Recruitment Marketing is an evolving field and often described as a mix of different disciplines like talent acquisition, HR and marketing. Christina Spadaro, Employer Brand Manager for Workhuman and Recruitment Marketing Rising Star Award winner, describes it as “a bit of public relations, social media strategy, recruiting and content — it’s really a bit of everything.”
Since it’s such an interdisciplinary field, it can sometimes be challenging to quantify Recruitment Marketing work and demonstrate impact. That’s why the Rally Awards celebrate excellence in Recruitment Marketing and employer branding practices that attract and recruit talent through social and digital channels, as well as practitioners who have demonstrated how they’ve moved the needle to make a difference at their organization.
Our Recruitment Marketing Rising Star award recognizes practitioners who have spent between 1-3 years in a Recruitment Marketing role. This is a person who has helped to transform the talent acquisition strategy for their company into one that is brand-led and marketing-driven, and distinguished themselves as a future leader of our profession. In 2021, Rally named three Rising Stars!
Meet Christina Spadaro, 2021 Rally Awards Recruitment Marketing Rising Star
Christina Spadaro, Talent Brand Manager, Workhuman
Christina Spadaro is the Talent Brand Manager for Workhuman. She takes their culture of appreciation and social recognition and shares it with the world. She focuses on ways to grow Workhuman’s presence and reputation in the United States so that they are attracting the most innovative, collaborative and creative humans to our opportunities.
In less than 2 years (and during a global pandemic!), Christina has built a robust global employer branding strategy at Workhuman. She has tackled some big, impactful projects this past year like the careers blog (which also won a 2021 Rally Award for Best Careers Blog!), a careers site refresh and launch of the Instagram account in addition to maintaining and curating content for all careers-related channels.
Her collaborative approach working both internally and with external local partners made her stand out, and looking at Workhuman’s content across digital and social channels shows the breadth of her impact.
We asked Christina about her career, her approach to Recruitment Marketing and what’s next.
Rally: Everyone has a different path for how they got into this work. Christina, how did you get started in Recruitment Marketing?
Christina: It was a bit of a serendipitous journey! My studies leaned heavily in marketing and after college, I started working at a private country club. I was responsible for internal events, marketing, membership, supporting prospective members and onboarding.
I was looking for a position with more work-life balance and then started as a Recruitment Marketing specialist in a corporate role. The alignment between the work I was doing with recruiting members and marketing the club as a great place to belong to aligned so perfectly. It’s a role I was excited to grow into where instead of finding members to play golf, I’m looking for people to join us and enhance our culture in the workplace. It really sparked my interest and felt like a natural fit.
Rally: What do you enjoy most about working in this space?
Christina: I love that I have the opportunity to showcase people. I’ve always been a “people person” and drawn to storytelling. I love the ability to give employees a voice and share experiences that hopefully resonate with others and build brand awareness of the company.
Rally: What skills do you think are important for other recruitment marketers who are looking to forge their path in this space?
Christina: I think the most important skill is the ability to build partnerships and grow relationships. Recruitment Marketing is a field where you really have to work with people from across the organization, and be comfortable enough with employees to be able to share their stories.
Connect with hiring managers, and focus on communicating and educating senior leaders on the value you can bring as they look to grow their teams. It’s about finding common ground and connecting the dots between growing your talent pipeline and connecting that to meeting company goals.
When people ask what you do, it’s a bit of public relations, social media strategy, recruiting, content — it’s really a bit of everything.
Rally: It really is a bit of everything! What project are you most proud of to date?
Christina: Getting our careers blog off the ground that showcases “Life at Workhuman.” It’s allowed us to be in charge of the kind of stories we want to tell and put forward the content that resonates with each of our candidate personas. We do this by drawing those emotional connections, and telling stories about who is working here, what’s this place all about and why a prospective candidate should work here. We’re seeing out the stories and examples of how employees are modeling our company values and culture, and aligning it to what we know is important to our target audience.
Rally: That’s fantastic, and also the work you’ve done on the blog has clearly had a major impact, since it also won the 2021 Rally Award for Best Careers Blog! As a Recruitment Marketing rising star, what’s next for you in your career?
Christina: Since being awarded that recognition, I’ve actually been promoted into the new role of Manager, Global Talent Brand! I’m excited to be taking this next step and to develop a more global perspective in our employer brand.
The past few years have been focused on creating and building things from the ground up. Now, I’m looking to level-up that by driving a more strategic vision for both North America and Europe.
Rally: Congrats on the promotion and again on the Recruitment Marketing Rising Star Award! Any final thoughts on the Recruitment Marketing field you want to pass on to the Rally community?
Christina: Recruitment Marketing is an exciting space to be in! I think every company in every industry is feeling this push for talent as we work to come back from the pandemic.
We always talk about candidates being in the driver’s seat and these past 14 months have amplified that so much. It’s refreshing to see so much hiring for senior level positions in this field and see that investment from companies across industries. Employers are feeling the pressure to deliver and create places where people can be their whole selves and do their best work. It’s so exciting to be part of this industry right now.
Rally: Thanks so much Christina for leaving us on that inspiring note! It’s definitely an exciting time to be in Recruitment Marketing and your energy is contagious.
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Interested in reading more about the Rally Awards? You can see all of the 2021 award winners on the Rally Awards website.
