Member Showcase - Liz McCormick

Liz McCormick - Strategic Solutions Manager, Adcorp NZ

Thanks heaps Liz for being the third community member to be put under the spotlight! Liz responds to some challenging questions and shares some very useful tips and insights.

** Please feel free to connect with Liz or make any comments on Liz 's profile page **

Liz responds to 4 questions:

1. What's the essence of your role?

In reality my role is about inspiring ideas, and then realising that inspiration. It’s about bringing a level of understanding and objectivity to the table to see things clearly, while giving a level of support to our clients that shares my expertise.

Each day varies a lot, and I love that. It’s all about education and support, assessment and strategy and implementation and results.

As Strategic Solutions Manager at Adcorp NZ I have national responsibilities and have worked on a huge amount of projects in the last year.

These range from EVP research and employer branding, to strategic sourcing and talent attraction, to interactive campaigns and career website development.

I think there’s huge value to be gained from working with a partner who has specific expertise and a breadth of experience that complements yours.

Outside of work, I love photography, travel and good food - and not necessarily in that order!

2. With the economy entering hard times, employers will be watchin their recruitment budgets, possibly curtailing employer branding projects and new advertising and employment communication initiatives. Should employers turn their backs on these projects during these difficult times?

Despite the current economic turmoil (and all that it means for the employment marketplace) we all know that organisations still need staff. What these hard times tell me is that we now need to work even harder to attract a higher quality of talent to survive and ensure future growth.

Because of this it’s even more crucial to a have a strong and defined EVP and a clear employer brand strategy.

One of the other things I say to clients is that If you can’t get a project to fly internally but you really believe in its worth, don’t take no for an answer. Look at what you can do instead and work out a strong business case.

If you can’t get the budget for a professional video, develop a photo stream through Flickr or get hold of still photographs from your marketing team and add a voiceover to give some life to them. There is always more than one way to skin a cat (I’m a dog person obviously).

I also think it’s vital that we understand what motivates the people we’re talking to, so research is a vital way to connect with employees and hear their story.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever had is “don’t just do something just because everyone else is”. Do it because it fits your personality as an employer, do it because it’s a great way to engage with your audience, and do it because it helps you reach passive candidates where they spend time.

We also need to take advantage of online and interactive advertising being so measurable, and understand what the results are telling us. Make sure the data is used to improve your future success and not just as a measure of ‘views’ and ‘applications’.

3. What does Recruitment 2.0 mean to you?

Recruitment 2.0 is very exciting for our industry and to me it means new thinking, new mediums and new approaches to attracting talent. It’s a two-way flow of information, and our communications have (or need to) become conversations.

With a fragmented media marketplace, growing competition for top talent and an ageing but more connected global population, the patterns and means of media consumption are changing every day.

We’re working with our clients to develop attraction strategies that harness technology, keep them fresh in their industry sectors and offer more authentic, engaging and memorable solutions.

When recruiting, we need to actively push the content of career websites out to the right candidates, rather than waiting for them to come to us.

Don’t be afraid of new technology, if you don’t have the knowledge yourself then find a partner that can advise you of how to best use it. Things like blogs, podcasts, social networking, SEM and Alumni Marketing can make a huge difference when communicating your Employer Brand.

4. Is there still a place for newspaper advertising? (considering things are going more and more

online)

My immediate answer to this was yes. I then thought long and hard about what that yes means.

Newspaper advertising is just one part of the equation. We still need to talk to a number of different markets and reach both active and passive candidates. We have far more tools at our disposal now so why not make the most of all of them.

I believe that people will continue to read newspapers, so the way that we can continue to ensure that they work for us is to use them more creatively and bring focus to our messages.

Part of my strategic solutions role is to look at the profile and target demographic for a specific role, and certainly if the target is baby boomers or GenX then newspaper advertising is working, whereas we tend to engage with more GenY online.

A few quick tips from Liz:

Take time to investigate you employer reputation online

Give thought this month to your social media policy

Give something new a chance

And, in addition to the usual suspects like ERE.net and onrec.com, keep an eye on:

http://blog.hirestrategies.co.uk/erecruitment/

http://www.exceler8ion.com/

http://digitalrecruiting.typepad.co.uk/