Recruitment Newsletter – January 14, 2009

Success Story

The Cleveland Clinic West suffered for years from a shortage of nurses. The lack of staff created overtime stress on staff nurses as well as “quality of care” issue for patients. The radio creative effectively communicated the emotional benefits associated with a nursing job at Cleveland Clinic West. The client received an incredible influx of applications from qualified nurses (many whom were currently employed). The campaign dramatically reduced nurse “vacancy” rates in all 4 hospitals.

 

“Best campaign we ever did.”

- Meg Duffy, SR Nurse Recruiter, Cleveland Clinic West

 

 

Employers use gifts to lure nursing hires

By Dinesh Ramde

MILWAUKEE — Please, please accept a high-paying job with us. In fact, just swing by for an interview and we’ll give you a chance to win cash and prizes.

Sounds too good to be true, especially in an economy riddled with job cuts in nearly every industry. But applicants for nursing jobs are still so scarce that recruiters have been forced to get increasingly inventive.

One Michigan company literally rolled out a red carpet at a recent hiring event. Residential Home Health, which provides in-home nursing for seniors on Medicare, lavished registered nurses and other health care workers with free champagne and a trivia contest hosted by game-show veteran Chuck Woolery. Prizes included a one-year lease for a 2009 SUV, hotel stays and dinners.

“We’re committed to finding ways to creatively engage with passive job seekers,” said David Curtis, president of the Madison Heights-based company.

Recruiters like Curtis may have little choice. The long-standing U.S. nurse shortage has led to chronic understaffing that can threaten patient care and nurses’ job satisfaction, and the problem is expected to worsen.

The shortage has been operating since World War II on an eight- to 10-year cycle, industry experts say. Each time the number of nurses reaches a critical low, the government adds funding and hospitals upgrade working conditions. But as the deficit eases, those retention efforts fade and eventually the old conditions return, often driving nurses into other professions.

“We recently had a hiring event where, for experienced nurses to interview — just to interview — we gave them $50 gas cards,” said Tom Zinda, the director of recruitment at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare in the Milwaukee-area city of Glendale. “We really try to get as creative as we can. It’s a tough position to fill.”

Recruiters across the country have tried similar techniques, offering chair massages, lavish catering and contests for flat-screen TVs, GPS devices and shopping sprees worth as much as $1,000.

Even strong salaries aren’t doing the trick. Registered nurses made an average of $62,480 in 2007, ranging from a mean of $78,550 in California to $49,140 in Iowa, according to government statistics. Including overtime, usually abundantly available, the most experienced nurses can earn more than $100,000.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts about 233,000 additional jobs will open for registered nurses each year through 2016, on top of about 2.5 million existing positions. But only about 200,000 candidates passed the Registered Nurse licensing exam last year, and thousands of nurses leave the profession each year.

MILWAUKEE — Please, please accept a high-paying job with us. In fact, just swing by for an interview and we’ll give you a chance to win cash and prizes.

Sounds too good to be true, especially in an economy riddled with job cuts in nearly every industry. But applicants for nursing jobs are still so scarce that recruiters have been forced to get increasingly inventive.

One Michigan company literally rolled out a red carpet at a recent hiring event. Residential Home Health, which provides in-home nursing for seniors on Medicare, lavished registered nurses and other health care workers with free champagne and a trivia contest hosted by game-show veteran Chuck Woolery. Prizes included a one-year lease for a 2009 SUV, hotel stays and dinners.

“We’re committed to finding ways to creatively engage with passive job seekers,” said David Curtis, president of the Madison Heights-based company.

Recruiters like Curtis may have little choice. The long-standing U.S. nurse shortage has led to chronic understaffing that can threaten patient care and nurses’ job satisfaction, and the problem is expected to worsen.

The shortage has been operating since World War II on an eight- to 10-year cycle, industry experts say. Each time the number of nurses reaches a critical low, the government adds funding and hospitals upgrade working conditions. But as the deficit eases, those retention efforts fade and eventually the old conditions return, often driving nurses into other professions.

“We recently had a hiring event where, for experienced nurses to interview — just to interview — we gave them $50 gas cards,” said Tom Zinda, the director of recruitment at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare in the Milwaukee-area city of Glendale. “We really try to get as creative as we can. It’s a tough position to fill.”

