How we create the whole recruitment experience…Candidate Experience

{ 07/08/2010 @ 10:11 am } · { Awards, Candidate Experience, Creativity, Effectiveness, Employer Branding, Recruitment }
{ Tags: Awards, CIPD, Marketing, Recruitment }

The fourth in our week of blogs about all aspects of recruitment as demonstrated by our nominations at the CIPD Recruitment Marketing Awards 2010:

Nando’s. What more can we say about them that as a restaurant you don’t already know? But as an employer? Did you know they’ve been accredited Three stars in the Best Companies Award for 2 years running, been an Investor in People for 10 years and this year have been voted No.1 in The Sunday Times Top 25 Large Companies To Work For. So they must be doing somethings right. Their candidate experience being one of them.

After 18 years of continous growth, they still need to recruit great restaurant managers but Nando’s has the added challenge of recruiting great managers who can also live the Nando’s values of Pride, Passion, Family, Integrity and Courage.

This is the challenge that we faced developing great attraction campaigns and an ‘information’ pack for every management candidate prior to an assessment day. From the very first point of attraction – be it in print (yes, that can still be effective), digital advertising or online listings – the Nando’s culture and style needs to shine through. The ‘information’ pack enhances this with more tasters of the Nando’s lifestyle, including a bottle of Nando’s sauce and a voucher to enjoy a meal in a restaurant. What better ways to experience what it’s really like to work there? Fall out before assessment days/interviews is another issue familiar to hospitality, so we developed a range of ‘reminder’ materials to combat this.

Overall, at every step of the recruitment process, the Nando’s employer brand sells through the culture and values. The actual assessment days continue this journey with an informal, fun but professional experience. With a trial shift and even ‘expeditions’ to local restaurants, the candidates are in no doubt what Nando’s, and the Nandocas, are truly like. It’s an honest, true to life experience for every candidate.

So what did we ‘experience’ at the CIPD RMA’s last night? Well, the winner was andsome and Nando’s. Pretty good result all round.