Video attracts wireless stars
Samsung Cambridge Solution Centre (SCSC), part of the global electronics brand’s mobile and connectivity business, has developed an innovative video-led landing page for all of its recruitment activity based on the Plugin Recruiter platform.
SCSC was formed when Samsung acquired part of Cambridge-based CSR last year, which also has offices in the US, Denmark, France and India. Hayley Bird, senior HR officer, told Recruiter that despite being part of a major global brand, it had difficulty recruiting people after the acquisition. “No one knew who we were,” she said, adding that there was hot competition for technology talent in Cambridge due to the large number of hi-tech companies.
Bird had been introduced to the Plugin Recruiter platform in a previous role and felt it would match SCSC’s requirements. “I wanted two things: a platform to let people know we were here and also to raise profile and employer brand in general,” she said. “We wanted to be able to use the Samsung brand on the landing page but also wanted it to be specific to Samsung Cambridge Solution Centre so people could differentiate us from Samsung Mobile or the other Samsung subsidiaries here in the UK. We wanted to get across exactly what we do as an R&D and engineering facility.”
As a leading-edge technology company, Bird felt it was important to be “recruitment innovators” and worked with Plugin to develop a range of videos (below right) from hiring managers and those working at the company. A video clip accompanies many of the job vacancies, while employees provide insight into working at SCSC and Cambridge. “I felt there was no better way of letting people know what it is like to work here than from the people they’d be working with,” said Bird. “We tried to make it about every aspect of working at SCSC and, as well as the company, [we] are selling Cambridge as a place to work. We’ve had incredible feedback and even the team at Plugin were surprised at how quickly it went viral.”
SCSC makes use of a ‘light’ applicant tracking system (ATS) built into the Plugin Recruiter platform and candidates can apply from the landing page and create a profile. Recruitment and employer branding activity is fully integrated with social media channels, with potential candidates drawn back to the landing page. After initially focusing on software-based jobs, the strategy will broaden out to other roles and Bird is also looking into how the platform can be used to attract graduates.
Ultimately, the aim is to reduce reliance on agencies and move to a direct resourcing model. Being realistic, Bird believed the ratio would probably be 10-20% agency and the rest direct. She has recruited Victoria Thompsett as recruitment officer to take the strategy forward who, importantly, said Bird, has both search & selection and media & marketing expertise.
Meanwhile, Plugin Recruiter has evolved since its launch last year (see Recruiter, December 2012) and is aiming to become an end-to-end branded video solution. It recently became the only non-ATS provider to be fully integrated with the video-interviewing technology Sonru. Plugin Recruiter chief executive officer Chris Heron told Recruiter that it would also be revamping the platform’s front-end and opening it up to recruitment agencies and recruitment process outsourcing companies. “It means the agency could go to potential clients and say that they can build them a bespoke landing page with video, make it very persuasive and explain that they can carry out all of the filtering at the back end,” explained Heron.
Plugin Recruiter is in the process of testing the service with two agencies and has also partnered with UK and South African employer branding companies.
