Launching a recruitment drive for Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC)

A social enterprise that provides primary health care services in and out of hours to the population of Cumbria.

The Brief:

Our initial project with CHoC was to make an engaging recruitment film with the aim of attracting medical talent from outside the county to work for the social enterprise. Once we had made this film, the CHoC team were really keen for One Little Bird to manage an end-to-end communications campaign to launch the film and give them the tools to continue their wider recruitment drive. During this project, we looked at all of CHoC’s potential communications channels to ensure we tapped into all the correct target audiences, advising the team on social media, internal communications, PR and wider external communications whilst using our expertise to create and execute a holistic communications campaign around the launch of the film.

Objectives

  • To launch CHoC’s recruitment film and raise awareness of CHoC’s wider recruitment drive to medical and local audiences, using the required communication channels to do so.

The delivery

Social Media

❖ We reviewed all of CHoC’s social media platforms (including LinkedIn and Twitter) ensuring all branding and messaging was consistent across all platforms.

❖ To ensure the launch video was seen by as many of the right people as possible, we advised the CHoC team to create a Facebook page.

❖ We then created a CHoC Facebook page, working with the team to ensure it was fit for purpose and manageable for them going forward:

  • We made sure all key messaging and functionality made it clear that patients must not contact the Facebook page for medical advice.
  • Implemented measures such as a pinned post, turned off messaging and external posting capabilities on the page.
  • Created copy for the Facebook page including the About Us and Our Story sections to ensure it was adequately populated and in line with the messaging on CHoC’s LinkedIn and Twitter pages.

❖ One Little Bird held a social media training workshop for the CHoC team:

  • We explained the different uses for each platform and what content should be going on each platform.
  • Talked through different content ideas to ensure a good mix of content was being used on each platform.
  • Trained the team on how to use the new CHoC Facebook page, making the relevant people admins on the account.
  • Discussed ways to create an effective social media plan and how CHoC could implement this in the internal team.

❖ To ensure the launch of recruitment film was as smooth as possible for the CHoC team, we created a social media plan for the CHoC team to follow in the first few days following the CHoC film launch.

Internal Communications

❖ We created and executed an internal communications plan around the launch of the film to engage the CHoC workforce to share and be ‘ambassadors’ for the company.

❖ With many of the CHoC team members distributed all over the county and many working shifts we had to ensure all employees were communicated to effectively.

❖ We decided that a series of internal newsletters were the best way so we created three internal newsletters (both in design and content) which were distributed on separate occasions in the lead up to the launch of the film:
 

  • ‘Follow us on Facebook’—distributed on the creation of the CHoC Facebook page. This helped to engage the CHoC staff to follow and share the page.
  • ‘Something is coming’—distributed a week before the launch of the video to build anticipation internally.
  • ‘Recruitment video launch’—Distributed on the day of the launch, encouraging employees to share the video.
  • A short training session on how to use the newsletter platform was also conducted to ensure the platform could be used by the team for communications within the organisation.

External Communications

❖ We designed and created a new recruitment webpage for the CHoC website ensuring the content was reflective of the information on CHoC’s social media, press releases and newsletter.

❖ Similar to the internal newsletters, we created an external newsletter that was distributed to all key CHoC stakeholders announcing the CHoC recruitment film to raise awareness amongst them and encouraging them to share it.

❖ Designed a CHoC recruitment booklet in time for the launch of the film to be used at future recruitment fairs. Ensured all branding matched the CHoC branding, using imagery from the film, infographics and graphic design to make the booklet engaging and clear to potential applicants.

PR

❖ We created a PR campaign around the launch of the film and CHoC’s recruitment drive.

❖ Part of this was the writing of a press release about the recruitment drive and video in the context of CHoC’s service expansion to ensure the story received maximum coverage.

❖ We also identified key career profile interviews and put forward CHoC employees ensuring coverage was published around the launch of the film.

❖ Researched and created distribution lists for the following sectors:

  • Medical trade press
  • Recruitment and HR press

❖ To ensure we tapped into key UK medical schools, we created a list of universities press office contacts to share the video and press release with, building awareness of CHoC amongst them.

Results

❖ A significant increase in the number of applications to CHoC from outside of the county and from universities.

❖ Within a month of the video’s launch it had been viewed over 1,000 times on YouTube.

❖ The announcement of CHoC’s wider recruitment drive recieved 13 pieces of coverage in local, medical trade and recruitment trade publications with a total circulation of approximately 160,000.

❖ We secured three separate profile interviews for CHoC members of staff in the press around the launch of the film.

❖ Within the first 24 hours of the launch of the Facebook page launch it had 200 followers which grew to over 400 followers within a month.

❖ The social media plan we created for the first three days after the launch of the video resulted in over 160 engagements on the CHoC social media platforms, 53 of which were video shares, increasing its reach.

To watch the recruitment film we made for CHoC, please click here.