MOST EFFECTIVE EMPLOYER BRAND DEVELOPMENT 2018

Winner: The Home of Proper Jobs: Charles Tyrwhitt

Clothing retailer Charles Tyrwhitt was suffering from popular misconceptions that it was a stuffy business that made ‘shirts for dads’. So its three-strong recruitment team decided to bust the myth. The team developed a recruitment website, ‘The Home Of Proper Jobs’ and moved to a new recruitment philosophy – treating candidates in the same way the company did its customers. They built a transparent and engaging recruitment process with different, enjoyable interview techniques and tools. They made the company’s people into ambassadors, and championed its founder, Charles Tyrwhitt, as the face and voice of recruitment – in an animation. The new social media strategy provided a quirky view of what it was like to work for the firm. Charles Tyrwhitt now has a consistent and seamless experience for candidates coming into the business.

• The recruitment team featured many of the company’s people in its employer branding. ‘The Home of Proper Jobs’ website became a connector – everyone felt they owned a bit of it.

• The team culled old recruitment practices and developed fun and engaging assessment centres across retail. They reviewed the internal recruitment process and developed a transparent and easily accessible internal application process, refer-a-friend process and promotion/relocation policy.

• Having a strong employer brand has given people confidence to talk about the firm with pride. The team has seen a shift in ownership of candidate attraction from being an HR role to a business-wide role. Line managers have the confidence to recruit in new ways and tackle biases. The company now recruits for potential and behaviour rather than only experience. Candidates are more excited, informed and engaged from the start of the process, so the company is winning talent over its competitors.

• As a result of effective development of the employee attraction brand, the team has influenced the development of the entire employee life cycle. It has highlighted areas that seemed shabby when compared with the new recruitment experience, and drive process improvement.

• Two of the company’s business goals are growth and ‘putting people first. The development of the employer brand has improved recruitment’s ability to support both of these goals.

Highly Commended:

Clearly Hastings Direct: Hastings Direct in partnership with That Little Agency

Judges’ Comments:

“We were impressed at the achievements being delivered entirely by a small in-house team, on a shoestring budget… They did a great job engaging their senior leadership team on the journey.”