Engaging students in the midst of a pandemic

Work and play

Making a real difference to local government

Real difference

Engaging diverse audiences for the NHS

Your NHS

A global challenge

100% you

The social mobility challenge

Be the apprentices

The pandemic has changed student engagement in a number of different ways. Virtual has become a norm &#8211; to attract as well as assess students. And it seems that employers are determined not to go back to old methods, but to embrace a more hybrid model. But this means different kinds of challenges &#8211; breaking through the digital noise, grabbing the passers-by, reaching out to diverse audiences and creating connected experiences that students want to be part of. We are here to support employers and help them transform engagement &#8211; from school years to graduate alumni, from initial contact to webinars, social engagement and more.

/get-ready-for-amazing-virtual-campus-experiences/

Get ready for amazing virtual campus experiences

/events/the-get-real-school-leaver-insight-series/

The Get Real School Leaver insight series.

No one needs another generic survey about generation z or student trends. There are enough of them already; and as we’ve seen, very few of them agree with each other. We’re focused on personalised, focused insight into the very real challenges you face – and how you can identify and engage the right people. We’ve got the experience and expertise to conduct qualitative and quantitative research that makes for better decision making.
Talk to us about:
• Audience insight 
• Value proposition research 
• Engagement analysis 
• Process audit 
• Measurement

Insight

What are your key audiences?  How can you realistically engage them?  How can you deliver experiences that make you the go-to employer?  These are some of the questions we look to answer in any strategy.  Combining experience, insight and innovation, we provide clients with strategies that will invariably challenge current approaches.  Because without new and divergent thinking, aren’t we simply doing the same thing and expecting a different result?
Talk to us about:
<ul>
<li>Value proposition development</li>
<li>Channel strategy</li>
<li>Student engagement</li>
<li>Schools and campus strategy</li>
<li>Identification and targeting</li>
</ul>

Strategy

We are a brand and engagement agency; so we focus heavily on how a brand story can evoke the right emotions in the audience and provoke action.  We are master storytellers, using all the tools in the communications box to engage and inspire our audiences, from the first contact right through to life inside an organisation.  Remember, communications that engages really connect with the right people and builds the brand is as much about the science as it is surprising audiences.
Talk to us about:
<ul>
<li>Concept development</li>
<li>Social media content</li>
<li>Writing and design</li>
</ul>

CREATIVE

In 2020, we’ve seen a seismic shift in the way we might work in the future – and it is more virtual and more digital, relying less on the traditional engagement opportunities.  Now more than ever brands need to invest in digital experiences that cut through the ever-increasing noise and engage people in novel and relevant ways.  It is no longer enough simply to have a website.  What is your social strategy?  How can you use Voice or AR?  What will help and support students in the best possible way?  Lots of questions.  We can help you come up with the answers.
Talk to us about:
<ul>
<li>Website design and development</li>
<li>App development</li>
<li>AR, VR and Voice</li>
<li>Social media engagement</li>
<li>Digital marketing</li>
</ul>

DIGITAL

Student Marketing

Late to the party: How a young millennial finally understood the big deal about company purpose
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When I started my internship at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in autumn, 2016, I didn’t know what I was in for. Having spent the previous five years working in and managing cafés and teaching piano to primary school kids, I was used to working on my terms with a very clear purpose because it was wholly mine. This was not to last… 
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At the Kennedy Center there was a real emphasis on educating us on large organisational work culture which was imparted through regular classes and internal meetings with senior figures. The main theme of these classes was coming to grips with company purpose, and how that is articulated through their mission, vision, and values (MVV). Full disclosure, at the time I dismissed it as corporate nonsense (it took me a couple more years to stop raging against the machine) but this lesson has had a far greater role to play in my professional life than I ever thought it could.
 