Recruiters across the country have tried similar techniques, offering chair massages, lavish catering and contests for flat-screen TVs, GPS devices and shopping sprees worth as much as $1,000.

Even strong salaries aren’t doing the trick. Registered nurses made an average of $62,480 in 2007, ranging from a mean of $78,550 in California to $49,140 in Iowa, according to government statistics. Including overtime, usually abundantly available, the most experienced nurses can earn more than $100,000.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts about 233,000 additional jobs will open for registered nurses each year through 2016, on top of about 2.5 million existing positions. But only about 200,000 candidates passed the Registered Nurse licensing exam last year, and thousands of nurses leave the profession each year

[Source: http://www.northjersey.com/news/health/Employers_use_gifts__to_lure_nursing_hires.html]

 

http://www.buynewyorkradio.com

Recruitment Newsletter – January 7, 2009

Success Story

The New York Police Department needed to increase the number of applicants to take the Police Officer Exam held two times a year. Over the 4½ years NYPD has been on the air, they have moved to year round enrollment and have increased the number of weeks on Radio and Online.

 

“I cannot afford not to be on the radio for recruitment. People hear the commercials and can immediately complete the application.”

- George Cassella, Vice President, Bernard Hodes Group

 

 

The Benefits of Utilizing Broadcast Media for Employee Testimonial Advertising Campaigns

By John Tannheimer

This is the third article in a series of three

 

In this three-part series, we have been examining how broadcast can be a powerful medium for employer branding, direct response, and employee testimonials. Part three of this series will focus on how this advertising vehicle can be used to facilitate successful employee testimonial campaigns.

 

One of the most effective ways to understand the true essence of a company is through the voices of actual employees. This can be accomplished with employee testimonials—which provide jobseekers with invaluable insights from, and information about, a company’s employees. Employee testimonials have proven to be a very powerful vehicle for recruitment purposes. It is understood that hearing from company employees provides jobseekers with a more intimate look at, and better understanding of, what they can expect from a position of interest. When jobseekers are actively seeking a new career, it is very difficult for them to understand the real culture and personality of a company. They are informed of their work responsibilities and duties; however, an understanding of the overall atmosphere of the organization is just as important to know before jobseekers are willing to accept a change in career. Employee testimonials provide this key element by giving the candidates a window into company culture through real-life employees to whom they can instantly relate.

 

Although employee testimonials have been a successful recruitment tool for company campaigns, mainly through print media as well as on company websites, incorporating employee testimonials into broadcast media has many advantages as well. The one thing that is more effective than reading employee testimonials is hearing and/or seeing them, which is exactly what testimonials incorporated into radio, television, or other broadcast media such as online video and podcasts can do. What makes employee testimonials in broadcast media so effective is the realism and authenticity which they possess—it is this realism that jobseekers need to hear and/or see in order to truly believe and connect with the employee as well as their message.

 

In these media overloaded times, it can be difficult for a candidate to trust something that is written about a company; however, it is much more compelling when he/she can actually hear and/or see it being said. People can easily pickup on a genuine employee testimonial—if you try to make real people act, you will end up with a testimonial that sounds rehearsed and fake. In order to achieve the realism it takes to produce a successful testimonial, you need to hear and see real people, speaking of real situations in an unrehearsed fashion.

 

The live, interactive nature of broadcast media creates a bond with the listeners/viewers and the employee giving the testimonials. The potential candidate can easily pickup on the honesty of what the employees are conveying, which creates trust. Once this trust is established, the jobseeker becomes involved in their career (or work) experience. They sympathize and relate when they hear the employee’s real-life situations and feelings about the day-to-day routine and overall experiences within an organization.

 

The true power of employee testimonials in broadcast media comes from the real and genuine recommendations. The people providing these recommendations are not paid actors; they are real-life employees with whom candidates can feel a human connection. A study by Henley Centre reported that 76% of customers often choose a product or service based on a recommendation. But do people trust recommendations from radio and television? The answer is yes. A study published by Radio Days 2 found that consumers trust information from television 5% more than from print media, and information from radio 24% more than print media.

