Five steps to maximize and reimagine your recruitment, retention, and recognition strategy

By: Marc MacDonald, Manager of Corporate Communications, and Paul Orlando, Economic Development Researcher

Recently, the City of Welland received a Gold Hermes Creative Award for its social media strategy focused on recruitment, retention, and recognition. This award highlighted the tone, style, and execution of one of the City's most creative social campaigns to date. This article draws back the curtain to outline how staff did it, where the focus was, and how telling your unique story can set you apart.

This is the second installment of the City of Welland's thought-leadership series. You can view the first article here.

In this brave new world, we’re all competing for talent — to attract new faces and retain the amazing ones already in place. Among other revelations, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the staffing wounds hidden under the bandages of traditional hiring practices and recruitment rhetoric. Gone are the days when the security of a municipal government job was enough to attract the best and brightest. The option of working from home is a fleeting novelty, quickly becoming the norm and not the exception. No longer can we rest on our laurels and assume people will know who we are, what we do, and rush to begin working with us.?

?The times, they are a changing, and we all have to keep up.

As is the case with significant adjustments, the driving forces of a shifting culture, a changing of the guard, or a need for top-tier talent to push forward progressive visions are at the wheel. Recruitment, as conventionally performed, needed reframing. It needed a new perspective, a new mission, a shot of new life. Applications were no longer filling up the inbox the way they used to.?

That is until the City of Welland dared to be different, flipping the script on the traditional and diving into the depths of the creative world to share its story.?

We approached this strategy like a marathon, knowing we would be in it for the long haul but eager to be quick out of the gate. Unfortunately, based on every available metric, it was apparent that we were not being seen, heard, or even thought of. Not the ideal position to be in when trying to stand out.?

So, how did we do it, how did we achieve a measure of success? We started with these five simple steps:

1. (Re)Introduced ourselves
2. Embraced creativity
3. Created champions
4. Inspired our audience
5. Captured attention through graphics

1. (Re)Introduce yourself.

Because our footprint was non-existent, we chose to start our story visually, creating a video that outlined exactly what people could expect from our strategy. Video, in this case, rather than text, allowed us to captivate an audience and inspire them with crisp visuals, concise text, and catchy music. By saying this out loud – or in video format on the internet, where nothing ever goes away – we committed to ourselves, and to our people, to share our story in the most optimistic and authentic manner possible. The focus was on our people, our community, and our vision.

Why, you ask? Because if you tell people about these three categories, you give them a glimpse of the machinery at work, assisting your audience in understanding your nuances and ideas. Another way to put it: tell your story through the eyes of the very people who shape it. Do this, and your vision will secure more support than opposition.

2. Get and stay creative.

Easier said than done, especially in the face of a daunting task and widespread competition. But how? For starters, recognize your strengths and put your full weight behind what you're good at. For the City of Welland, the strategy's authors consider themselves creative types, so they felt at ease with generating and embracing some out-of-the-box ideas. If you're not creative, and this is not to say you shouldn't give it a try, don't get too caught up in trying to wear a suit that doesn't fit. It will only frustrate you, making you feel uncomfortable and self-conscious. Instead, find?your?zone and harvest it for all it's worth.?

?As an example, here's one of our more creative job postings:

This posting did three things for us:

1. It surprised the reader with a playful opening and creative tone, prompting further reading.
2. It sampled our corporate culture – in this case, highlighting our understanding of when to employ levity as a means to connect. ?
3. We called the reader to action; we bet that the right applicant would be curious enough to want to explore more. We didn't give every detail because an accountant knows what their job is, so why waste time telling them what they already know.

3. Create Champions

Your organization's greatest champions are the ones who work for you, but they won't always advocate for you on their own; it's not natural or required. So instead, you have to encourage and promote the culture you're establishing and reinforce how employees play a pivotal role in creating that culture.

Once you get the buy-in from your champions, you won’t have to ask them, they’ll sing your praises on their own.

In our strategy, we start from the moment someone gets hired. Then, with a "New Faces" feature, we briefly profile our new hires with a framed graphic and a direct quote. Doing this achieves two things:

1. Employees become more than a name and a title; you?see?the people who, in our case, will be assisting other colleagues and our residents to navigate the municipal waters.
2. You create a champion by sharing their rationale for joining the organization. It's a classic case of "don't take our word for it…".

Of course, it should not and cannot stop there. A pat on the back and welcome to the team followed by radio silence will quickly turn your engaged champions into disheartened adversaries. OK, maybe a little hyperbolic, but you get the idea. It takes some effort and organizing to keep on task, but it's entirely doable. For example, we created a years of service video series that congratulated employees from 1 year, 5 years, and in increments of 5 all the way to 35 for their dedication and work. But again, we got creative and had some fun.

In addition, we held a professional headshot day for employees who wished to take part. Given that we were embarking on a strategy focused on the professional recruitment and retention of talented employees, it was an easy decision to invest in our staff in this small way.

4. Inspire

You have a story to tell. Trust me. You do. You may need to reflect and peel back a few layers, but there's an inspiring story amidst your organization that you can tell the world. You just have to find a way to share it. Now, make no mistake, inspiring others is not easy, far from it. Focus your attention on what your community or organization values most. From social justice to inclusivity to celebrating internal awards, find a way to leave the reader with some inspiration, some desire to look closer at your organization and think: I want to be part of that.

But be careful. False inspiration is easy to sniff out and can create the exact opposite effect you're hoping to achieve. Keep your messaging on point and consistent. One out-of-place post can turn your strategy into dust.

5. Graphics that grab attention

Be original. Be bright. Be authentic. Not everyone has access to a graphic designer, and that's OK. There are plenty of free stock image sites available for sharp, clean images and graphics to accompany your post. Remember that the visual is the first thing people will notice, so make it count. Bright colours that aren't a visual assault on a reader's eyes help. So too does a graphic that is relevant to the story you're telling in your post. The graphic can convey just as much of the story as the text.

Don't forget to measure your success.

Set goals at the beginning of your strategy, some type of benchmark you can use to measure your plan at specific points (one month in, six months, completion, etc.). If you have nothing to measure against, start small and pick a few areas where you hope to see success. For example, we were facing an identity crisis in that no one knew who we were or what we were about – at least in the professional social landscape known as LinkedIn. So, we set our goals in four main areas:

1. Pageviews (have increased every month since launch)
2. Impressions (have risen to as many as 40,000 per month since launch)
3. Reactions (600 per month at its peak)
4. Applications (increase in quality and quantity; previous hard to fill positions have filled quickly)

There is no silver bullet, no magic dust to sprinkle on your attempt to share who you are, but there is a story; there's always a story, one that is solely yours. Finding that story takes time, takes work. Telling that story takes double the effort. Everyone is capable of telling a story, but it's how you tell it that can make all the difference in the world. And when you create champions of your story, you go from a single author to an army of speakers proudly reading your story out loud every chance they get.

This is how we did it. How will you do it?