Prior to working at 106 Comms, I was a Community Manager at a guardianship company. Although I had never heard of this industry prior to being hired (it doesn’t exist in Australia), I found it to be a fantastic business model for affordable and sustainable living. In a nutshell, guardship companies take over the management of empty buildings – usually business premises like banks or former care homes – and equip them for communal living on a licencing basis. Guardianships create communities in a city that can be difficult to penetrate, they’re environments that foster creativity and they make London life liveable due to the low licence fee (aka rent).
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The company was a start-up and was only just starting to grow when I joined. I really believed in the community spirit and goodwill of the people living in our quirky buildings across London. In my role I was first point of contact for 600+ people, but I worked alongside colleagues involved only in the property acquisition or maintenance who had a completely different experience of the company and our work. I realised we need to unify our purpose so we could keep the bigger picture in mind as we worked together to deliver.
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Although there was only about 10 staff at the time, I ended up with about 10 different opinions on what the company purpose was. So in consultation with the team, I wrote a mission, vision, and values. We were a young company and I faced some poorly veiled (but good-humoured) scepticism just as I had been a sceptic before. Sure enough, two months later and my beautiful PowerPoint collected binary dust as we all forgot our MVV and I learned a valuable lesson:
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Company purpose must be a part of the conversation and the every day, otherwise it will be another ‘nice gesture’. 
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As the company began to expand into new areas, the lack of unified purpose began to lead to more fundamental differences in opinion in key decision making and it became difficult to reconcile our different visions. It was no one’s fault, but our priorities had deviated due to a lack of unified direction. Since joining 106 Comms I have been able to see how important a unified purpose across industry and organisation, and how effective it is when it’s working well. I carry out extensive interviews with employees for different campaigns, and the majority of the time interviewees cite alignment of values and purpose as the main appeal of the company and motivation at work.
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As we move into a new era of hybrid working and increased use of the Alternative Workforce (aka freelancers and gig workers), a strong company purpose is crucial to expediate decision making and maintain service standards. What I once dismissed as corporate fluff is actually the glue that will bring together teams and set companies head and shoulders above the rest for employees, high quality talent and therefore for customers and stakeholders too.

How a young millennial finally understood the big deal about company purpose.