 

Good testimonials are interesting to listen to/watch and are more believable than voice-over announcer spots. They shed light on the intangibles of the workplace. It is not hard to differentiate between a paid actor or voice-over and a real person expressing his/her opinions and his/her their experiences.

 

Successful employee testimonials are a great benefit for any recruitment advertising campaign; however, incorporating these testimonials into your broadcast media message can only strengthen these benefits by giving the testimonial more realism and credibility. By combining employee testimonials with broadcast advertising, you can be sure that your message will connect with the qualified candidates you seek.

  [Source: http://www.shaker.com/newsletter/summer-08/utilizing-broadcast-media]

 

 

http://www.buynewyorkradio.com

Upgrading Talent

A downturn can give smart companies a chance to upgrade their talent.

The McKinsey Quarterly DECEMBER 2008 • Matthew Guthridge, John R. McPherson, and William J. Wolf

Downturns place companies’ talent strategies at risk. As deteriorating performance forces increasingly aggressive head count reductions, it’s easy to lose valuable contributors inadvertently, damage morale or the company’s external reputation among potential employees, or drop the ball on important training and staff-development programs. But there is a better way. By emphasizing talent in cost-cutting efforts, employers can intelligently strengthen the value proposition they offer current and potential employees and position themselves strongly for growth when economic conditions improve. 

Companies can maintain their attractiveness to internal and external talent by using cost-cutting efforts as an opportunity to redesign jobs so that they become more engaging for the people undertaking them. A job’s level of responsibility, degree of autonomy, and span of control all contribute to employee satisfaction. Head count reductions provide a powerful incentive to use existing resources better by breaking down silos and increasing the span of control for challenging managerial roles—thus improving the odds of engaging key talent in the redesigned jobs.

Consider Cisco Systems’ approach to downsizing during the last recession. In 2001, as deteriorating financial performance forced the elimination of 8,500 jobs, Cisco redesigned roles and responsibilities to improve cross-functional alignment and reduce duplication.¹ The more collaborative environment fostered by such moves increased workplace satisfaction and productivity for many employees. Initiatives like Cisco’s succeed when companies focus on redesigning jobs and retaining talent at the outset of downsizing efforts.

In addition to redesigning roles, companies cutting jobs should carefully protect training and development programs. These are not only essential to maintaining workplace morale and increasing long-term productivity, but they also give people the skills necessary to carry out redesigned jobs that have greater spans of control. During the last recession, International Paper continued offering classes at its leadership institute by replacing external facilitators with the company’s senior leaders.² This approach not only reduced the cost of delivery but also, thanks to the involvement of senior leaders, redirected the content of the leadership program by tying it more closely to decisions and skills affecting the company’s current performance. Similarly, IBM retained its employee-development programs during its major performance challenges in the mid- to late 1980s. It took the arrival of Lou Gerstner as CEO and a new strategy to turn the company around, but the historical investments IBM had made in developing its people helped achieve a successful turnaround.

Before undertaking widespread layoffs, companies should use their performance-management processes to help identify strong employees. Companies that conduct disciplined, meritocratic assessments of performance and potential are well placed to make good personnel decisions. These companies should also bring additional strategic considerations to the decisions. They should assess which types of talent drive business value today and which will drive it three years from now, as well as which talent segments are currently available and which will be in the future—keeping in mind, for example, that new MBAs will be equally available in two years. They should also look at which types of talent would take years to replace or develop—for instance, skilled electric utility engineers in an environment where retirements are dramatically reducing supply. Performance management well informed by key strategic questions can minimize the negative cultural impact of downsizing, improve the bottom line, and help identify talented people the company should try to retain.

Companies that are reducing staff must focus relentlessly on the internal cultural and external reputational implications of cost-cutting efforts. Although strong employer brands are resilient, it’s difficult to reestablish brand strength once the culture has been damaged. The way many companies conduct large-scale downsizing decreases efficiency, morale, and motivation on the part of remaining employees. It also increases voluntary turnover among high performers and compromises a company’s ability to attract strong talent in the future, as potential employees wonder how risky it is to take a job there.

