How do you collaborate with other teams and stakeholders to produce and distribute content?

Before creating content, define goals and audience. Goals align with recruitment objectives like awareness or lead generation. Audience matches ideal candidate persona. This guides content strategy for collaboration and distribution. 🎯👥

An exercise that organizations conduct includes defining: -Who the audience is: for example, what job function, seniority level, or geographic area do they live in? -What matters most to candidates who fit this profile? 30-60-90 day interviews with recent hires and surveys, plus market research like LinkedIn's Global Talent Trends report can help you outline this. -How will the candidate persona be engaged? This includes the platforms that will be used to reach these groups and specific verbiage to include in content. For example, if work-life balance or stability matters to these candidates, it's essential to incorporate those key phrases to draw people in.

Don’t be afraid to put your employees in the center. Develop a regular series that features different employees or leaders. These spotlights can include interviews, personal stories, and highlights of their contributions and experiences. Share these spotlights on your company’s website, social media, and internal communications to give a human face to your employer brand. Try to capture and share videos or photos that offer a glimpse into your company’s daily operations, team interactions, and work environment. This type of content helps potential candidates and the public see the authentic culture and atmosphere of your workplace.

Speak to your team and the business, the best authentic stories are already there! Creating spotlights or interviewing employees/ leaders can share light on the company culture and bring an authentic voice. One of the main things candidates are interested in is the company culture, by sharing employees’ stories, you are “opening a door” to the company culture.

Create a close partnership with comm’s and marketing, and ensure you are following the company brand and “tone of voice”. Share your coming projects, priorities and content calendar to ensure align your stories to their strategy.

Recruitment Marketing as a concept is certainly gaining recognition, but many companies still aren’t willing/able to invest in a dedicated resource with a specified skill set that understands the nuanced intersection of marketing & recruiting functions. To remain competitive when a specialized recruitment marketing role isn’t on the table, businesses should invest in training/education opportunities for Marketing/HR folks interested in acquiring the skills required to attract, obtain, & retain quality talent. What are the most effective promotional tools and methods available to raise awareness about a critical role? How do they reach concentrated pools of qualified candidates? What’s the bottom line impact of an effective strategy here?

The marketing team handles content creation and distribution, but for the life science division, I check the content's quality from an industry expert point of view.

What’s quality and valuable from your perspective may not be seen as such by your employees and candidates, and since they are the ones consuming the content, their opinion is crucial. If the content fails to engage, it risks being overlooked. You should monitor how your content performs in numbers and analyze the feedback you receive. However, numbers alone don’t tell the full story. It's equally important to gather feedback directly from employees and candidates. If a piece of content has low engagement, dig deeper to find out why. Is it the format, the tone, or the subject matter? On the other hand, if something performs exceptionally well, consider how you can replicate that in future content.

Collaboration with other teams involves establishing clear communication channels and regular check-ins. Aligning on goals, timelines, and content strategies ensures cohesive efforts. Feedback is actively sought from candidates and new hires through surveys and direct conversations. This input is essential in shaping content that resonates with the target audience. By analyzing feedback, messaging is refined to be relevant and impactful. This iterative process keeps content fresh and aligned with candidate needs, driving more effective recruitment outcomes.

A lot of companies and industry peers are always sharing data reports and benchmarks, but you can stand out by doing more than just sharing the same stats. Dive deep into the data and tell a story with it. Look for patterns across different reports, connect the dots, and turn that info into practical takeaways. To make it even more engaging, create eye-catching infographics or interactive dashboards so your audience can actually use the insights you’re offering. This way, you're not just data-driven but you’re adding real value that sets you apart from the crowd.

I've found particularly interesting that there is now a trend in community building. Podcasts, LinkedIn live sessions with industry experts and leaders. I was contacted once by a former life science industry professional now operating as a sole trader, who started a BD consulting business by building and nurturing a life science community. They interview female life science leaders. As a managing partner of a talent crowdsourcing platform called Talentuno Life Sciences, this way of community building inspired me to build our own professional community by interviewing companies operating in the life sciences sector.

Regularly engage with peers and industry experts through webinars, conferences, and professional networks. Prioritize absorbing the latest trends and insights, then share these learnings with the team. Collaboration is key, so initiate cross-functional meetings to exchange ideas and strategies. Leverage industry-specific platforms and social media to connect with thought leaders. This approach ensures content remains relevant, innovative, and aligned with industry standards.

Collaborating with other teams to create content is a complex process, and it's unlikely you'll get it right the first time. There will be gaps, miscommunication, and possibly delays, and that's okay. You should learn from those challenges. Don’t hesitate to try new approaches or tools, and adapt to new trends or ideas brought by other teams. These fresh perspectives can lead to more engaging and effective recruitment campaigns.

For the content planning, in case you have a highly innovative product or solution, it is very important to know that your product or service - as well as their added value - needs to be explained in a clear and simple way to your target audience.

To review and refine the content process, gather feedback from stakeholders and analyze performance data. Collaborate with teams to identify bottlenecks and streamline workflows for efficiency. Ensure content aligns with business goals and resonates with the target audience by auditing messaging and formats. Continuously improve content strategy and distribution methods through regular iteration and open communication.