The Get Real School Leaver Insight Series was created to give early careers recruiters more specific insights into School Leavers.  This is all done in partnership with our friends at <a href="http://notgoingtouni.co.uk/">Not Going To Uni</a>.
Across the course of June and July, Jayne Cullen, our Head of Student Marketing, met with early careers recruiters at a number of organisations, including Clifford Chance, Morgan Stanley, Greene King and Astra Zeneca, to understand what insights about School Leavers would really help them.  There are were key areas:
<ul>
<li>Brand and attraction – how to engage students successfully.</li>
<li>Impact of the pandemic – and how this has affected choices, motivations and behaviours.</li>
<li>Black students – how organisations can better engage with students of black heritage.</li>
</ul>
For the first set of insights in the series, we surveyed over 400 students, primarily years 12 and 13, to find out their perceptions, motivations and behaviours.  We found four clear groups:
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9010" src="https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210910172948/Screenshot-2021-09-10-at-13.39.25-2.png" alt="" width="2072" height="826" srcset="https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210910172948/Screenshot-2021-09-10-at-13.39.25-2.png 2072w, https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210910172948/Screenshot-2021-09-10-at-13.39.25-2-300x120.png 300w, https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210910172948/Screenshot-2021-09-10-at-13.39.25-2-1024x408.png 1024w, https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210910172948/Screenshot-2021-09-10-at-13.39.25-2-768x306.png 768w, https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210910172948/Screenshot-2021-09-10-at-13.39.25-2-1536x612.png 1536w, https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210910172948/Screenshot-2021-09-10-at-13.39.25-2-2048x816.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2072px) 100vw, 2072px" />
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Many employers competing for Explorers and Dreamers
What’s interesting is that while ostriches are in the minority, there is a pretty even spread of Dreamers (32%), Explorers (26%) and Planners (37%).  This suggests that many employers – especially those that are not an obvious choice for Planners – are actually competing for dreamers and explorers.  This has a major impact on the content you should be using.
Men’s career capital less strong as compared to female
We found that 10% of all men and women haven’t thought about careers at all; and there are 10% more women planners than men.
The most attractive industries haven’t really changed
Many of us had assumed that there would be a significant change over the course of the pandemic in what industries students are attracted to.  Our research says otherwise.  In 2019, All About Careers reported these as the top 5 sectors:
Health and Public Services &amp; Care
Arts, Media and Publishing
Science and Maths
Business and Law
Education
The Get Real report has these 5 sectors topping the charts:
IT &amp; Tech
Finance and Banking
Business and Law
Arts, Media and Publishing
Engineering
In many ways, we might have thought that healthcare and pharma might have been more front of mind for School Leavers; but it seems not.  But that is the only significant change.
Interest working more important than career progression
Again we did a comparison of career motivations – 2019 v 2021.  In 2019, according to the Trendence School Leaver survey, these were the top 5 career motivators:
Career progression
Training and development
Diversity
Employer reputation
Interesting job tasks
In 2021, the tables have turned somewhat with Interesting Work being the overriding career motivator:
Interesting work
Something I have always wanted to do
Career progression
Salary
Training
Of course, we all think we do interesting work; but is it really, in the eyes of students?  That is the challenge, and many more employers will need to think about creating great stories and content (not the usual ‘no 2 days are the same’ type profiles!).
If it looks dull, students may discount your opportunity
The emphasis on interesting work becomes even more acute when students were asked what turned them off about a sector.
#1 –  Looks dull
#2 – Not enough money in it
#3 – Poor brand image
#4 – People like me don’t do those jobs
#5 – Long application process
But even when you’ve cracked the storytelling, you need to support it with a decent salary.  Students aren’t saying they want lots of money; just ‘enough’ to allow them to buy new clothes or a new phone etc.
From a diversity perspective, it’s still apparent that many people don’t apply to certain sectors and employers because they don’t see people like them doing those jobs. The challenge for employers is to address this head on – especially when they don’t have representation.
Think about channels and contents for your audiences
There are some definite channels for our target audiences.
Instagram and Tiktok for women; YouTube more so for men
LinkedIn for planners (of course!)
Tiktok for dreamers – steps to breaking into career
Instagram for explorers – why your brand makes a difference over another brand
If you also consider that Explorers and Dreamers may be the majority of people that you are trying to convince, there are some key learnings here:
<ul>
<li>Use Tiktok to convert dreamers by showing the steps to pursuing a potential career</li>
<li>Use Instagram to appeal to explorers by showcasing your brand; and also giving them application tips.</li>
</ul>
Competitions to appeal to lower socio-economic groups
From our experience, we’d say that a fair proportion of Ostriches may well be from lower socio-economic groups.  They have a strong appetite for competitions on social media.  So could be worth a try to grow your recruitment of lower socio-economic talent.
So what are the Get Real takeaways?
<ul>
<li>Our research has shown that the top sectors haven’t really changed that much during the pandemic</li>
<li>Understand the make-up of your audience by career planning stage to tailor the message</li>
<li>It’s all about the here and now (less on the longer-term career development)</li>
<li>Being transparent and “loud” about the diversity of your people – to dispel concerns that “people like me don’t do those types of jobs”</li>
<li>Instagram is a preferred channel by female explorers</li>
</ul>
We will be holding the second in our series on 7th October at 11.00am looking at the Impact of the Pandemic on Years 11-13. If you would like to come along, please sign up<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/get-real-school-leaver-insight-session-2-tickets-168700376367?utm_medium=email&amp;_hsmi=2&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Qm3FOa7AOrao_H_KZ5zxQmr3KD5GiHMtl9RfFeIlr_5zDy9pTLzxVMq_yM4zk55LlP3V5m021xDiNrF2eIj9m2E9Hlg&amp;utm_content=2&amp;utm_source=hs_email"> here</a>.
If anyone would like specific data from this research (sector, persona, gender etc), please contact <a href="mailto:Jayne@106comms.com">Jayne@106comms.com</a> We’d be happy to share free of charge.

