Youth recruitment in construction needs a ‘glow up’

The way we promote careers in our industry hasn’t changed since the 1970s.?

Careers fairs have their place, but the ‘return on effort’ ratio is tiny. One day out of the office in the hope that you can inspire young people with a short conversation so they apply for a job with you is usually a waste of valuable time.?

In the marketing sector, ‘youth marketing’ is a specialism. There is a complex system of mindsets, environments, influences and life stages that marketers must consider.?

And the same is true for recruitment in this sector.?

The right marketing is vital when promoting the amazing opportunities in the construction industry.?

However, for those of us without a specialist marketing division, we have found some easier and efficient?ways of getting in front of significantly more young people using the right social media channel.?

The results are clear. We have seen a significant increase in enquiries for Apprenticeships. We now have our largest intake ever this September!?So, our tips are...

Be where they are?

Young people are not actively looking for you. You need to find them and ‘get in their faces’.?

The channels used by teenagers are different to what we typically use in the industry.?

Be careful looking at stats that say large numbers of young people are on mainstream social channels like Facebook.?They might be registered on the platform, but are not heavy, engaged users.??

So LinkedIn and Facebook should not be core to your strategy!?

You just need to speak to young people to know that the mainstream social channels they really engage with are TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Twitter is also popular at certain times such as during exams.?

The other platforms can be used but should not be central to your planning [but important for different audiences – see next section!].?

For example, we create content for a TikTok orientated audience and then repurpose it for a different audience on other channels. TikTok gets the best response for us at GKR.?

Don’t forget the influencers??

We don’t mean social media influencers. We are talking about good old fashioned parental influence. Young people still listen to their parents!?

Unfortunately, construction has a perception issue. If young people are open minded about joining the industry, parents may not be.?

Being able to reach parents in their environments, such as Facebook, will be an important secondary objective.?

As any parent knows, only the very best will do for their children.?So the messaging around apprenticeships need to show a rewarding career path and remove any fears of misconceptions they have.?

These key messages will ultimately be similar to those used to target young people themselves. They will need to be armed with info that gets their parents buy in when they announce that they want to begin a career in construction.?

There is a lack of understanding about apprenticeships as an alternative career path which needs to also be tackled.?

Our messaging included:?

• Qualifying in an NVQ Level 2, moving on to higher and supervisory qualifications?
• Earn while you learn?
• Supportive environment – friendly teams and mentoring?
• High earning potential very quickly?

This reassures parents and school leavers that this is both a safe and supportive environment for a young person and has a recognized training route with excellent career potential.?

Make the message relatable??

Don’t be too corporate. And obviously not too far the other way either.?

Carefully consider your tone of voice, what messages your audience wants to see and what they will respond to.?

Young people like visuals - they need to see the environment they may be working in.?

Any text should be short and scannable so you can quickly read and get the main points across.?

Use photos and videos to get across messages. These are much more attention-grabbing forms of content.?

Show you understand the decisions they are making at that time by reflecting it in what you visually represent or say.?

Remember that parents may see your messaging or ads. They will worry about their children going into their first job. So, showing the messages that can reassure them is vital.??

We also need to consider the perceptions of the industry we need to change. Show our safe and friendly working environment and remind them of the qualifications and career opportunities available.??

Create content for your audience and channel?

We are continuously looking at what is trending on each platform and responding to each.?

For example, we saw that Twitter became extremely popular during the exam season. Annually, students use the platform to post memes reacting to the exam that they sat.

Using the same trending hashtags associated with these posts, we created our own memes to get the attention of students to attract them into our apprenticeship scheme. The use of the right and trending hashtags across all platforms is crucial to get onto the feeds of your target audiences.???

Last year we created a TikTok account which we have utilised within our strategy. TikTok is THE platform to use to get in the faces of young people.?

Our first apprenticeship orientated TikTok got over 70k views and we had tens of calls come in with applications within the first week of the campaign launch.??

This had more of an impact than any careers fair or advertising we have done!??

Plan how they enquire for jobs???

Once you have found your audience, make the enquiry process as simple as possible.??

Have a landing page on your website specifically for apprentices to apply on, with short form information that they can skim through. Then give them the opportunity to find out more about the scheme.??

Use exciting visuals to initially intrigue your audience. Then you can create online brochures that help to distribute longer form information that future apprentices and parents will want to see.??

In summary, our top tips are...?

• Know who you are trying to communicate with?
• Use the right platforms for your audience?
• Use the right hashtags??
• Use trending content?
• Be creative??
• Stand out from others?

~Blog written by Summer Rowswell, Marketing Apprentice