Getting recruiting events right isn’t easy. One challenge that many Talent Acquisition teams have upfront is ensuring that the right quantity and quality of candidates shows up to their events.
At our second RallyFwd Virtual Conference (happening in just a few days’ time!), Derek Murphy-Johnson, Talent Acquisition Manager at KinderCare, will share how his organization leverages email marketing to improve the ROI on their recruiting events.
Here’s some info about Derek and what he’ll be speaking about at RallyFwd (and don’t forget to register for free to hear his full talk and others, if you haven’t already!):
Hi Derek, can you tell us about your background and how you got into Recruitment Marketing?
I started my career in inside sales and marketing in the hospitality industry before moving into recruiting. I worked for a small resort company, where I launched their first website and the first B2C email campaign.
From there, I was recruited to a larger resort company and was tasked to build a 300 person call center and support recruitment for 3 resorts. This was a really interesting experience! I was new to recruiting, job boards were too expensive for my budget and I had to be really creative and did a lot of grassroots campaigns.
So, I had to get crafty! I did everything from large graphic image advertisements in newspapers with clever headlines, grilling hot dogs at referral parties, and I was chased from countless grocery stores and malls because I was canvasing cars with recruiting flyers.
From there, I moved into Healthcare, working for Catholic Health (now Dignity Health). That team has a very progressive Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing program, so I learned a lot.
Today, I lead the corporate recruiting team at KinderCare Education and this year we have started working on Employer Brand and Recruitment Marketing initiatives.
Can you describe what you’ll be talking about at RallyFwd?
Definitely. At RallyFwd, I am going to share how I partnered with our HRIS team to extract candidates from our ATS and target them with email campaigns – all without breaking the budget! We used these email campaigns to drive candidates to our recruiting events, so I’ll hone in on that during my session.
Why do you think this is an important topic for us to be talking about now in Recruitment Marketing?
Companies spend a lot of money on talent attraction initiatives, but what happens after you fill a position? What happens to the candidates not selected for the role?
Silver medallist candidates want to work for your company – and that awareness and desire is half the battle! Building out an email campaign strategy targeting your pre-existing candidate pool helps keep talent engaged with your brand.
What challenges do you think exist in driving people to recruiting events?
I feel that there is an assumption that candidates will start banging down the door once you hold a recruiting event. The truth is you have to advertise and market the event just like you would any hard-to-fill position.
You need to cast a wide net and make sure that you have several ways you are getting the word out about your event. You can’t just rely on an announcement on your careers page or in front of your offices. Email is a really effective digital tool that I think a lot of us could be leveraging more effectively for event awareness.
Any final tips for companies looking to improve their event or email approach in 2019?
Keep it simple. Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and share information that you would want to know if you were the candidate.
Want to hear more from Derek? Register for RallyFwd to catch his full session, What Email Marketing Can Do For Your Recruiting Events, on December 5!