Get Real School Leaver Insight Series – Part I

The rapid change in work trends go well beyond the question of ‘2 days in and 3 days out, or 3 days in and 2 days out?’. Trends that were emerging before Covid have gained momentum as the pandemic accelerated the integration of new technologies and communication tools into our work processes. The IoIC released their <a href="https://www.ioic.org.uk/files/IoIC_Future_of_Work_Report.pdf">Future of Work Trends Report</a>, and the impact technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have on our organisations and infrastructure is deep and far-reaching.
The IoIC oracle had plenty to share, so we summarised our three favourite professional premonitions for you. 
<ol>
<li>Technology: Learning to be human</li>
</ol>
The exponential leaps forward in AI, biotechnology, nanotechnology, energy storage and everything else you can think of is propelling us into tomorrow with unprecedented speed. Technology is increasingly capable and taking over repetitive jobs and tasks. By 2025 54% of workers globally will have to significantly re-skill or up-skill in “human” skills that can’t be automated. Jobs will be amalgamated, where programmable tasks from different roles will be taken over by machines, and the ‘human’ elements of different jobs will be amalgamated into ‘hybrid’ roles.
We are also seeing a new generation enter the workforce, a generation with a new way of communicating founded in their “native digital fluency”. A strong internal communications strategy is vital to unite and connect this new generational mix and to navigate the constant change of technology and communication tools.
<ol start="2">
<li>A mercenary world</li>
</ol>
There has been a rapid increase in the ‘Alternative Workforce’ as coined by Deloitte in 2019. This Alternative Workforce consists of contractors, freelancers and gig workers. This phenomenon goes hand-in-hand with the increased difficulty companies are having accessing and retaining the required talent. Worldwide, 67% of companies with 250+ employees are struggling to fill open positions. So companies are regularly outsourcing work to the Alternative Workforce to supplement their teams.
Maintaining an organisational identity and effective, agile teams in this landscape is difficult but crucial. Internal communications now must work doubly hard to ensure the continued flow of two-way information, as well as bring together disparate teams and identities for a common purpose. 
<ol start="3">
<li>Chameleon Companies “Successful companies of the future will be shape-shifters, continuously morphing and adapting to meet new market needs, as they arise.” IoIC Report</li>
</ol>
“Agile” is the corporate buzzword of these roaring 20s, and to be honest it’s apt. We don’t need to rehash how volatile the world is right now, but it’s true that a new flexibility is required for a business to survive. A culture of immediacy in tandem with the growing Alternative Workforce means organisations need to be able to motivate teams on short term projects and swivel to new projects as they arise.
The technological infrastructure – from communication platforms to information hubs – must be in place to support this swift moving, project-based environment.

