TARGETjobs Breakfast News


SIMPLE AND TRUE


The 26th TARGETjobs Breakfast News, sponsored by Work Group and organised in association with AGR, was held at the Cumberland Hotel in February, where 200 senior representatives from graduate recruitment, agencies and universities gathered to listen to expert speakers on the theme of ‘Getting Your Message Across’.


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So it’s fine to talk about ‘unleashing people’s potential’ and providing ‘faster growth than you


ever thought possible’, he said, as long as, (a) it’s true and (b) you realise that most of your competitors are saying exactly the same thing.


R


ita Clifton, the doyenne of brands and former UK Chair of Interbrand, was the keynote speaker. She


drew on her own extensive experience of consumer brand marketing to make the powerful point that employer brands need the same relentless focus on quality and consistency. In the competitive world of graduate recruitment, an employer’s brand needs to be clear, consistently applied and be supported by, and reflective of, the leadership of the business. She said that popular companies were popular because they had a strong brand that communicated respect for the customer. If a graduate applicant had a bad experience during the recruitment process or the brand values were not demonstrated by the people they met, then the value of the brand would diminish. Rita’s views were built on by Simon Russell, Director of Consulting at Work Group, who has made a study of the last ten years of graduate recruitment marketing to identify the ‘tropes’ or clichés in advertising that confuse, annoy and otherwise fail to engage potential recruits. Students don’t want to be offered anything more than a truthful and clear picture of the work that they will be expected to do and of the organisation that is offering the work. One example of an effective ad came from L’Oreal where the simple message was “Within four weeks I was managing my own brand…” So it’s fine to talk about ‘unleashing people’s potential’ and providing ‘faster growth than you ever thought possible’, he said, as long as, (a) it’s true and (b) you realise that most of your competitors are saying exactly the same thing. So lay off the hype and the lazy clichés, he said, and be true to your brand. TARGETjobs Breakfast News welcomed a new regular contributor, Dennis Turner, former Chief Economist at


HSBC Bank, who opened proceedings by claiming that the recession had ended but that recovery was going to be sluggish and painful, especially in the light of Eurozone fragility. He warned the audience that we might never return to what was previously considered normal annual growth and therefore needed to come up with a new definition of ‘normal’. But there are reasons to be cheerful: inflation is low and interest rates will not be increasing any time soon. Dennis was followed by Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of


AGR, who reported on the findings of a recent survey of UK employers which revealed the new priorities of recruiters as: improving diversity, attracting the best talent, keeping hiring costs down and raising profile. Of these, improving diversity was considered to be the most important. Carl looked back on the last five years and concluded that things have changed and will continue to change but it will be evolutionary not revolutionary change. Recruiters’ priorities will remain similar but some will become more important than others in the years to come (especially a focus on school leaver recruitment). The main drivers of change will be technology, cost and the expectations of the business and potential employees. The presentations from this and previous TARGETjobs


Breakfast News events can be found on the dedicated website www.breakfast-news.com and background to Simon Russell’s contribution is on Work Group’s site www.workcomms.com. The next Breakfast News event will be on Thursday 25


April, after which there will be three more TARGETjobs Breakfast News events in 2013. Each event will have a different theme that is both timely and relevant for the members of the audience. Future events will include the importance of STEM graduates, social media and effective selection.


GRADUATE RECRUITER 33


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