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Recruiting Science Graduates is a real challenge - discuss

Introduction
Tarmac approached us with “a really difficult problem”. They needed to recruit a number of recent Science Graduates. Their target was to attract enough suitable candidates to shortlist 18 to invite to an Assessment Centre. They hoped to perhaps appoint two or three from this shortlist.

Of O’Connor’s range of HR services, this case study demonstrates:

• Campaign planning
• Online advertising
• Careers website development
• Graduate recruitment
• Diversity policy and monitoring

“A really difficult problem”
Everyone knows that there is a major shortage of high calibre Science Graduates. In previous years (before we won the account!), Tarmac had similar requirements and had used a combination of press advertising and recruitment agencies to fill these positions - with poor results. Understandably, therefore, Tarmac’s expectations of success were not very high.

How to communicate the role
The challenge we had to address was how to encapsulate a relatively undefined role and communicate it to quite a broad audience. Tarmac was looking for leaders of the future and the role would only become defined after selected candidates had sampled many roles across the breadth of the Tarmac organisation. The audience, whilst specific in the sense that they had to be Science Graduates, could have graduated over the past five years, could have studied a number of disciplines within the Science faculty and had to be prepared to work across the UK and internationally.

The visual concept
Acknowledging the complexity of the role and the candidate type, we decided not to simplify the message but make a virtue of said complexity. Yet, we wanted to talk to the candidates in what was, to them, a familiar language. Rather than a standard headline, we came up with the idea of an equation - BSc/BEng < 5yrs? Our thinking was that, amidst a sea of other headlines - “career opportunity”, “Management potential?” etc - our ideal candidate would home in on the equation. Out of this idea came the molecular structure concept. Again, this would appeal to our audience and they would enjoy following the paths within the diagram to reach an understanding of the message.

Planning the campaign
We needed to plan a cost-effective way to reach the maximum number of potential candidates. By monitoring visitor activity on Tarmac’s graduate website, we knew that targeted emails had worked successfully in attracting interest. This also enabled us to email suitable candidates directly (in this case, those with a relevant degree at 2:1 or higher).

We utilised the email messaging services provided by the two leading graduate recruitment publishers - Prospects and Milkround. The downside of this approach was the strict word count limitations - lengthy emails tended to be ignored, either by Universities’ ‘anti spam’ software or by the students themselves. We therefore kept the email content concise and delivered the full message via a hyperlink to a dedicated microsite.

The microsite
The site allowed interested candidates to read more about the role and Tarmac as an employer. It included full role profiles and the facility to apply online. This method of communicating the role would appeal to the target audience and would allow them to find out more and submit their application quickly and easily.

Additional exposure
Posters were produced to target prospective Graduates who were still at University (approaching graduation). We arranged with selected Universities for these to be prominently displayed. The poster needed a striking visual theme to quickly capture candidates’ interest and, again, we utilised the molecular structure concept.

Results
The microsite received hundreds of visitors and Tarmac received over 230 applications. Furthermore, the candidates were of a very high quality - the targeted approach to candidates and the detail available to them on the microsite were crucial factors.

Tarmac had hoped to have enough suitable candidates to invite 18 people to a one-day Assessment Centre, with a view to selecting two or three for final shortlist. However, with so many good candidates, Tarmac invited 35 people to two Assessment Centres and made
five appointments.

Overall, the whole campaign cost less than previous years, whilst securing more candidates - understandably, Tarmac was very pleased!