33 Awards Given in 14 Categories, including Best Content Marketing Program and Best Employer Brand Launch, plus Rising Stars and Recruitment Marketer of the Year
Boston, MA April 19, 2021
Rally® Recruitment Marketing, the largest community for recruitment marketing, employer branding and talent acquisition professionals, announced the winners of the second annual Rally Awards in a live virtual ceremony.
A global competition honoring excellence in recruitment marketing and employer branding practices, the Rally Awards bestowed 33 awards on 22 companies for categories that included Best Employer Brand Launch, Best Recruitment Marketing Campaign and Best Careers Social Media Channel. Additionally, most categories named a first and second place winner.
Distinguished awards were also given for Recruitment Marketing Rising Star and Recruitment Marketer of the Year. These two categories honor practitioners for distinguishing themselves through pioneering work, business impact and extraordinary leadership, serving as role models for raising up the entire profession.
“Throughout 2020, our community stepped up in so many impactful ways to support their organizations through tremendous challenges and change,” said Rally Founder & CEO, Lori Sylvia. “The 2021 Rally Award winners are outstanding examples of professionals who brought their expertise and their heart to helping thousands of people find work during a pandemic and to find belonging in a company even while working from home, while ensuring that their organizations had the critical staffing needed to provide the essential services that we all depended on. Congratulations to all the winners for making a difference!”
Winners were selected by an independent panel of esteemed peer judges:
- Deniz Gültekin, Senior Manager of Recruitment Marketing for Instacart
- Rose Marques, Global Talent Brand Lead at Squarespace (2020 Rally Awards winner)
- Darryl Ramey, Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding at HARMAN International
- Eric Clemons, Sr. Manager of Employment Brand Strategies at U.S. Cellular
- Dani Kaufman, Manager, Talent Acquisition Operations and Employment Brand at PetSmart (2020 Rally Recruitment Marketing Rising Star), and
- Chloé Rada, Director, Global Recruitment Marketing and Branding at Syneos Health Commercial Solutions (2020 Rally Recruitment Marketer of the Year)
Each entry was judged on strategy, quality, innovation and verified results.
2021 Rally Award winners by category:
Best Careers Blog
- First Place: Showcasing our ‘Life at Workhuman’ — Christina Spadaro and Jessica Breen, Workhuman
- Second Place: It’s not just our everyday stories. It’s so much more. — Giant Eagle
Best Careers Social Media Channel
- First Place: “What’s Love Got to Do with It? #Everything! — Megan Nichols, Liz Kempinski, Kate Klingman, Ingrid Urquijo Bayter and Ivanessa Delgado, ADP
Best Content Marketing Program
- First Place (tie): Driving Audience-First Digital — Nestlé USA
- First Place (tie): #LifeAtPetSmart – Beyond the hashtag — Dani Kaufman and Meghan Rozman, PetSmart
- Second Place: Newell Brands Proves Content is King With Job Seekers — Ashley Blackmore, Newell Brands
Best Employer Brand Launch
- First Place: ADP Tech Talent Brand, Megan Nichols, Liz Kempinski, Kate Klingman, Ingrid Urquijo Bayter and Liz Gelb-O’Connor, ADP
- Second Place (tie): Empowering the Curious: Activating Our Employer Brand, Shelby Stoddart and Jacqui Edwards, McGraw Hill
- Second Place (tie): Lockheed Martin’s Experience A Mission That Matters, Lockheed Martin
Best Employer Brand Video
- First Place: Nestlé Stories — Nestlé USA
- Second Place: Together, Apart — Cisco
Best Recruitment Marketing Campaign
- First Place: Handshake 2 Hire: Military Veteran Engagement — Matt Biester, Jason Boone, Rowan Toffoli and Anthony Gilbert, Lockheed Martin
- Second Place: Land O’Lakes’ “Feed the Nation” Campaign Gets Critical Jobs Filled Fast — Land O’Lakes
Best Talent E-Newsletter
- First Place: An Informed & Engaged Talent Community — BAE Systems
- Second Place: Morley Talent & Alumni Newsletters — Angela Gilson, Morley
Best Use of Employee Generated Content
- First Place: #LifeAtPetSmart – Beyond the Hashtag — Dani Kaufman and Meghan Rozman, PetSmart
- Second Place: Marching Forward Through Unparalleled Times — BAE Systems
Best Use of Organic Social Media in Recruitment Marketing
- First Place: WeAreCisco TikTok Pilot for Employer Branding — Carmen Collins, Jen Burns and Kim Dufresne, Cisco
