Inside Cisco’s Award-Winning Recruitment Marketing Strategy

The Cisco Recruitment Marketing team has won the most Rally Awards—7!—since our global awards competition began in 2020. Most recently, they won First Place for Best Careers Blog, a distinction they also won in 2020.

Here’s what some of the judges said about why the WeAreCisco careers blog took home gold this year:

1. Very impressive blog strategy, results and tactics with innovative features truly setting them apart from the rest. Highlights include: 1. The opportunity for reader comments, allowing for a deeper human element and encouraging even more engagement. 2. Each blog features an “author biography” to allow readers to learn more about the person behind the blog.
2. From the level of detail, to the pure uniqueness of strategy leading to great page views and engagement, Cisco’s blog is inspiring and a clear 10/10.
3. WOW! Those results are amazing! I love the humanizing of the campaign We are Cisco. You embodied what an authentic experience is with employee stories across the business. Fabulous work.

We asked Kathleen Loescher, Content Strategist & Managing Editor of the WeAreCisco Blog at Cisco, to share the secrets behind their award-winning Recruitment Marketing strategy, the role that the WeAreCisco careers blog plays, and advice for how you can borrow this strategy to attract and engage top talent to your organization. Let’s dive in!

Meet the Expert

Kathleen Loescher is the Content Strategist & Managing Editor of the WeAreCisco Blog at Cisco. She is a seasoned Content Strategist with over 15 years of experience in content production, social media and communications. Prior to her role at Cisco, she spent nearly 8 years at Ignite Social Media responsible for content production, and before that, she held public relations and social media roles at Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community.

The Award-Winning Strategy Behind the WeAreCisco Blog

Rally: How did the idea of the WeAreCisco Blog come about, and what were the initial goals you set for it?

Kathleen: The careers blog was created before I came to Cisco, but our goals have remained consistent: We aim to build personal connections between our employees and the external world of top talent, shine a light on the employee experience, and show how Cisco is a unique, compelling, and great place to work, unlike anywhere else. It all happens through the power of dynamic storytelling.

Rally: How do you identify and select which employee stories to feature on the blog? Are there specific criteria or themes you look for?

Kathleen: We want people to read our stories and be able to picture themselves at Cisco—everyone is welcome. But being a global company with a purpose of powering an inclusive future for all, that can show up in so many ways. Yes, Cisco is a tech company, but the opportunities that exist within that are huge. So, we look for stories from people in a variety of roles to show that we aren’t all software engineers. We want to represent all regions globally. But the biggest thing we look for are stories that happen because of Cisco and are approachable, inspirational, and have that certain something that make them different than any story we’ve shared before.

Harnessing Social Listening and Employee-Generated Content

Rally: Social listening and capturing content with #WeAreCisco seems integral to your strategy. How has this approach influenced the types of stories you publish?

Kathleen: Social listening and employee-generated content are the foundation of We Are Cisco. Our employees share so many snapshots of life at Cisco, from their first days to amazing career opportunities to living out their dreams through giving back (and having paid time off to do it!) to being able to show up as their full, authentic selves at work, on their personal social channels. That sort of letting them take the lead and amplifying their firsthand experiences creates an authenticity in our stories that can’t be manufactured.    

Rally: Could you describe the editing process and how you help employees who might not consider themselves writers to craft compelling stories?

Kathleen: Our editing process is totally collaborative and looks different for each of our authors—we meet them where they are. We say it’s “your words, our help,” and want our stories to feel just like a conversation, which helps take some of the pressure off if someone doesn’t consider themselves a writer and creates that authenticity in our stories that you don’t find in other corporate blogs.

Rally: In what ways do you ensure that the blog posts are sensitive to social issues and current world events while maintaining authenticity?

Kathleen: Social listening comes into play here, too! We’re constantly staying in tune with current events, industry news, etc., and how people are responding to it, and making adjustments to our publishing calendar, if necessary. The last thing we want to do is publish a story with an employee’s name on it that comes across as tone deaf or insensitive, so that’s really important to us. The same goes with positive times, too—tapping into those conversations and events, and riding that wave.

Lessons Learned from WeAreCisco Careers Blog

Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing your expertise in building Cisco’s award-winning Recruitment Marketing strategy through the WeAreCisco Blog!

From Kathleen, we learned three key takeaways:

1. Dynamic Storytelling: The WeAreCisco Blog focuses on creating personal connections through dynamic storytelling, highlighting the unique and compelling employee experiences that set Cisco apart.
2. Social Listening and Employee-Generated Content: The foundation of the blog’s content strategy is social listening and leveraging employee-generated content, which ensures authenticity and relatability in the stories shared.
3. Collaborative Editing Process: The blog’s collaborative editing approach meets contributors where they are, helping employees craft authentic stories that read like conversations, even if they don’t consider themselves writers.

To anyone in the Rally community who is looking to start their own careers blog, remember that authenticity and inclusivity are key. By genuinely showcasing your employees’ diverse experiences and voices, you can create a powerful and engaging platform that attracts top talent too.