Is This Room Free?
Welcome to Is This Room Free? In this podcast I will be talking to HR professionals and listening to the stories of their careers. I will be finding out about the journeys they have taken and what they learnt along the way. The purpose is to help others in the profession identify and understand the various paths available and take inspiration from my guest speakers. Whether you are someone who is looking to get that first step on the HR career ladder or an aspiring HR Director, I hope you get value from these conversations.
Is This Room Free?
Alex Rose - Group Recruitment & Media Manager (how to improve your talent acquisition and hiring wins by adopting a marketing mindset)
This episode I'm joined by Alex Rose who is Group Recruitment & Media Manager for a cake manufacturer called BBF based in Blackburn.
I wanted to invite Alex on as a guest as I helped recruit him into this position and it was an interesting brief that his HR Director wanted from the role. Over the past couple of years I've followed what he has been doing and, more importantly, the impact and results the business have benefitted from.
Alex started out as an agency recruiter before moving internally. We discuss the key differences from the two sides of the recruitment fence and the transition needed from a sales mindset to a service one when moving internally.
It was when working for an organisation in the construction industry who had a fantastic brand that he first became aware of benefits a strong brand (and the subsequent employer brand) had on their recruitment and talent attraction.
Alex now works for a company who manufacture cakes on behalf of supermarkets. They aren't able to put their name against any of the products they manufacture as the supermarkets own the product and any licensing. Therefore, this had historically made recruitment very challenging. However, a significant part of Alex's job is to create various content and marketing strategies to enhance the brand as well as shining a spotlight on what it's like to work in the company. After two years of consistently creating content the results speak for themselves in how beneficial this has been to their direct hiring.
I personally believe there has been a real morphing between the role of a recruiter and a marketer in recent years and this episode highlights how significant and relevant this concept is.
If you have any responsibility for recruitment in your company then this is absolutely an episode you don't want to miss.