- Second Place: The Talent Show | Powered by TTEC on LinkedIn Live — TTEC Holdings
Best Use of Paid Social Media in Recruitment Marketing
- First Place: Make a change – consulting but different! — UBS
- Second Place (tie): Best Workplace for Innovators — Nestlé USA
- Second Place (tie): National Hiring Day – 6 Hour Live Recruitment on Facebook — Sitel Group
Best Use of Recruitment Marketing Technology
- First Place: Handshake 2 Hire: Military Veteran Engagement — Matt Biester, Jason Boone, Rowan Toffoli and Anthony Gilbert, Lockheed Martin
- Second Place (tie): Mercy Scales Nurse Recruiting with Cutting-Edge AI Tech — Mercy
- Second Place (tie): How Syneos Health uses Recruitment Marketing to transform its recruiting strategy — Syneos Health Commercial Solutions
Best Use of Video in Recruitment Marketing
- First Place: Our Women in Action by Dell Technologies — Dell Technologies
- Second Place (tie): Work from Home Sweet Home — TTEC Holdings
- Second Place (tie): Make a change – consulting but different! — UBS
- Second Place (tie): The “Life at AdventHealth” Virtual Reality Experience — AdventHealth
Recruitment Marketing Rising Stars
- Christina Spadaro, Workhuman
- Tricia Day, Appian Corporation
- Tony Prudente, Brother USA
Recruitment Marketer of the Year
- Kerry Noone, CVS Health
2021 Rally Award Winner Quotes
Award recipients voiced appreciation for receiving this honor, for the recognition of the contributions that they and their teams made over the past year, and their excitement about the future of the recruiting marketing and employer branding discipline.
Jonna Sjövall, Global Head of Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing at UBS:
“Thank you Rally for recognizing UBS in the industry’s most significant recruitment marketing awards. We are honored to receive two awards – it shows that a data-driven, audience-centric approach with our EVP message at the core brings great results in the digital world of recruitment marketing.”
Kayla Drady, Director of Talent Acquisition Strategy & Operations from Mercy:
“Phenom People’s platform has helped Mercy to be on the front-end of innovation and technology while using artificial intelligence to increase our sourcing and recruitment efforts. Leveraging Phenom’s CRM has been crucial to our success in reaching candidates as quickly as possible with text messaging capabilities and sending candidates engaging content.”
Matthew Biester, Manager of Enterprise HR Technology Implementation at Lockheed Martin:
“Over a year ago, Jason Boone, Rowan Toffoli, Anthony Gilbert and I set out on a journey to aid service members in their transition from active duty to civilian careers and never in my wildest dreams did I think it would have the impact we have seen since. Seeing Handshake 2 Hire go from an idea on a napkin to an award-winning program has been the highlight of my career and I am proud to have the opportunity to help those who have served our country.”
Shelby Stoddart, Talent Acquisition Marketing Specialist at McGraw Hill:
“We are excited to be recognized for our Employer Brand activation efforts in 2020. Despite the many challenges job seekers and companies faced in 2020, we pivoted our activation strategy to continue bringing great talent to McGraw Hill.”
Julia Buchanan, Senior Recruitment Marketing Specialist at Giant Eagle:
“Our team is honored to be recognized for all the planning, time and hard work that goes into bringing our Team Members’ stories to life through our Careers Blog! Our Team Members are the heart and soul of Giant Eagle, so it’s a privilege to share the many unique journeys that brought them to join the Giant Eagle family.”
The team at BAE Systems:
“We’re thrilled and humbled to be recognized for our candidate engagement activities. Authentic storytelling is at the heart of our strategy, and we’re eager to find new and innovative ways to extend this approach across the avenues through which we connect with top talent. We’re grateful to Rally for recognitions like these, and their impactful thought leadership in our industry.”
Amy Winebright, Global Project Manager – Talent Attraction Marketing, Dell Technologies:
“We are thrilled to receive this award and see that our commitment to attracting, retaining and developing women across our global operations was successfully showcased through the voices of our incredible female talent. Thank you to Stories Inc. for bringing their inspiring stories to life.”
