Lessons from one of the BEST Recruitment Marketers – Part 1

Ever the opportunist, Chris Hoyt approached a beautiful lady in a shoe store 21 years ago where upon delivering what must have been a horrible pick up line, he was mistaken for a shoe salesman but still managed to score a dinner date with her.
However, that was not before spending 45 minutes helping, who would eventually turned out to be, his future missus try on different styles of shoes and looking hopelessly lost while trying to guide her to the cash wrap.
Not that Chris minded at all, as he recounted this memorable incident when he met the woman of his dreams. The couple were married seven months later, started a family three years later, and are now proud parents to two gorgeous teenage girls.
Chris’ positive nature and his willingness to take a chance to do something “crazy” worked a treat during those months of courtship and he firmly believes these are the same attributes that helped him achieve much success throughout his 20-year recruitment career.
Today, Chris is widely recognised as an innovator of talent sourcing and marketing and has successfully overseen numerous successful recruitment projects for corporate monoliths such as PepsiCo and AT&T. He is also a highly sought after speaker, having presented keynotes in recruitment conferences across the world.
In this first of two-part interview series, we speak to Chris and find out what really goes on in that creative mind of his and his thoughts on recruitment in today’s highly social environment.
 
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You have had the opportunity to recruit talent for PepsiCo, a multinational company whose products are sold all over the world. How did you create and imbed a recruitment strategy for such a large organisation?                                                                                               

I believe that very successful strategy really requires two things. First, you need the buy-in and dedication of everyone involved at every level ranging from planning and design to development to implementation, communication and sustainability. Secondly, you will require the support and sponsorship of a strong leadership. I’ve found that people doing great things successfully usually have an amazing leader behind them, pushing, protecting and supporting them every step of the way.

 

You have been a leader in the CandE’s Awards. Why do you think this organisation is important and why should your Australian and New Zealand cousins get involved?                                                                                                            

What fascinates me about the CandE’s is when the conversation is around why an organisation should get involved versus a conversation around how they can’t afford not to be taking part.

In the 5 years that this program has been running, it has created data points and insights that have empowered companies to literally transform their recruiting practices from the ground up. Companies have begun bench-marking the experience of their candidates and tying those scores to best practices that include everything from completely re-designed career sites to simple but effective procedural changes for communicating and interacting with candidates around the world.

There are even companies that have managed to tie an increase or decrease in customer buying power to the experience that candidates have when searching, applying and interviewing with their organizations.  The numbers are incredible and the opportunity to now recognize the impact our recruiting teams have, both positive and negative, on the bottom line of a business is new ground for thousands of organisations.

 

We love asking recruiting rock stars this question, Chris –  What the most interesting recruitment job that you have ever had and why?                                                                                                                                                                                     
I’m really proud of the PepsiCo Meeting of the Minds programme – It was one of the last things I launched and supported in my role at PepsiCo. This was something that took me two years to get off the ground and was successful only with the partnership of the talented communications and marketing teams at PepsiCo.
In short, it was a video contest for students to compete to win an internship at PepsiCo’s new Content Studio but the twist was that the winner was selected by the public based on their submission. The programme is up for an ad & industry award and you can actually see the first episode we did here:

Chris will be distilling the art and science of modern day recruitment at this year’s Sourcing Social Talent event in November. Join him and other global leaders in talent sourcing to learn more. Register now for the event in Sydney, Melbourne or Auckland.