An employer brand that adapts to each candidate: Medbase's visionary recruitment strategy
Medbase, a Swiss-based healthcare company, is facing recruitment challenges that many organizations are encountering. There are few applications in a sector that is experiencing a severe shortage: Medbase recruits doctors, nurses, healthcare specialists, and more.
Few talented people are actively seeking jobs in this sector, and Medbase struggles to fill certain positions despite a clear commitment on the part of managers and a genuine interest from staff regarding recruitment issues. So when a candidate comes along, it's important not to let him or her flop and to look after them. But it's not that easy.
In this context, Medbase was suffering above all from a lack of clear processes, as well as the lack of any systems to frame and track the team's actions.
Above all, they began to think differently and realized the importance of talent's personality when considering joining them, as well as the importance of a high-quality candidate/company relationship.
The relevance of individual contexts in convincing candidates to apply
Florian is convinced that we should no longer wait for applications, but rather see talent as “prospects” to be converted over the long term. Hence the importance of Candidate Relationship Management.
"The attractiveness of the brand doesn't come from a bunch of content posted online to attract, but comes from the exchanges between the recruiter, the hiring manager and the candidate. Our employer brand identity is developed specifically for each candidate, as the relationship is built up”.
How do we do this? In two simple yet highly innovative steps!
1 - Don't just share information, listen to talent
The objective of the entire recruitment process must change. From a posture based on “I present what the company has to offer”, we need to move towards a model where we give candidates the opportunity to speak for themselves, so that we can address them with an understanding of their professional and personal issues:
- Situation
- Aspirations
- Projects
- Ambitions
👉 Find out more: Skill-Based Recruitment: definition & tips
2 - Don't offer talent a job, offer support
Florian explains that “offering a job” is no longer enough. For Medbase, the starting point is the candidate's profile. Thanks to the time spent talking with them, it's possible to define how the company's landscape can be adapted to them, and how this profile can find its place within the company.
It may be that the various discussions show that the candidate won't be able to blossom within the company, but there's nothing to stop the relationship continuing (quite the contrary!).
“At Medbase, for example, we offer to keep in touch and put the talent in touch with one of our in-house experts for constructive discussions,” explains Florian. Even if the candidate is not recruited.
The advantage of this approach is that these rare candidates become true ambassadors, because the company will have sought to support them rather than “sell” them an offer that doesn't correspond to their profile. If this profile is not recruited, it could be a former colleague or a fellow graduate who will have aspirations and wishes closer to what Medbase can offer at the time.
That's why Medbase has also chosen to go the referral way, adding all the benefits of this strategy to its Talent Sourcing approach. It's by building high-quality relationships and demonstrating the importance that each talent individually has for Medbase that the company builds its reputation. Not only can employees help by referring profiles, but so can candidates.
👉 Accelerate your referral strategy with a digitalized referral program
Watch Florian's interview with our co-founder Carl Hoffmann at Unleash 2023.
Finally, Medbase has added new channels to its new global sourcing strategy. For example, they have added Facebook adverts to their actions.
This works very well, and as Florian explains, “Medbase found 100 candidates on Facebook in 1 week”. However, a new problem has arisen: how to apply their in-depth approach to all candidates who apply, without leaving anybody out?
What recruiters need to do in order to engage in an exchange and discovery process with EVERY candidate
In just a few days, it's impossible for Medbase's recruiters to process 100 applications in a way that's in line with their employer branding strategy: listening, feeling out and offering support tailored to each profile, before even talking about one open position or another.
A toolbox better suited to candidate-oriented recruitment
The key for Medbase? Choosing a CRM (Candidate Relationship Management) tool.
Many actions can be automated to free up recruiters' time. They can then work hand-in-hand with candidates to find the perfect job and matching projects within Medbase.
In this project, two CRM functionalities were particularly useful to Florian's team:
- automatic mailings to personalize exchanges
- automated appointment proposals, so that recruiters only have to carry out the interviews, instead of spending hours scheduling them.
👉 Want to understand how CRM works? Request a demo
Unique Talent Acquisition platform for an ecosystem shared by the whole team
According to Florian, “CleverConnect's platform format fosters a living recruitment ecosystem that enables us to follow all the ins and outs of a transformation from a ‘lead’ talent to a candidate, then from a candidate to a colleague and from a colleague to an ambassador”. CRM, referral... all these tools are available on the same platform, enabling teams to track:
- every event concerning the talent's life,
- their entire relationship with the company.
“As the platform is easy to use, it offers a secure recruitment environment within which the team feels comfortable, which is very important in the context of organizational change and the development of new systems within a recruitment department” concludes Florian.
👉Step up your recruitment strategy with our Talent Acquisition platform
