IoD NI Member News New series of recruitment marketing meet-ups in Belfast

The Belfast based video marketing agency has organised the series of meet-ups to bring together organisations currently recruiting and businesses working in the recruitment sector to share best practice and learn about what more can be done to attract and retain the best talent.

Speaking about the meet-ups, Creative Director at BlueSky Video Marketing, Peter Craven said “We’ve noticed an increased demand for our video services for recruitment marketing in the last 6 months in response to a challenging recruitment market. That’s where the idea for the series of meet-ups came from and our first event was received very well.”

The first event on 2nd March focused on “Workplaces of the Future” and guests heard a panel discussion focusing on the shift to hybrid and remote working and what this meant for workspaces that are now being reconfigured in light of changes to working patterns.

The event on 6th April will focus on “Attracting Candidates” and seeks to help organisations currently recruiting to build their employer brand and employee value proposition to ensure they are in the best place to fill the roles they are promoting.

“In a challenging recruitment market it’s important for organisations to establish their point of difference and make a compelling argument as to why candidates should consider a role with them” explains Maria Curran of Mid Ulster MEGA, a panel guest for the event on 6th April.

MEGA has worked extensively with manufacturing businesses in the Mid Ulster region for several years now to not only promote the manufacturing industry in general but to develop new opportunities such as degree level apprenticeships.

Other contributors to the panel discussion on 6th April are AllState, EY and Abacus Recruitment.

The event will also feature a “Student Voice” panel featuring 5 students in their final year of study. Guests will have the opportunity to hear from these representatives of the graduate recruitment market about how they research current opportunities and what they are looking for in the organisations that they want to work for.

“Our first event featured some very interesting research from Fiona Rooney of Ipsos on the differences between the various generational cohorts” explains Peter. “We thought we’d follow that up by delving a little deeper into the Gen Z cohort and finding out directly from them what their key influences are when seeking out graduate roles.”

The format for all of the meet-ups will be panel discussions rather than any presentations in an effort to encourage the sharing of knowledge and experience in a conversational setting.

“Our first 2 events are evening gatherings and I don’t think anyone wants ‘death by powerpoint’ at the end of their working day” says Peter. “We think it’s a format that encourages a more organic discussion and is ultimately more valuable for those who come along. The feedback from the first event was very positive so we’re looking forward to some new discussions on 6th April.”

The event takes place in the Clockwise Belfast offices on High Street in Belfast from 6pm to 8pm on Thursday 6th April.

The final 2 meet-ups in this series are scheduled for May and June 2023 and will look at “Onboarding” and “Engagement & Retention”. Further details of the contributors to these events will be announced after Easter.

“While the first two events have been evening gatherings we’re going to schedule the final two as breakfast events” explains Peter. “We understand that evening events don’t work for everyone – and mornings are similar with school run commitments for a lot of people – so by changing the timings for the next events we hope that we can meet as many new people as possible over the course of the event series. Hopefully we can be useful to attendees in terms of giving them some new ideas about how they can advance their own recruitment marketing efforts in the future.”

BlueSky Video Marketing is a marketing agency that specialises in video and recruitment marketing campaigns are one of the services they provide.

“Anything that moves” is how Peter describes what they do. “From all things live action to animation, webinars, event filming and live streaming we aim to be our customers’ one stop shop for all of their moving image requirements. Our marketing experience is what sets us apart from the traditional video production market.”

Further information and updates on this series of recruitment marketing meet-ups can be found on the BlueSky Video Marketing social media channels and at blueskyvideomarketing.com.