Insight into the Future of Work Trends

Launching the 106 Communications Inclusive Brand Audit for Student Marketing. 
In a recent webinar, 106 Communications met with a range of employers and Careers Services to talk about how to make your student marketing more inclusive.
Some key things that we identified were:
#1 – Building your brand around cultural capital, i.e. your brand understands and communicates well with a wide range of talent from diverse backgrounds. If your starting point is deep understanding, your brand stands a better chance of building a stronger connection with your audiences.
#2 – Does your brand and your communications speak TO or THROUGH your audiences? If an advert is co- created and or tested with representative groups again, it is more likely to appeal to the right groups.
# 3 – Brands that embrace cultural voices, add value to communities and show they are a part of that community are more likely to attract diverse talent than those that merely talk about it.
#4 – Showcasing your values (in action) gives audiences an insight into what is important to your brand. But showing evidence of your values in action is even more powerful.
#5 – Being transparent about who you are and your approach to inclusion and diversity as well as the progress that you are making will build trust with your audiences.
The Inclusive Brand Audit for Student Marketing
We have developed an Inclusive Brand Audit methodology with the help of a diverse student panel. They have used the methodology to analyse a number of student recruitment ads in sectors such as Legal, Technology, Financial and Professional Services and the Public Sector, against our key criteria to assess how inclusive the ads were.
Here are the highlights so far:
<div style="max-width: 483px; margin: auto;"><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter" src="https://media.106comms.com/app/uploads/20210827153341/Colorful-Icon-Business-Infographic-2-1-483x1024.png" alt="" width="483px" height="1024" /></div>
If you are interested in finding out more about our Inclusive Brand Audit and how we can support then do get in touch for a friendly chat.
We can help in two ways:
<ol>
<li>Sense checking your ads that are about to go-live using our brand audit tool;</li>
<li>Building out a longer-term strategy to ensure your recruitment communications are written in as inclusive a way as possible.</li>
</ol>
Contact <a href="mailto:Jayne@106comms.com">Jayne@106comms.com</a> to find out more.
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See if your student marketing is truly inclusive with our Inclusive Brand Audit.

For the past 18 months we have been focussed on the immediate threat of the coronavirus and the Extinction Rebellion protests of 2019 feel like a distant memory.  
 But that’s all changing… 
 The release of the IPCC report this month warning of a Code Red for humanity is the first jolt to bring climate change back to the top of the agenda. With COP26 coming up at the end of October, we’re all looking forward to seeing our global leaders’ response and action plan to this dire warning. But we don’t need to wait around for our leaders to take action, we can act ourselves and use our company and individual resources to take a stand. 
 We don’t need to be engaging in some grandiose display of altruism to make a difference, but rather it’s the small steps that are crucial. The news can be overwhelming, but doing whatever small bit we can will positively impact our environment, our workplace and our own wellbeing.  
 So, here are some thoughts on how to get your team engaged with your ESG agenda. 
<ol>
<li>Be clear on your company’s focus </li>
</ol>
It is almost a given nowadays that companies of all sizes will have an ESG policy. But how many employees actually know it? Think about your focus and unify your ESG goals to into one clear and simple message. Maybe your company has chosen to focus on combatting plastic pollution in the ocean. This one concept can permeate every order of day-to-day business from a plastic free February in the office to a local litter pick, to a wider partnership with Plastic Ocean International. Keep the conversation going and action flowing. 
       2. Make it a priority 
There is a natural cynicism that can arise when discussing an ESG agenda as corporate virtue signalling is rampant. No more platitudes, it must be clear that the company cares and to do this ESG must be a priority and incorporated into the everyday.  
 A great example is M&amp;S’s approach. They have instated Sustainability Champions across all their stores to keep their environmental purpose a priority. These Champions turn ideas into actions, create their own initiatives and demonstrate to other employees that ESG engagement is a valuable part of their professional lives. The majority of the time, employees will prioritise actions that best please their line managers and superiors as this is crucial for their professional development and security. This means a buy-in at every level is vital for this to work. 
       3. Lead by example 
Do we really need to say more? If you’re leadership isn’t engaged, you can’t expect the wider team to be. Lead by doing. It’s a powerful approach that will catch the attention of internal ESG sceptics 
       4. Make the space 
The M&amp;S Sustainability Champions are also a good example of infrastructure supporting the cause. Having a one-off fundraising bake-off is good, but it’s not engaging in the long term. Incorporate your ESG goals and values into leadership and team training. You could also set up a monthly ESG Afternoon where the team can commit their time to volunteering for a local charity or litter picking in the area. And never underestimate the motivational power of a little competition… 
       5. Measure success and celebrate it 
The Code Red alert has delivered a dire warning about the scale of the environmental problem. There has been a rise in people experiencing eco-anxiety as a 2020 survey found 40% of Americans felt ‘disgusted’ or ‘helpless’ about climate change <a href="https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/all/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-december-2020/">(Centre for Climate Change Communication, 2021).</a> Showing the positive impact our actions have will combat this anxiety, and bring the community – both internal and external – together as we gain momentum. The more rewarding the work is, the more engaged employees will be. We can make a difference! 
 If you want to learn more about COP26 and how you can bring together your organisation to make an impact, then we have the webinar for you! Head <a href="https://www.106comms.com/events/cop26-and-the-opportunity-for-organisations">here</a> to reserve your place so you can catch 106 Founder Henry speaking with Hitachi Director Hans Daems about this important topic.

