the concept, now catching on with a steady flow of participants. Although the KHHT-FM isn't tracking the program's success, two job seekers have reported to the station to have received interviews. If you're curious as how this works, listen to one HERE. Read the full story on ere.net - Radio Resumes Begin Airing on LA Radio Station

VIDEO - What wouldn't people do for a job at CP+B?

It's tough to land your field related career right after college. Although it certainly helps if you find a creative way to market yourself. Brandon Kramer and Christy Pregont came up with a different idea for a cover letter to present to Crispin Porter + Bogusky ad agency. Hope you enjoy! Found on AdFreak.com