Worcestershire County Council

Attraction on the front line – Children’s Social Care

Worcestershire County CouncilAttraction on the front line – Children’s Social Care

Objective

During 2013 Worcestershire County Council – specifically Social Care within Children’s – undertook a full service redesign to strengthen their front line services and to improve their success at attracting more qualified and experienced Social Workers. TMP Worldwide was approached by the Council to provide consultancy advice, and ultimately a solution, to a successful attraction campaign in order to recruit 30 qualified Social Workers and 10 Team Managers.

TMP Worldwide, 265 Tottenham Court Road,

London W1T 7RQ | www.tmpw.co.uk

Idea

Given the challenging state of the market and expected competition, it was imperative we went to market with a proposition which had been tested on the target audience and built a strong brand in the market place. So we undertook research with existing social workers, locums and an external market sample in order to understand any current perceptions of Worcestershire County Council and the messages that resonated with the target audience. The insight from this research was developed into a creative style and messages and carried out across a range of media channels. A microsite was also developed that showed videos from staff explaining why social work is so important, information on the roles and the future of the service.

In order to engage and motivate the right candidates to start and stay in the application process, our strategy used various digital marketing techniques such as; targeted ads on online job boards, advertising on social care websites and Google to create conversation and buzz around the opportunities offered by Worcestershire County Council. Interested candidates once directed to the microsite for more information were encouraged to make direct contact with TMP’s own candidate management team acting on behalf the Council. WCC knew these candidates were going to be difficult to engage with, so asked TMP’s candidate management team to support. TMP then provided the Council with a short list of candidates who wished to be taken forward to the next

stages, ie interview and selection to offer.

Impact

The attraction campaign was a huge success receiving over 6,600 clicks to the microsite. There were 68 submitted applications, 15 of which were converted to offers resulting in a cost per application of £116.25 and cost per offer of £526.99.

Since the start of the campaign 25 Social Workers have now been recruited of which 8 are Team Managers. We’re continuing to work with Worcestershire’s Children’s Services on the next phase of attraction to continue the campaign, reduce agency spend and fulfill more vacancies.

“We are very pleased with the work TMP has done so far in attracting dynamic and experienced social workers to help with our service redesign. This should lead to lower caseloads, less bureaucracy and improved outcomes for all those in our social care services”. Mike Smith, HR Business Partner, Children’s Social Care

TMP Worldwide, 265 Tottenham Court Road,

London W1T 7RQ | www.tmpw.co.uk