From Words to Actions: Getting Your Team Engaged with ESG

106 Communications is a marketing agency that helps ambitious brands transform engagement.  Our clients range from NGDP – the Local Government Association graduate scheme – to the NHS, Laing O’Rourke and Enterprise Rent A Car.
Right now, we are planning an autumn season that is set to be a hybrid of employer events; blending in-person with virtual. According to LinkedIn, 81% of talent leaders say virtual recruiting will continue post-COVID and certainly the attendees at this year’s ISE conference were all on board with the virtual “milk cart”.
Jayne, our resident Early Careers Consultant, has pulled together a range of views on how to get the balance right with your events this coming season, with a last-minute sense check before go-live.
#1 – Why? What is your event strategy? Have you got one and is it linked back to your key challenges?
Here are a few examples of why some of our clients are running virtual events this season:
<ul>
<li>To support underrepresented talent with their career planning</li>
<li>To build a talent pipeline of first and second years for future hiring</li>
<li>To reach Universities with a higher representation of diverse talent</li>
<li>To promote schemes that are hard to fill</li>
<li>To engage with talent at different stages of their career decision journey</li>
</ul>
Being clear on this strategy will help you anchor your events and provide a reference point for all key decisions related to the event.
#2 – The power of your people. Have you shared this strategy and the context with your internal stakeholders and more importantly with your reps who are going to be presenting?
It’s sometimes overlooked, and your organisational representatives often assume that the sole purpose is about “selling the job or the business” or getting “bums on seats”.
How well briefed are they around your core objectives for the specific event that they are involved in?  Are they going to be positive advocates for you and your brand???
To make your virtual events stand out, there’s nothing more powerful than leveraging your existing talent to tell the story of your brand.106 Comms supported the NHS with hosting a live event hosted by real employees from their ERG groups and
hosted by current trainees who had joined the graduate programme the previous year. Making your brand stand out in a noisy market is achievable through bringing your employees personal stories to life.
Think about the host and remember it’s not too late to think outside of the box here. For example, if you are running an LGBTQ+ specific event, it’s probably a good idea to have someone representative of that audience to run the discussion to ensure authentic questions are being asked and to draw from their personal experiences.
 #3 – Are your events aligned to the audiences that you are trying to reach?   
It’s tempting to translate what you have always done face to face into a virtual event and to run the same old stand-up Employer Presentation that is all about what a great place Company X is to work for.
Supporting our clients with their virtual event strategies has meant that we have had to take a much more in-depth view about the distinct audiences that we want to attend. Only by better understanding our target audiences and their wants, needs and motivations can we design event content that will engage and inspire.
In our world of employer branding, we would never dream of launching a new brand without market testing first – yet we more than often run virtual events without sense checking that the content will resonate? Have you tested your events on your internal audiences (and better still external too) to get their feedback before going to market? If not, it’s not too late.
Another point regarding audiences is about where might our audience be in their own personal candidate journey? Some won’t have even begun yet and are more likely to be from under-represented groups. Others will be much further down the track and be looking for key differentiators around your brand, culture, and programme.
We encourage clients to have a clearly mapped journey of their virtual events, taking audiences from getting to know more about themselves, to meeting their people, and finally how to get in and on to ensure that certain audiences aren’t being turned off.
 #4 – Exploring topics that are sensitive, and that your audience cares about…  
It is well documented that the cohort of graduates coming through in the next few years care more about issues such as climate change, organisational values and ‘hyper diversity’ than previous generations. Presenting your organisation’s point of view on these issues and why it aligns with your purpose is vital when it comes to your events.
