what do you think you're doing?
DESCRIPTION
On Thursday 27th February, our Head of Research, Marcus Body, spoke at TARGETjobs Breakfast News on being clear about goals and strategy in graduate recruitment.TRANSCRIPT
What do you think you’re doing?
Marcus Body Head of Research, Work
Boring, difficult and time-consuming
Actually, it can and should be simple
Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
I don't much care where…
…so long as I get somewhere
That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Then it doesn't matter which way you go
Oh, you're sure to do that if you only walk long enough.
Start at the top…
Goal
Strategy
Tactics
Campaign items
What sometimes happens…
Goal
Strategy
Tactics
Campaign items
Goal
Strategy
Tactics
Campaign items
The solution neutral problem statement
A definition of the problem in a way that doesn’t imply how you’re going to solve it.
E.g. “We need a road bridge”…
“We need a road bridge”
“Some cars on this side of the river need to get to that side of the river”
• A road bridge.
“People who can’t explain why they are doing what they are doing:
1) Rarely get budget
2) Rarely get promoted
3) Often get unemployed”
Setting a goal
An awkward question:
Why exactly are you recruiting graduates?
You could be…
…recruiting the foot soldiers
1) What we sell, ultimately, is people’s time.
2) These are people whose time we can sell. Although this does mean that their quality is our product quality.
You could be…
…recruiting cheap specialists
1) We have technical stuff that needs doing by qualified staff.
2) Grads or post-grads are much cheaper than experienced hire, and we can cope with training them.
You could be…
…recruiting an officer corps
1) We have a large workforce, and we’re not confident it contains people with the right management potential.
2) Grads are a viable alternative to lateral hires, and could be both cheaper and better.
You could be…
…recruiting future leaders
1) We have an ongoing need for people to lead our business, and they’re expensive and difficult to hire.
2) We are confident we can offer the roles and rewards to hang on to really top talent for a long time.
Foot soldiers: quality of the weakest recruits
Cheap specialists: minimum cost of employment
Officer corps: greatest short-term impact
Future leaders: potential and loyalty
The big deal
Be very careful about copying other graduate schemes; they may be trying to achieve something very different to what you’re trying to achieve.
Goal
Strategy
Tactics
Campaign items
Decisions, decisions…
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Michael Porter
A goal at each end
“We want better candidates, for less cost”
“And we want to improve our position in employer rankings”
Do you want to be:
Everything to everyone?
Exclusive and elite?
What’s the difference?Popular Targeted
Your message must be… Widely appealing DemandingYour channels should be… Many and varied Few and specificYou’ll target… Everyone everywhere Proven profilesYour interactions will be… High volume, low touch Low volume, high touchYou’ll measure… Employer rankings Quality/cost of hire
Where to start…Popular• Understand typical
student motivators• Match offer to those• Spend, spend, spend• Gimmicks a viable option
Targeted• Define ideal target profile
and person specification• Identify channels to them• Targeted messaging• No gimmicks
Research externallyMessage then channels
Research internallyChannels then message
Fill in the blanks strategy…We need graduates because:…………………………………………….
The people we want are:…………………………………………………..
They should want us because:…………………………………………..
Therefore our strategy is:…………………………………………………..
Strategy checklist:
This strategy will plausibly and logically deliver our goal
This strategy implies things we’ll do that others don’t
This strategy implies things others do that we won’t
Goal
Strategy
Tactics
Campaign items
• CHANNELS•Paid•Social•On-campus
• MESSAGING•Website•Collateral
Attract
• PROCESS•Screening criteria
•Assessment and selection process
• COMMS•Candidate experience
Hire
• ROLE PROFILE•Job description•Manager guidance
• L&D STRATEGY•Training•Career pathways
• ENGAGEMENT•Onboarding
Employ
Applying the strategy
The case for a better strategy
• Make the case for appropriate budget and independence.
• Brief your agency and other suppliers better.
• Explain to students why you want them to join at all.
• Achieve what your business really needed in the first place.