If you’re interested in the latest talent attraction and employer branding trends and strategies, what better way to learn than from one of the World’s Most Attractive Employers, EY! In a Recruitment Marketing Magazine exclusive, we interviewed Jacqui McKeown, Oceania Employer Brand for EY, to discover what they are doing in student recruitment, how they are creating brand ambassadors, their social strategy, and more.
Even if you don’t have a dedicated employer branding team like EY, you can still benefit from learning about their winning strategies. EY, named one of 2018’s World’s Most Attractive Employers by Universum, shares how their purpose of “building a better working world” shapes their forward-thinking talent attraction strategy.
We asked Jacqui McKeown, Oceania Employer Brand for EY, about the employer branding strategies they are using to attract the best people.
“I began at EY ten years ago and moved into attraction and selection,” said Jacqui. “After moving into employer branding two years ago, I now look after the Australia and New Zealand markets, and also focus on student recruitment in universities and schools in New Zealand.”
So, how is EY attracting students, and what other employer branding strategies are they using?
Recruiting students
“The war for talent is so competitive in this space. We’ve always been doing campus events to attract youth to join us and showcase the career they can have with us. We have campaigns that we work on throughout the year to recruit graduates, vacationers, and cadets, and we also run competitions to raise brand awareness on campus with different student groups.”
The employer branding team is responsible for their overall campaign messaging for recruitment efforts, creating marketing collateral such as flyers and banners, as well as content for digital, print, and their two careers websites for students and experienced professionals.
Employee profile stories
“It’s great to have content around our different service lines and areas of the business. One way that we provide insights and showcase what our people do is through people profile stories. We’re really looking to attract people from STEM backgrounds and provide insights for students about how their degree can fit with the work we do by showing what kind of work is available, what they can gain by working here, and what the teams and people are like.”
Separating social channels: clients and candidates
Interestingly, EY uses LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, but distinguishes their social channels, with channels for their corporate brand and channels for their candidates (which the employer branding team manages).
“We have two different audiences: clients and candidates. Different audiences are looking for different content. We have a strong relationship with our Brand, Marketing and Communications team and work together to ensure that we leverage and showcase the best of our global and local content for our audience.”
Data tracking
EY prioritises data tracking to ensure their content is hitting the mark. Part of this is analysing which images are working, the best times to post, how much engagement and reach they are getting through all their social channels, how many visits they are getting to their careers pages, from which sources, and more. This, in turn, drives their strategy.
Learning and development
EY offers leadership programs, and learning and development opportunities for their people, supporting them in their career development.
This year, they started offering their people “digital badges” when they learn “future” skills such as design thinking, AI, data science, data visualisation, inclusive leadership and more. This is just one way EY sets their people up to succeed. People who earn badges can add these to their LinkedIn profile (another great form of sharing and engagement!).
Creating brand ambassadors
The best employer brands create and empower brand advocates. EY has brand ambassadors throughout campuses and internal programs for people to opt-in as talent ambassadors. EY has an internal brand advocacy tool to empower their people to share content that resonates with them.
“EY people can propose content they find interesting, (such as thought leadership pieces, or on topics such as the future of work, diversity, inclusion, or industry news). Then, we distribute a range of suggested content to our people, they choose their favourite pieces, and share within their networks!”
Showcasing values
Employer branding is never one-dimensional. Part of it encompasses showcasing your organisational values. EY’s Employer Branding team works with their Diversity & Inclusion team to find opportunities and to promote their values to candidates and clients alike. It was their Diversity & Inclusion Team that entered EY’s submissions into the 2018 LGBTI Inclusion Award, which led to them taking out this year’s award! Check out their incredible video about winning the award.
EY also has a Foundation Team that manages their social responsibility and charitable involvement. Four of their Australian offices competed in Tour de Office week, a charity that creatively combines corporate wellness with philanthropy. Tour de Office is an in-office cycling relay event where employees ride on stationary bikes over the course of a week, competing, engaging, and raising money for their chosen charity.
Through Tour de Office, EY was able to build their employer brand and showcase their values of corporate health and philanthropy. The event created a lot of excitement and engagement, with plenty of photos to share on social media.
“Because of the size of EY, it’s important for us, the Employer Branding Team, to maintain good relationships with the Social Media, Branding, Foundation, and Diversity & Inclusion teams so we can showcase the great variety of initiatives and events that take place within our organisation.”
Jacqui’s challenge is activating EY’s global message locally. It’s important for EY’s messaging to resonate with their candidate market, thus the Employer Branding Team has to produce content that is relevant to the local market.
“For example, we recently held EY Care Day where our people in Australia could choose a local school and volunteer there for a day, doing gardening, painting, and other work to benefit the school. We received photos from people on the ground, then published them through our social channels to give people an insight about how our people give back to the community.”
Video content
It’s hard to miss EY’s beautiful video content. Some of their videos feature their global messaging, and others are targeted more locally. They showcase their people stories and careers, as well as specific areas of the business, such as auditing, transactions, and advisory.
They also share videos about living with purpose, how EY is shaping the world, and what they are doing to build the future.
“Other organisations focus a lot on print and words. Nowadays, it’s all about how to bring your story to life through video. We think about whether candidates are interested in professional or raw style videos (we do both!), and what works with our messaging. We’re working hard to move towards more video content.”
What’s next?
The EY Employer Branding team’s next big piece of work will be around their March campaign to attract graduates. Jacqui will be working behind the scenes on ways to market the theme of their campaign, updating their content, and developing and designing marketing materials to support their campus recruiters throughout Australia.
“We give them the tools and resources they need to speak to candidates about the type of experience they can gain at EY. For example, ‘the future of work’ is a big theme for us. It’s about the world and technology changing, and things being disrupted rapidly. So we have to find a way to talk about the types of careers candidates can have in this changing environment.
Being a global organisation, EY’s people can benefit from alliances, gaining skills and experiences in different locations, industries and technologies.
“Our purpose is, ‘building a better working world’, so we are upskillling our people so they can thrive in the future of work. We encourage them to develop an analytical, global, and innovative mindset. Because the world is changing, we are embracing change and the future of work.”
The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and interviewee, not Ernst & Young. This article provides general information, does not constituteadvice and should not be relied on as such. Professional advice should be sought prior to any action being taken in reliance on any of the information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
Is your organisation using any of the above employer branding strategies? Let us know in the comments.
Want to share your organisation’s recruitment marketing strategies in an article with us? Get in touch with us.
1 comment
[…] What makes you a World’s Most Attractive Employer?… […]