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Social media marketing adds something special to Herts Police.

In today’s modern world, people are increasingly searching online forums for the information they want and to ask for specific advice on subjects they are passionate about. And when it comes to volunteering, this fact remains just as true.

That’s exactly why we’ve taken part of the Hertfordshire Constabulary Special Constables campaign online. We’re promoting voluntary Police Officer roles within online communities, and participating in online conversations with their target audience in social media forums, blogs and on social networks (such as facebook for example).

By contributing to conversations, we’re ensuring that forum members feel they are being helped and not sold to. It means that the campaign both drives traffic to the career site and promotes Hertfordshire Constabulary’s employer brand within volunteering organisations and in organic search results. All while pushing the opportunities, and Hertfordshire Constabulary themselves, up the search rankings too.

In addition, we’re promoting the client’s current ‘day in the life’ video and the online viral video we’ve created for them too – the latter being posted on popular video content sites including youtube.com and metacafe.com

And the results? Whilst we’re only four weeks into this online aspect of the campaign, our video has received over 8,995 interactions on 7 different sites and our posts, which are currently running on 28 different forums, have generated 3,892 conversations. The campaign has driven 2,947 users to the application pages on the ATS already, putting us well on course to meet our targets.

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Looking to add to your in-house recruiting expertise?

Direct Sourcing comes to Hodes. First stop Heathrow. Next stop Mars.

Top performing, passive job seekers have always been the holy grail of recruiting. But recruiting teams are not always structured to actively recruit top talent, often opting for more passive, reactionary recruiting means. So how are leading companies and recruiting organisations structuring themselves in the future to actively recruit top talent?

The rising adoption of digital media has forced a paradigm shift in the recruiting process, opening up more avenues for in-house recruiters to source candidates directly. And in the dismal economic climate that we still find ourselves in, ensuring the effectiveness of every pound spent on recruiting talent is critical to success.

So to support our clients through these challenging times, Hodes has developed a Direct Sourcing Toolkit to help our clients adapt to the new environment, and at the same time to keep saving them money. The first stage of this toolkit is a series of training workshops to help up-skill recruiters and we have recently rolled this out to British Airways.

The aim of the day was to deliver a workshop on Direct Sourcing – sharing our own experiences, knowledge and, even if we do say so ourselves, expertise on the best ways to find the best talent. Now, this isn’t about getting rid of head-hunters and recruitment agencies completely. However, it is about finding ways to bring recruitment functions and activity in-house as often as possible.

In many ways, the day saw us building on the BA recruitment team’s current awareness and showing them how to enhance the effective things already in place. First off, the workshop discussed the benefits of using search engines to find the candidates they really want. Then we moved on to look at conversational based recruiting (everything from word of mouth to online social media), before looking at direct email marketing and, of course, the importance of good copy.

The day was a resounding success for everyone involved and we’re already looking forward to the next workshop.

“What an eye-opener! Amazed that we are actually managing to recruit at all”

“Totally new, was unaware of the tools freely available. Lots of opportunities for positive action.”

“A really enjoyable session/day including the delivery. Learnt so much and can’t wait to start working on some direct sourcing.”

“We need to rip up the rulebook.”

Next up, is a trip to Mars. And, with the savings from just one key hire enough to easily cover our charge for the session, it’s a trip that quite simply pays for itself.

If you’d like to find out more about our workshops or to book some time with our team, just give Alistair Milnes a call on 020 7551 4780. Alternatively drop him an email at AMilnes@hodes.co.uk.

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A timely reminder of the impact of M&A

A timely reminder of the impact of mergers and acquisitions on employer brands
Following a year long programme of in-depth research and analysis, our CIPD-commissioned report into the impact of mergers and acquisitions on employer brands has arrived at the perfect time.
Officially unveiled by Bernard Hodes CEO Helen Rosethorn at the annual CIPD Conference in Manchester, [...]

Developing a game for KPMG

This brief was the kind that our creative team dream of: a chance to spend an hour or two playing online games in the name of research. And it would seem that their dedication and hard work paid off.
KPMG tasked us with challenging the staid perception of professional services – asking us to produce an [...]

Catlin looks to the future. And sees it’s all about talent.

In July, we successfully pitched for a graduate recruitment project with Catlin, an insurance company. Now, Catlin isn’t a business that has any trouble attracting the right numbers of graduates. Established 25 years ago, they employ over 1,400 people globally and only take on eleven new graduates a year. Which means that places with them [...]

Benchmarking the best employers

Everyone can make plans and promises. But, as anyone who’s ever made New Year’s resolutions will confirm, the hard part is sticking to them. And, when it comes down to it, that’s really the only bit that matters – especially in the world of graduate recruitment where careers are at stake.
It’s with this in mind [...]