Recruitment isn’t always straightforward. Some roles are hard to fill. There could be various reasons why businesses find it hard to attract the right talent. It could be that the talent pool is quite small, or traditional recruitment methods just don’t hit the spot for job seekers.
But getting noticed is key to attracting talent and at Core3, we know how to get businesses noticed. Our team have a deep understanding of financial recruitment, and we’re powered by our seven-stage Core3 Method. This approach enables us to think differently about recruitment, find creative ways to reach potential candidates and then go beyond CVs and algorithms to really understand people as individuals. Once we have this insight, we can help businesses secure the right people, even for the trickiest of roles.
A prime example is when Xledger approached us recently.
Xledger is a finance software company that empowers tens of thousands of customers worldwide with its automated and unified ERP system. They had big hiring plans but were struggling to attract the right talent through traditional job ads.
The Challenge
Xledger was looking to bring in multiple people across various technical roles, including Systems Accountants – a role that’s particularly tricky to fill due to a small talent pool. What made this even more challenging was that Xledger weren’t looking for proven Systems Accountants.
Instead, they were keen to hear from traditional accountants who would consider a career change. The types of people who weren’t actively searching for this role and might not have even realised this career path was open to them, that is, until the right opportunity pops up and piques their interest.
With salaries ranging from £40-50k, we needed an innovative approach. Actually, we needed some outside-of-the-box thinking to come up with a recruitment campaign that wasn’t just the run-of-the-mill activity because we knew the ideal candidates didn’t yet see themselves in this role.
We needed something that would stand out and really resonate with potential candidates.
But how do you attract candidates to a job they don’t even know they want? We flipped it so potential candidates got to see themselves in the role before they even applied. Powerful stuff.
Bringing The Opportunity To Life
Instead of relying on job boards and application forms, we built an engaging employer brand campaign that showed, rather than told, why Xledger was a fantastic place to work.
Here’s how we did it:
1) Employer Branding
We created a dedicated landing page showcasing Xledger’s culture, values, and career opportunities.
2) Video Content
We created a whole reel of engaging videos that featured real people, told real stories, and made a real impact. We interviewed key Xledger team members to help bring the opportunity to life. We spoke to the CEO, who shared the company’s vision and growth plans. We interviewed the head of HR and dug into culture, benefits, career progression and personal development. We then spoke to several of the current employees to get a candid insider’s perspective about life at Xledger. We then went behind the scenes to create an office tour video so candidates can see where they’ll be working, even before they’d even stepped foot in the Xledger offices.
3) Targeted Outreach
We then researched and crafted persuasive content-driven messaging to give accountants, who might be open to transitioning into systems accounting, a nudge in the right direction to explore the role.
Storytelling taps into emotion, making people feel connected before they even apply. By showcasing the company’s culture and career potential in an authentic way, we engaged passive candidates in a way that traditional job ads and job descriptions never could.
The Results
In all honesty, the results speak for themselves:
- We saw a 50% increase in candidate attraction compared to previous campaigns.
- The hiring team received detailed candidate insights, helping them understand who was engaging with the content and why.
- The interview-to-offer ratio significantly improved, as candidates went in feeling confident, prepared, and already familiar with the hiring manager and company culture.
- We successfully filled all roles within 6 weeks with high-quality hires who aligned with Xledger’s culture and long-term goals.
By taking a storytelling-driven approach, we turned a difficult hiring challenge into a successful one, proving that when candidates feel truly connected to a company’s vision, they’re far more likely to apply, engage, and succeed.
Key Takeaways: How You Can Rethink Recruitment
If you’re facing similar hiring challenges, then here are some actionable insights you can take away from this example.
1) Employer branding matters
Investing time into crafting your employer brand and telling your story can help you attract better talent, even for niche roles.
2) Video content is powerful
Video is a highly engaging medium (look at the popularity of TikTok) and can perfectly capture and showcase real employees and workplace cultures to engage candidates far more than traditional job descriptions.
3) Targeted outreach works
Thinking outside the box to find passive candidates and sharing your employer brand can help them see new career paths.
We also got a glowing testimonial:
“Core3 are exceptional recruiters. The team really make an effort to understand the needs of the organization to ensure the candidates they put forward are both highly skilled and a great culture fit.
Leo has exceeded our expectations with the time he has spent within Xledger, filming and speaking to our employees, in order to create a highly effective, professional landing page, which has increased our attraction and developed our employee brand further. We could not recommend using Core3 Recruitment more!”
Rebecca Thomas – Head of People – Xledger
If your company is struggling to fill tricky roles, rethinking your approach could be the key to success.
Taking a storytelling-driven, candidate-first perspective can make all the difference in turning hiring challenges into long-term talent wins. If you’d like some expert help in crafting your employer brand, then please get in touch, we’d love to help.