Counteracting these tendencies requires creativity. In 2001, Cisco gave generous severance packages and assistance with job searches to the workers it laid off and launched a program that paid one-third of salary, plus benefits and stock options, to ex-employees who agreed to work for a local charity or community organization. Steps like these protected Cisco’s employer brand by attempting to make departing employees feel better about Cisco and underscored the company’s commitment to its people for those who remained. The results were measurable: employee satisfaction remained high, and Cisco retained a prominent spot on Fortune magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For” list.

A strong employer brand is also important for companies undertaking selective recruitment even as they cut personnel costs elsewhere. Using slowdowns to uncover and hire displaced talent is often fruitful. Studies have shown that although overall levels of recruitment may level off or even fall, thequality of workers hired rises in recessions. ³ And opportunities to find and hire displaced talent may be particularly valuable during this downturn, as massive downsizing in the financial-services sector makes available to nonfinancial companies a large pool of highly educated and motivated professionals who previously might not have considered jobs outside their previous employers or industries.

Some organizations are moving surprisingly quickly in response to these opportunities in the talent market. In late October 2008, the US Internal Revenue Service hosted a Manhattan career fair targeted at displaced financial-services professionals. More than 1,300 people attended, many standing in line for three hours to learn more about an employer that offered a newly interesting brand of “job stability.”

Cost cutting during a downturn is often necessary to ensure a company’s current profitability and future competitiveness. Rather than freezing all hiring and employee-development programs, companies should use this period as an opportunity to upgrade talent and better engage existing staff. This means reinvesting a percentage of the capital liberated from cost cutting into, for example, selective recruiting and development programs and in efforts to safeguard the culture and to redesign jobs so that they are more engaging to the remaining employees. 

Recruitment Newsletter – December 17, 2008

Success Story

Bayfront Medical Center was challenged to recruit qualified candidates to fill it’s R.N. positions due to the “severe” nursing shortage in Florida.

 

“When utilizing the radio advertising, our Registered Nurse event had over 40 Register Nurses attend, and we have made almost 10 hires. This has been our most successful nursing event to date.”

–Stan Lasater, National Sales Director, Axxis Advertising

  

Incorporating Broadcast Media into Recruitment Advertising Campaigns

By Mike Pakowski

This is the second article in a series of three

In this three-part series, you will learn how broadcast and out-of-home media can be powerful media for employer branding, direct response, and employee testimonials. Part two of this series will focus on how these advertising vehicles can be used to facilitate a successful direct response recruitment advertising campaign.

  

Whether you are being proactive and looking to build upon your existing talent pool or reactive due to sudden turnover, a strategically planned and executed direct response advertising campaign can contribute to meeting an employer’s recruiting objectives. It starts with one or more employment opportunities that are currently available or will be available in the near future. Combine that with some attention-grabbing creative and you’ve got the basic elements for a successful direct response recruitment advertising campaign. Now comes the hard part – how to get the word out about these employment opportunities and get them into the hands of the right candidates.

 

A traditional media outlet such as print is one effective way. The various on-line advertising options such as job postings, banner ads, email blasts, and Search Engine Marketing are also tremendously effective means for generating buzz and building qualified applicant flow. There are also several broadcast and out-of-home media vehicles that can be used to successfully spread the word about employment opportunities and bring qualified candidates to an employer’s doorstep.

 

In part one of this series, broadcast media (radio and television) and out-of-home media (cinema and outdoor) outlets were discussed as effective ways to accomplish employer branding objectives. In this article I will be providing examples of how broadcast and out-of-home (aka “non-traditional,” “alternative” and “out-of-the-box”) media can help an employer meet and exceed their hiring goals through a successful and well-thought-out direct response broadcast and out-of-home media campaign.

 

Radio advertising is a great way to incorporate a broadcast element into a direct response recruitment campaign. Because an active job seeker doesn’t normally use the radio as a job search tool, radio functions as a means to reach a passive or impulsive job seeker. However, with the right “call to action” message and a well-thought-out schedule, an employer can grab the attention of an active job seeker who may be using the radio recreationally and can pique the interest of a passive or impulsive job seeker. Radio can also be a great way to promote an upcoming career-related event such as an open house or career fair. According to the Arbitron Radio Study: What Happens When the Spots Come On? The Impact of Commercials on the Radio Audience, on average, radio holds more than 92% of its lead-in audience during commercial breaks. The same study also points out that radio audience levels do not drop significantly between the third, fourth, fifth and sixth minutes of a commercial break. So the audience is out there; and they’re listening! The key is to build a solid customized radio schedule that will reach an employer’s desired audience by using the most effective dayparts and frequency levels.

