Strategic talent acquisition: Brent ASC's success with performance marketing

Attracting candidates for Adult Social Care is difficult enough. But how do you stand out when you’re competing with numerous close neighbours for talent?

This challenge is particularly prevalent in Greater London, where Councils are vying not only for local talent but also for candidates who commute from the Home Counties.

This Spring, Jobs Go Public partnered with Brent Council to generate more applications for their Adult Social Care Service (ASC) and fill gaps created by their workforce planning strategy.

As a result of our performance marketing approach, the Service was able to double their applications.

Brent Council LogoWho are Brent Council?

Brent is located in Northwest London and is home to the iconic Wembley Stadium.

The borough prides itself on its diversity, which contributes to its vibrant nature. There is a wealth of cultural experiences to explore in the area, forming a significant part of the Council’s identity and employer brand.

Brent’s workforce consistently speaks of their supportive team environment, and the Adult Social Care staff are proud of the outcomes they achieve for their residents.

Brent Adult Social’s Care’s hiring challenge

Brent Council has worked with Jobs Go Public as an RPO provider for many years. In April 2024, the Council’s recruitment team faced an exciting new challenge and sought our help.

The Council is currently pursuing a long-term transformation agenda to ensure a greater focus on customer service across its departments. This is designed not only to put the local community at the heart of their work, but also to create new opportunities for staff.

The Adult Social Care Service created a range of new vacancies by promoting existing staff to more senior positions. This has provided fantastic new possibilities for continuing professional development in ASC.

However, this also meant they had several new positions that needed to be filled quickly, without relying on costly agency staffing.

That’s where Jobs Go Public came in.

Our “always-on” performance marketing solution

Smiling female employee is attending a briefing meeting, listening to a colleagueOur experts met with the ASC team at Brent to understand their goals and identified the need to:

  • Quickly find quality social care professionals.
  • Compete with neighbouring London boroughs to promote their employer brand.
  • Create a consistent pipeline of talent to quickly fill new vacancies without relying on a staffing agency.
  • Provide a seamless candidate experience that keeps talent engaged through to the onboarding process.

To address the Council’s challenges, we implemented a tailored performance marketing strategy lasting twelve weeks. Our approach involved several key components to ensure a steady flow of high-quality candidates

1 Performance marketing approach

Our team of experts launched an integrated performance marketing campaign designed to reach skilled social care professionals.

By utilising data-driven advertising strategies on Google Advertising and our aggregation partner, we ensured that ASC’s job openings were visible to the right audience at the right time.

This approach not only increased the quantity of applications but also improved the quality of candidates through highly targeted advertising.

Find out more about our performance marketing approach on YouTube.

2 Optimised job advert copy

Understanding that a candidate’s initial impression is crucial, we took a hands-on approach to writing Brent’s job ads.

Each job advert was carefully crafted by our copywriter to engage candidates, emphasise Brent’s culture, and spotlight the opportunity for career development within ASC.

We highlighted the Council’s fantastic transformation programme and the huge potential for career growth, making the roles more attractive to prospective candidates.

3 Dedicated campaign career site

Screenshot of mobile version of Brent adult social care careers site. The heading states "What our staff say" and there is a thumbnail of a video about the Service area.

We produced a mobile-responsive, user-friendly campaign site for the Adult Social Care Service, showcasing Brent’s vibrant employer identity. We designed the site to fit the Council’s brand guidelines and included:

  • Brent’s benefits package
  • Staff testimonials
  • Videos showcasing the Service area
  • A breakdown of the local area’s highlights

By creating a compelling narrative around Brent Council as an employer, we enhanced the overall candidate experience by making information easily accessible and encouraging applications from individuals who resonated with these values.

4 Streamlined application process

The candidate journey plays a crucial role in keeping talent engaged, so we provided Brent with an optimised application environment. We simplified the application process to make it easy for candidates, ensuring it provided a good user experience and was accessible.

Our resourcing experts also provided advice throughout the campaign on shortlisting to help fine-tune the candidate journey and keep talent engaged.

5 Ongoing collaboration

Our partnership with Brent was marked by regular check-ins and collaborative efforts.

We provided regular ROI reports on advertising and worked closely with their hiring team to provide ongoing advice on shortlisting and receive application feedback.

This consistent communication allowed us to adjust our strategies in real-time, ensuring we continued to meet the Service’s needs.

The results

Across a total of ten vacancies advertised during the twelve-week period, we achieved 82,855 total vacancy views and an average of 110 apply clicks per role.

Our blend of performance marketing media channels increased overall apply clicks for the Service area by 96% and more than doubled their completed applications.

87

applications

96%

more apply clicks

118%

more applications

The partnership between Brent Council and Jobs Go Public exemplifies how a well-executed, integrated performance marketing strategy can transform recruitment outcomes.

By closely aligning with Brent's goals, we were able to deliver a tailored solution that addressed their specific challenges and delivered tangible results.

The client said:

We came to Jobs Go Public as a trusted recruitment partner as our Adult Social Care team needed a new solution for candidate attraction. They suggested an “always-on” campaign approach with a career site which helped us to stand out from our neighbouring boroughs and attract more permanent Social Workers, AMHPs and Occupational Therapists.

The team was not only friendly and adaptable but also highly responsive. Their data-driven approach to optimising our recruitment advertising has been instrumental in generating more applications for these challenging positions.” - Nicky Newman, Recruitment Manager

 

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