Editor for Recruitment Marketing Susanne Mather shares a revolutionary candidate attraction strategy that secured 100% attendance rates and had 100% of candidates keen for a career pathway. 

In our business, we recognised an urgent need to hire more great salespeople for our Melbourne office. We knew we could attract great people because of our fantastic potential for fast-track to leadership and that career progression and professional development is something our candidate market really values. 

The challenge we faced was that in sales, there’s quite a big no-show tendency for group interview sessions (even though you can make these sessions really fun, interactive and informative, and deliver a positive candidate experience!). So we came up with a solution. 

Marketing leadership and development, not just a job 

We went to market advertising a career opportunity where we really emphasised career development and concrete learnings in year one. We offered a Mini-MBA in marketing, a Mini-MBA in recruitment, a recruitment consulting Australia qualification, an online training system for team leadership, 1:1 mentoring with our executive team and a 1-year fast-track to sales leadership.  

Information sessions with a twist

The other part of this recruitment initiative was to, instead of inviting people to an interview, or God forbid an “assessment”, we invited them to a networking and information gathering with a talk on the future of recruitment. 

(“Assessments” is a term you should never, ever use in recruitment marketing.) 

We hosted two events in Melbourne for our candidates to meet our executive and leadership team, network and hear an interesting talk on the future of recruitment; a morning session with barista-made coffee and breakfast, and an evening session with drinks and canapes. 

“We had a 100% attendance rate.” 

Because people were coming to hear an interesting presentation, network, and enjoy a drink and some delicious food with a group of people in the CBD, we had a 100% attendance rate, which is extraordinary for group information and interview sessions.

We shared more information about our organisation and the role we were offering. We then invited our attendees, if they wanted to, for a face to face interview. 100% of our attendees signed up, as they had warmed to our team members, our organisation, and had more in-depth information about the opportunity. 

We made two successful hires from these sessions, and we’re so proud of the amazing work they are accomplishing. We’re very invested in ensuring we fulfil on our promise to them.  

Our new Future Team Leader, Alex, said, “The openness and authenticity of the leaders describing where the business is, and the current people in the role describing the true demands and expectations during the session made me not only excited, but I gained a true understanding about the position.” 

Since our success with these events, we’ve used the same process to recruit for Scout Talent, our Candidate Management System (CMS) and recruitment software solutions provider. Our Head of Sales has made five wonderful high-quality hires form that session, which is an incredibly high number from that intake. We have also used it again in Melbourne to welcome new Account Managers, emphasising learning and development in year one, as we’ve identified this is something our target talent market really value. (Millennials are expected to comprise 50% of the workforce by 2020, and 75% in 2025.) 

“It requires less time investment.” 

You may be surprised to learn that it took us less time to invest. We managed to attract a great talent pool, confirm their attendance and “wow” them by sharing useful knowledge and showcasing our business and fantastic team members. 

We ran our sessions for an hour and a half in the morning, and again in the afternoon. We also held individual one-on-one sessions with all our attendees who were interested in the role. By the time our candidates arrived, got to know us and our organisation, they were able to say “yes” to the role with confidence. So we had a higher chance of making a hire. 

Putting your best foot forward

If you’re considering investing in this strategy, ensure your team members are polished, dressed to the nines and smiling, with high energy and ready to network. You need to put your best foot forward and ensure your team members present themselves as the kind of people your attendees want to work with. 

You can choose to host events at your offices so your candidates can see your work environment, or alternatively, you can host it an attractive venue to really show off to your candidates.  

This is a fantastic new strategy to gain great return on investment and win top talent.