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.

Get in touch…

marcus.body@workcomms.com020 7492 0057