Marketing for Workforce Recruitment

Target Audience: The target audience for the Marketing for Workforce Recruitment Comprehensive Campaign are unemployed people or those looking for new career opportunities.

Strategy Objective:The objective was to increase the number of applicants, with the strategy of informing candidates of open positions through online and in-person approaches. The ads created used images of actual employees on the job to sell a lifestyle at RTD, while the texts emphasizing competitive benefits and ease of applying. In addition appearing on google ads, social media, email marketing, and RTD's website, the campaign also used collateral such as outdoor banners, bus inserts, and flyers. RTD also hosted its own in-person job fair to draw in candidates. Each department decorated their own booths with props and provided educational materials. Representatives talked to potential candidates, encouraged them to apply, and directed them to already set-up computer stations that makes applying easy

Situation Challenge: RTD assumed in house operations of its previously contracted County service, which created 86 positions that needed to be filled. The national driver shortage that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic also added to this challenge. In May, RTD had a total of 104 vacant positions the needed to be filled, 15 of which were Van Go! driver positions that did not require a special license. RTD had to rethink its workforce and operational needs in response to this.

Results Impact: In addition to the visual impressions made by collateral that is not quantifiable, RTD's social media recruitment efforts has the following impact: - From May 1 to September 4, 2021 on Facebook, the top three posts related to recruitment created 25,634 total impressions with 1,876 click throughs—all without ad dollars. - For google, an awareness campaign that cost $2,523 ran from June 10 – 19 created 709,007 total impressions (paid and non-paid) and generated 14,377 click throughs. In order to target a particular audience using google, RTD had to be creative with its messaging—"No special license needed to drive a van for Van Go!"

Why Submit: Because RTD was undergoing the assumption of 40% of RTD's total services that were formerly provided by a contractor (known as County services), it had to fill over 80 vacancies to continue operation of its County services. In addition to the number of vacancies that needed to be filled, recruiting and retaining talents was and still remains an ongoing challenge for many businesses in the United States during the pandemic. This proved to be even more challenging when looking for candidates to join public transit. With the many and varying marketing efforts, RTD was able to fill 61 out of 86 positions, which is 70.9% of the vacancies within a three-month period (from May to July). This also included filled all 15 of the necessary Van Go! positions.