 

Another medium and one of the more innovative out-of-home advertising vehicles that has taken off over the last few years is mobile marketing, most specifically, text messaging. In 2006, over 11 billion text messages were sent each month in the U.S. alone. This is a huge increase from the 2.5 billion text messages sent in the U.S. each month in 2004. There’s no question that the use of mobile devices such as cell phones has grown tremendously over the years and advertisers have definitely taken notice and are interacting and directly targeting consumers via mobile advertising campaigns. Employers can also capitalize on the growing use of cell phones as advertising vehicles. Employers can send information on career opportunities or career-related events directly to a job seeker via text messaging. And because of the immediacy with which a text message is sent, received, and responded to, text messaging can be a great asset to a direct response campaign.

 

One way that employers are utilizing text messaging is to include a text messaging option as part of the response information of a recruitment ad. For example, an advertiser can broadcast an ad on the radio and in the radio script can give the listener the option of responding to the ad via texting (“to apply now, text the word ‘jobs’ to 2345″). The text response option can be used on its own or can be paired with other response options (“to apply now, text the word ‘jobs’ to 2345 or apply on-line at jobs@company.com”). Both of these messages instill a sense of urgency in the listener through a call-to-action message while providing the listener with options on how to respond. Another benefit of text messaging is that when an individual responds via text he/she will receive an immediate receipt message from the advertiser, which can be forwarded on to friends, family, and acquaintances who may be interested in the available career opportunities or events. This allows employers to benefit from a form of mobile “word-of-mouth” advertising that can result in additional qualified applicants.

 

A successful direct response recruitment advertising campaign requires several elements and the good thing is, when it comes to the choice of media, there are effective options for employers to consider. By combining the right creative with an effective media strategy, you can be sure that your call-to-action message will be answered by the qualified applicants you seek.

[Source: http://www.shaker.com/HumanCapitalTimes/fall07/indexsub.php?campaign=3&p=article6]

 

http://www.buynewyorkradio.com

 

 

Recruitment Newsletter – December 3, 2008

Success Story

The diversity division of USPS was looking to recruit minorities for a specific electronic position. The USPS needed to reach as many people as possible who would be interested in this niche position while focusing on diversity.

 

“USPS had over 5,000 applicants!… Overall I would say we were very happy with what we did and the results from KTU!” 

– Zaidee Vasquez – Hispanic Program Specialist for the United States Postal Service

 

  

Using Broadcast & Out-Of-Home Media For Employer Branding Objectives

By Laura Schlieder

This is the first article in a series of three

 

In this three-part series, you will learn how broadcast and out-of-home media can be powerful mediums for employer branding, direct response, and employee testimonial campaigns. Part 1 in this series of articles will touch on using these media outlets to generate awareness and excitement for employer branding objectives.

 

You’ve spent a lot of time and energy creating your employer brand – now what do you do with it? What media vehicles do you utilize to help communicate to your audience that you truly are an employer of choice? Two of the obvious media choices are print and online, but have you thought about using out-of-home or broadcast media?…

Radio advertising falls under the broadcast media umbrella. Following are examples of how radio can prove to be powerful media vehicle when unveiling an employer brand.

 

Radio provides a niche reach, targeting the passive job seeker and impulsive prospect, and is ideal for branding. Attracted by different music and/or talk formats, listeners can be targeted by age, gender, educational background and/or various other demographic components identified through quantitative and qualitative rating information. Radio is personal and connected to emotions. Its ads can be relevant when written appropriately for the target audience and can be well-received and highly-accepted by the target audience when produced in a manner appropriate for the station’s format…

 [Source: http://www.shaker.com/HumanCapitalTimes/summer07/indexsub.php?campaign=1&p=article4]

 

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