Jessica Breen, Talent Brand Manager at Workhuman:
“Our goal of launching the ‘Life at Workhuman’ Careers blog was to showcase our humans and bring our award winning culture to life. The blog gives our employees an opportunity to share their stories as well as providing candidates an insight into what it is to work at Workhuman. We are so proud and honored to receive this award and be among this year’s Rally Award winners.”
Jean Baptiste Ranvier, Director of Recruitment Marketing at Sitel Group:
“We’re ecstatic to be recognized by Rally as creative and results-driven recruitment marketers. At Sitel Group, we value real conversations, and social media live streaming has enabled us to connect with candidates during the pandemic. We are honored to have won this award and it will certainly spark more innovations from our team!”
Dobby Gibson, Digital Communications Manager at Land O’Lakes:
“Our campaign was successful thanks to great partnerships. Internally, with our Land O’Lakes Communications team, who brought their social media smarts to the table, and externally with our team at Phenom People, who helped us get the most out of their technology. It was incredibly rewarding to drive talent into our organization when it needed it most.”
Liz Gelb-O’Connor, VP, Global Employer Brand & Marketing at ADP:
“My team and I are thrilled to be recognized by our peers for our accomplishments. Over the last few years, we’ve worked hard to curate authentic stories that best represent ADP’s employer brand on our social channels. In addition, we thank our technology leaders for trusting us to break new ground and co-create an employer brand with our technologists targeted to attract tech talent. As a result, we’ve launched tech.adp.com ‘for technologists, by technologists.’”
Laura Morris, Marketing Director at Morley:
“Thank you to Rally for this prestigious honor! Morley is excited to be recognized as a frontrunner in the field of recruitment marketing, and we look forward to leveraging the best practices all of this year’s winners have so creatively displayed in order to quickly attract the highest quality candidates.”
Tricia Day from Appian, Recruitment Marketing Rising Star:
“I’m truly honored to be recognized by the Rally community! I’ll never forget the moment I realized that my passion for recruiting, candidate experience, brand and marketing could all be wrapped up into one. The last 3 years have been an incredible ride filled with starting a brand new recruitment marketing function and now leading our Global Employer Brand team. Today I have the great pleasure of learning from the recruitment marketing and creative professionals on my team who have not only amplified our program (go #AppianLife!) but have challenged me to become a better recruitment marketing and employer brand practitioner. The learning never ends!”
Christina Spadaro from Workhuman, Recruitment Marketing Rising Star:
“The Rally Awards are a testament to the value practitioners of recruitment marketing and employer branding bring to their organizations every day. As companies look to ramp up hiring in 2021, it’s essential that they communicate their culture, values and differentiators to continue attracting the best talent. It’s an honor to be recognized by this community, and I look forward to doing my part to elevate our profession through networking and sharing while continuing to grow and learn.”
Tony Prudente from Brother USA, Recruitment Marketing Rising Star:
“When I graduated college, it didn’t even cross my mind that my degree in Human Resources would lead me to crossover into Marketing. At the time, there was no course, no teacher, no mentor & certainly no community that I could look to for guidance, education & support. The knowledge I have today is truly a culmination of many networking conversations, conference sessions, webinars and access to free community resources provided by organizations like Rally. I’m so very humbled and grateful to be receiving this award.”
Kerry Noone from CVS Health, Recruitment Marketer of the Year:
“I am so excited to be recognized as the Recruitment Marketing Leader of the year! Last year was like no other year for our country, and who would have thought “finding our new normal” would become the new buzz phrase? While some companies were slowing their hiring down, others were ramping up, and both at record speed. The best part of the terrible series of events throughout the year is the partnerships that developed and the strengthened relationships. When I reflect back on 2020, I realize how much I learned from my CVS Health colleagues and my fellow recruitment marketing professionals, and for that, I am thankful.”
About The Rally® Awards
The Rally Awards is a global competition recognizing and celebrating excellence in recruitment marketing and employer branding practices. The goal of the competition is to uncover what marketing and branding strategies really work in recruiting and to share those strategies with the Rally Recruitment Marketing community of nearly 30,000 professionals from around the world. Unlike other award competitions, the Rally Awards honor individuals who work in-house at employers, rather than agencies or vendors.
About Rally®
Rally® Recruitment Marketing is an online community forum where the best Recruitment Marketing ideas are learned and shared to educate and empower you to lead the future of talent acquisition. Rally with us at https://rallyrecruitmentmarketing.com.