Winning through the web

Introduction – Vincent Lody
Focusing on making the case for online recruitment, this could be seen as preaching to the converted but there are myths that need dispelling. Case studies from Carlsberg-Tetley and Asda were employed to illustrate how seriously online recruitment is now taken by major companies and a recent survey from Workthing.com was used to address the myths that surround the practice, including the following:
 - The market is stalling
 - Users are trendy techies
 - Users are junior, young employees
 - Users dislike interacting via e-mail
 - Users don’t apply to jobs online

The role of marketing in a recruitment operation – Simon Coates-Walker
In the first session it was essential to place internet recruitment in the context of the whole business of recruitment both from a consultancy and an HR department point of view. The principle objective is to recruit the best candidates in the most cost-effective way, but beyond this it was established that there is a need to build a brand that can be trusted by both candidates and clients alike. This brand is enhanced or detracted from in every interaction made, whether through telephone conversations, advertising, interviews or mailings, it is therefore imperative that the brand is strong, says the right things about the organisation and is communicated coherently and professionally across the communication channels.
Data was then presented from the 2003 Pharmaceutical Field Recruitment Survey which illustrated use of the internet amongst 236 job seekers in the pharmaceutical arena, 83% had used the internet for their most recent job search.
Topics covered: What is the objective in a recruitment business? - Communicating with the Audience - Communications Channels - Data From the 2003 Pharmaceutical Field Recruitment Survey

Communicating Effectively with your Audience - Writing Effective Advertising Copy – Simon Coates-Walker
The session on writing copy began with the premise that effective copywriting is a form of sales. The imperative is therefore to ‘Attract attention, Hold Interest, Stimulate Desire and Produce Action’. The model of the ‘buying process’ was illustrated and the question of why people do or buy anything addressed, leading to the conclusion, “In order to make an advertisement interesting it must be designed with the audience needs in mind.“ A typical internet advert was then looked at illustrating the problems with ill-thought out online advertising. The attendees then broke up into groups and discussed candidate needs in order to establish the key information required for all online advertising, creating a framework around which effective advertising copy could be written. Feeding back into the group established the imperative need for, in no particular order, contact information, job description, candidate requirements, an eye-catching job title and introductory paragraph.
Topics covered: Making an Impact - The Buying Process - Why do People Buy or Do Anything? - How well does this ad sell? - Candidate Needs - Company Needs

Positioning & Building a Brand – Simon Coates-Walker
The afternoon session opened with the importance of positioning and building a brand. A ‘Brand’ being defined as “That position, collection of perceptions about the company or the product, that occupies a place in the mind of an individual.“ Leading brands were used to illicit the key aspects of brand building before moving on to look at the needs a brand must meet, and an encouragement to look at the current position of the participants company brand in the market place. The importance of speaking to customers and clients to establish the answers to both the former and latter questions was stressed.
The session then moved on to look at positioning in terms of recruitment advertising, in terms of the candidates perception of the advertising company. A critique of an advert was used to enable the meeting, in groups, to analyse copy on the basis of what they had learnt during the day, resulting in some powerful criticism which illuminated the need for good copy. Tips on writing and laying out an add were then given.
Topics covered: Branding & Positioning - The Position Statement - Example Perceptual Positioning - How Does Positioning Fit in Recruitment Advertising – Critique – Barriers to positioning - Writing your advertisement - Designing your advertisment

Measurement and Management of Advertising Effectiveness – Mark Stacey
In the final session we looked at what can be done with online advertising to enhance what is basically a purely textual medium. The Pharmiweb text editor was introduced and explained and the facility to generate source code for use in other websites systems explained. The session then went on to look at the facilities for using templates on Pharmiweb to speed up the posting process and allow companies to bring more content into their advertising without eating up large amounts of time. Finally the session looked at the statistical elements of the Pharmiweb system and how their instand picture of ads performance can be used to enhance copywriting and accountability throughout the organisation.
The session finished with group work on creating a fictional advert within the group and presenting it to the group as a whole, illustrating the difficulties of effective copywriting and putting into practice some of the techniques and rules studied during the day.
Topics covered: Use of HTML in advertising – The Pharmiweb WYSIWYG editor – Transporting the Pharmiweb code into other job posting tools

Conclusions
• The web is an important tool in recruitment
• The web is a cost effective recruitment tool
• Giving time and thought to the design of web advertising is as important as designing your advertisements in other journals
 – Customer focused copy sell the job
 – Creates a positioning for the company or agency
• Important to build this into the management process in your organisation

Course Leader

Simon Coates-Walker was until recently Commercial Director of Futures Resourcing and has been involved in driving the dramatic growth of that company. Simon has been working in or with the Pharmaceutical industry for 25 years in a variety of senior sales and marketing management roles. During his career Simon was a specialist sales and marketing consultant working with the industry for over five years and specialising in marketing strategy development, product launches, product positioning and account management. Simon now runs his own sales and marketing consultancy.

Attendees – 20/08/03

Gennaro Capassa - Abraxas
Mark Sharp  - Ajilon Executive
James Thompson - Ajilon Executive
Alison Mitchell  - Aventis
Sue Ranson  - AXESS
Sudeep Brar  - AXESS
Deborah Eley  - Baxter
Peter King  - Blue Heron
Heather Harrison - Bob Gammon Associates
Chris Sealey  - Capital
Pete Lewis  - CSL
Martin Painter  - IDSS
Jenny Roberts  - IDSS
Amanda Whitney - Innovex
Penny Bennett  - Innovex
Claire Jackman  - PDR Partners
Linda Eden-Ellis - PDR Partners
Manoj Trivedi  - Phlex Global

Please contact Vincent lody on 01344 667 432 or vincent@pharmiweb.com for further details