Winning attitude: How James Andrews used gamification, carrots and sticks to upskill its talent acquisition team and differentiate itself in a competitive marketplace

Expand your mind and pools of opportunity

James Andrews had used LinkedIn for some time but it wished to increase its investment in the platform to stay at the forefront of the recruitment market.

“We continually invest in the development of our people and business to better serve our clients and candidates,” said Stephanie Beer, Business Development Manager at James Andrews. “We already worked with LinkedIn and some of the team had access to LinkedIn Recruiter but we wanted to widen the pool of consultants that had access to the platform daily and encourage our consultants to build personal brands on the platform.”

However, when you ask a “constantly busy” 360-degree recruiter to do something new, it can be challenging to find the time to get to grips with a new tool. Consultants had to be nurtured and trained to reap the full benefits of the Recruiter solution. Therefore, James Andrews delivered bespoke training based on the resources provided by LinkedIn Learning. 

Katherine Tyndall, Marketing Manager at James Andrews, said: “Externally, in a crowded and competitive market, there has been pressure to build our brand awareness and communicate what differentiates our services to the other agencies operating in the same space, particularly as we grow certain sector divisions such as legal and technology. This also applies to our consultants as individuals as we see more and more recruiters invest in the power of personal branding to expand their pool of opportunity.”

Stephanie continued: “We wanted to give our teams some training on LinkedIn Recruiter but what we needed wasn’t there. We wanted them to use Recruiter to maximise efficiencies when doing their day-to-day searches and use the tool more than a CV sourcing library. We wanted our teams to leverage Recruiter’s extra functionalities. 

“We knew that just giving our people links to the generic training wasn’t going to land as effectively as us creating something specific and bespoke to how our consultants do things. The training that was already available was too broad for some recruiters. We needed to extrapolate what was useful to them.

“Therefore, we carved out some time and delivered a tailored workshop that was a mandatory requirement to attend and we will soon be doing the same for LinkedIn Talent Insights.”

James Andrews is at the start of its Talent Insights journey and is working with its teams to reap all of the product’s benefits. Stephanie and Katherine know that the real-time data available through LinkedIn Talent Insights will elevate James Andrews’ talent acquisition strategies even further. Ensuring the business is consistently delivering a service that matches the company’s four core values is a crucial reason why it invests heavily in LinkedIn.

The organisation values teamwork and a collaborative approach and believes both are needed to achieve shared goals, growth and smart workforce and hiring decisions.

Stephanie explained: “LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Learning and LinkedIn Talent Insights are all incredibly valuable resources. 

“We soon realised that we could use LinkedIn’s resources and customise them to suit our needs. That was a turning point for us in both engagement and return on investment and I am certain that our consultants will also embrace Talent Insights as we delve deeper into the platform.”  

Make the best use of the product

Stephanie added: “We must remain at the forefront of the recruitment industry, exploring and investing in new technologies that enable us to offer clients a more consultative, data-driven service than the traditional recruitment process.”

Stephanie and her team needed to engage everyone. They trained all consultants – not just new starters – ensuring that everyone in the organisation had the opportunity to learn new skills. 

“Our journey began with increased investment into LinkedIn Recruiter Licences and for us, it was key to get the teams engaged with the new product and move them away from their old methods of working. ”

“Our approach was to gamify success and use their natural lean towards healthy competition to drive engagement. Using temporary bonus licences, we rolled out the LinkedIn ‘Hunger Games’ to decide which consultants would make the best use of the product.” 

James Andrews already utilised 12 Recruiter Licences. Over three months, it trialled the use of 12 more and told all consultants within the business that if they wanted to keep a licence, they had to “use it or lose it”. 

“There is a limit to how much you can invest so you have to use Recruiter Licences effectively,” continued Stephanie. “We created a very transparent league table using summary reports. We looked at InMail response rates, how many candidates were being added to our CRM system and how many placements were subsequently made. But we didn’t just have a stick, we had carrots too so if people’s scores were on the low side, we would guide them towards the most relevant courses within the LinkedIn Learning Library. 

“At the end of the trial, we used the data and the league table to select who would receive a LinkedIn Recruiter Licence. Even those with one of the original 12 licences were not guaranteed to keep it at the end of the trial. If people weren’t using it, we took it away.”

Maximising return on investment

James Andrews now has access to 21 Recruiter Licences. Following the trial, the company purchased an additional five licences, and four more have been added in recent weeks. Some consultants were not happy to lose their license so Stephanie and her team encouraged them to put forward their business case for another licence.

“The LinkedIn Hunger Games did up the ante internally,” Stephanie explained further. “You have to be data-driven and use data to your advantage.”

Stephanie and the James Andrews team have adopted a clear strategy and approach. They do not hesitate in redistributing licences across the business to ensure they are in the right hands, and that return on investment is maximised. 

Stephanie concluded: “With a great return on investment and drive, it’s more than likely that we will purchase more licences.

“The team at LinkedIn have been very supportive in our rollout. We have a great working relationship with the team who are very responsive in all their communications, and in suggesting products that match our business strategies and objectives. 

“What’s more, LinkedIn data has enabled us to deepen our client relationships, which has built their trust in our services and our consultative approach to recruitment.”