It’s a common challenge: all businesses now are tech businesses. So they need the best tech-savvy talent to survive and thrive. The big problem is that the best talent wants to work for the FAANG companies: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google. Not only do these companies seem glamorous to a young grad from Birmingham – Alabama or the West Midlands – they also have impossibly deep pockets. They put forward a compelling offer – so what can you do to attract and recruit tech-savvy talent?
Avis in the early 1960s was perennially second place in the market. Try as they might, they just couldn’t dislodge Hertz from number one. So, they turned to advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, who decided that their No. 2 status was a strength, rather than a weakness. It meant that they couldn’t afford to be anything other than the best. The ‘We Try Harder’ slogan was born. In the end, this ran for 50 years and became arguably the best challenger marketing campaign ever. It was so successful that, for a time, worried Hertz execs joked that Avis would soon have to stop running it because it would cease to be true.
At the time, the idea that a company would admit that it was anything other than the best in their market was anathema. It opened the door for a whole new way of thinking about and marketing challengers in the market-place – think DDB’s ‘Think Small’ ad for the VW Beetle. If we jump forward to the modern world, the ability of companies to be open about their shortcomings is a valuable part of modern company culture that builds trust with your employees. We’re living in the 'Age of Transparency'. They know you’re not perfect, so don’t jeopardise your relationship with them by pretending you are. Fess up to the reality. Through this, you can capitalise on the opportunity that is open to you.
Your Greatest Weakness is your Greatest Strength
“Every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage.”
—Napoleon Hill
In his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill tells the story of his deaf-mute son, Blair. He was examined by a wide range of doctors and hearing specialists, all of whom told him that he would never be able to hear. This was the early 20th century, so hearing aids, support, even normal life was beyond most people in a similar condition. Despite this, throughout his early life, Hill told him that the deafness that he was born with was in fact his greatest strength. Blair put complete faith in his father that it was.
He persevered through schooling with very little in the way of external help. This made him extremely driven to succeed. When he wanted something, he would work to achieve it. His elder brother on the other hand did not have the same disability and so lacked this hunger.
Blair was completely deaf until he received a hearing aid, while at college. He was completely blown away by being able to hear for the first time in his life. He contacted the hearing aid company and worked with them to improve their marketing so that they could reach hundreds of thousands of deaf-mute people all around the world. He created a school to teach similar people to hear and speak for the first time in their lives and helped many thousands. If he believe that his weakness offered him an opportunity, he would never had been able to change the lives of so many people.
Great. What does that mean though?
The point is that you are in the position of a challenger. The fact that you are not a FAANG company is your greatest strength. These companies are great in many ways, but they are not as young and fast moving as they once were and tech is the heart and soul of their businesses. If you are a financial, automotive or drinks brand you can offer the whole tech experience, but you also have a whole other level on top of that. This represents an exciting challenge for those who want to grasp it. The point is, you can’t beat them at being them, you need to beat them by being you. You need to be bold, be different and be real. What do we mean by that though?
Being Different: Vodafone
One of the challenges that Vodafone has is that most grads think of them as a company which operates mobile phone shops. In reality, they are a hi-tech communications company with opportunities for staff members to travel and work all over the world. One thing which makes them particularly special is that they have an extremely accepting and inclusive culture. Because of this, they have set out to be the No.1 employer for women and LGBT+.
This means that they can share really engaging and thought-provoking and content like the video above. It is an extremely clear illustration of their purpose as a business. By sharing this in a wide variety of their content they allow potential employees to decide to align themselves with the brand. This leads to better recruits and far more engaged employees. We will share another post on the value of purpose in recruitment and engagement soon. Watch this space.
Related: To attract the next generation, companies need to show that they can keep pace with technological innovation. That’s why video is key when recruiting for Generation 2030.
Being Bold: BMW
Few clients are willing to be really be bold when it comes to it. We start many projects with high aims, but the reality is that it takes guts to go for take the breaks off. BMW are a company interested in how they can attract the best tech-grads to help them become a transportation provider of the future. In order to deliver on this goal, they need to attract top software engineers who can build and integrate the technological complexities that make a modern car a driving computer. This is a challenge for a company that is over 100 years old and is not necessarily the first example that a possible recruit would think of when listing tech focused companies to apply to.
The BMW Facebook page benefits from lots of views, but too many of them were bouncing off. There was also a disconnect between the consumer (outward facing) brand and the employer (inward facing) brand. The brand Facebook page is a delicious collection of glossy car shots (if you like that kind of thing), while the recruitment page left a little to be desired. Luckily, they had lots of material from the main brand which could be repurposed into something very different to the traditional employer brand. They wanted to use that to sell the excitement and energy of a job at the company. With the addition of a some specially shot narrative footage and sound design, the Facebook page was transformed. Leading to significantly better visitor retention - differentiating the page for visitors. This was only possible because they we willing to push it and do something different.
Being Real: Capital One
So...
In reality, there are a wide range of ways that video can help you to target and recruit these hard to reach grads. Each of these three approaches works for their audience, but there is no reason why they shouldn't work for you. There is nothing stopping you from combining one or more of them. The most important thing for you to do with any video or recruitment project is to be really clear at the outset what you are trying to achieve, who you want to recruit and what you want to say about your company culture. We pulled together a worksheet to help you to start off any project on the right foot. You can download it right here:
You may also be interested in our guide to Using Video to Attract and Recruit the Best Candidates.
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