Of the many ways Matt Jeffery and his team at SAP are leading it’s competitors in the employment branding stakes, one revolutionary approach is sure set them apart for years to come.

The Internal Employment Branding Agency

 
Despite the growing importance many organisations are now placing on their recruitment marketing, many recruiters remain limited by capacity, lack of marketing expertise, lack of data, and of course budget. SAP-the German based multinational software corporation- recognised these challenges and responded by building their own, self funded internal social and digital recruitment marketing creative agency, armed with the expertise of finding the organisation the best talent, through the most cost effective means.
 
Matt Jeffery and his award winning team discussed their initiatives to revolutionise employment branding at SAP. Below are the key elements of their strategy. You can also view Matt’s original article, here
 

How They Did It

 
In 2014, SAP made the seemingly unusual move of merging its employment brand and global sourcing teams together; an uncommon move that makes complete sense.
The areas of sourcing, digital content marketing, social media and overall recruitment marketing all play a role in the sourcing, attraction and recruitment of talent. With clear synergy between these areas, it makes sense that combining these initiatives into one coordinated effort can offer tremendous value to an organisation.
 

How It Works

 
Put simplify the new team work hand in hand by:
 

1.   Identifying key talent pipelines and communities

3.   Develop marketing to engage these communities

2.   Directly targeting top talent within these communities

 
After creating the new sourcing/social/branding team and hiring specialists dedicated to creating the best content, SAP developed a comprehensive Employer Brand Service Menu that defined the service offered by the team.
 

The menu details all the employment brand services available to the business, and outlines the level of cost for each. The branding agency works with the business and recommends options based on the time frame, goal and budget. The business can then makes an informed decision on recruitment advertising spend.

What’s On The Menu?

 

An example of Services on offer include social posts, sponsored posts, social job sharing, dedicated contract sourcers, market watch reports, list generation
You can view the entire menu here.

Why It Works

1. Branding And Sourcing Go Hand In Hand

The natural synergies which exist between branding and sourcing mean they can leverage the market intelligence of one another and use this to inform all their initiatives. By offering sourcing as a scalable resource on their menu, they can ensure that each client is able to access the resources they need for their desired result.

2. Data Backed Decisions

By tracking and analysing the data of each menu offering, the team is able to build expertise, allowing them to make data based recommendations so that the business can make informed decision on which channels and methods to pursue.

3. Transparency

The data being collected from each campaign ensures a significant amount of transparency to each campaign, which assists in the communication of ROI back to the business.

4. Cost Saving

Through using their collected data, the team can recommend initiatives that are the most cost-effective, with the best candidate conversion rates and source of hire.  The services offered are based on a Freemium to Premium model, and the business can then make an informed decision on how much it wants to spend based on the team’s recommendations.

4. Future Sustainability

The team has been designed with sustainability in mind, and so the end goal is to create a self funded profit center, where the services they offer are below the market rate, but the expertise is unparalleled.

 
SAP have extremely ambitious goals for this team, but early signs show that they’re well on their way to achieving them (including winning two ERE Recruiting Excellence awards for employer brand and strategic use of technology). As the fight for top talent heats up, this center of marketing, digital, sourcing and branding expertise will make SAP a force to be reckoned with, and a model many will attempt to replicate in the years to come.
 
 
Trevor spoke to Matt Jeffery, VP Head of Global Sourcing & Employment Branding at SAP who shared his key tip for sourcing critical candidates and why recruitment is now marketing. You can watch their interview below, or read the transcript here.

 

If you want to learn best practice recruitment marketing, join us at #ATC2015 in Sydney this June where we will show you how leveraging content, analytics and technology can help you achieve your talent acquisition objectives, now and into the future. Join global experts including Mike Bailen, Todd Davis, Bill Boorman, Todd Wheatland, Jonathan Crossfield and more for two days of high ROI learning. You can view the whole agenda here.