However, there is an opportunity to be creative here. Instead of a presentation with a glossy video of your amazing policies on sustainability or the fantastic community work that you do, think more creatively about how to present this content. Running a simple debate around sensitive topics that really count with this audience will show how open your brand is and that graduates really have a voice.
An example of where this was done well was with Frontline who ran a series of “fireside chats” with men to understand how the topic of masculinity influences their career choices – with the aim of debunking and debating the myths of what people consider as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ jobs in our communities.
Find out more <a href="https://thefrontline.org.uk/ep-2-men-dont-care-masculinity-and-careers/">here</a>
#5 &#8211; Communication and the 30-30-40 rule 
When it comes to events, we believe that 30% of your effort should be in pre-event promotion, 30% on the event itself and 40% on post-event communication and engagement.
Pre event &#8211; In planning your virtual events for this autumn, have you spent enough time in gathering feedback from last year’s events? What were the typical FAQs? How was your audience made up? For example, what percentage of your audience were Career Innocents (those without a clue of what to do post-graduation) versus Active Agents (those who are dead set on a specific sector and role)?
Armed with this information you can be sure that you have designed your 2021 events with your audience in mind.
Over the past 18 months there has only been one certainty in our market and that is uncertainty. Having interviewed hundreds of students, we have found that their experience of brands during Covid who have over-communicated with them has been way more positive. They want employers to be honest, even if they don’t have all the answers at times. So, before we hit the start button on our events this season, are we sure that audiences understand what to expect from our events? And is our communication a true reflection of what their experience will be? The more transparent we can be about the event the more likely students will be to engage and show up.
Post event &#8211; How are you communicating with your audiences after your events? Do you have a specific plan aimed at different audiences, who are at different stages of their decision journey? Allowing students, for example, who are early in their journeys to engage more directly with the brand will pay dividends. For example, offering tailored content or follow-up events around early stages of the application process is useful.
Feedback on your events – As we have just said, this is critical to ensure a successful long-term event strategy.  However, by asking for feedback from candidates, you set an expectation that they will be given feedback themselves from the process; so take care in asking for this if you don’t have the processes in place to provide this.
And finally, remember to have fun. The start of a new life post-graduation is a daunting prospect for many, especially coupled with the impact on mental health due to the pandemic. The pressure during the job-hunting process can be intense. Of course, there is a serious side to all of this; but if we as recruiters can make our events seem more human, honest and have some fun along the way all the better!
If you have any thoughts or additions to this article or would simply like to find out more about 106 Communications and our work, then do get in touch. Email <a href="mailto:jayne@106comms.com">jayne@106comms.com</a>

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Get ready for amazing virtual campus experiences

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HOW A YOUNG MILLENNIAL FINALLY UNDERSTOOD THE BIG DEAL ABOUT COMPANY PURPOSE.

GET REAL SCHOOL LEAVER INSIGHT SERIES – PART I

INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE OF WORK TRENDS

SEE IF YOUR STUDENT MARKETING IS TRULY INCLUSIVE WITH OUR INCLUSIVE BRAND AUDIT.

FROM WORDS TO ACTIONS: GETTING YOUR TEAM ENGAGED WITH ESG

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Recent Posts

HOW A YOUNG MILLENNIAL FINALLY UNDERSTOOD THE BIG DEAL ABOUT COMPANY PURPOSE.

GET REAL SCHOOL LEAVER INSIGHT SERIES – PART I

INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE OF WORK TRENDS

SEE IF YOUR STUDENT MARKETING IS TRULY INCLUSIVE WITH OUR INCLUSIVE BRAND AUDIT.

FROM WORDS TO ACTIONS: GETTING YOUR TEAM ENGAGED WITH ESG

GET READY FOR AMAZING VIRTUAL CAMPUS EXPERIENCES

Get ready for amazing virtual campus experiences