"Leaving 2016 and into 2017 we continue our mission to conquer more markets and industries equipped with all tools needed; and LinkedIn has been and will remain one of the main tools that we depend on for such expansion"

- Abdul Karim Al Saleh, CEO

81% of talent leaders in MENA agree that employer brand has a significant impact on their ability to hire great talent. SKM Air Conditioning, a leader in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment in the Gulf, has been working on establishing its employer brand in the local and regional market for over 42 years. Despite having offices in 15 countries, supplying products to 30 countries, and sourcing talent from over 25 nationalities, they needed to strengthen their brand internationally. They therefore partnered with LinkedIn to amplify their employer brand, first regionally, and then globally.

The initial results have been outstanding:

• 10x increase in followers in 1 year
• Took their brand from a regional to a global audience
• Hired 31% of their senior roles through LinkedIn
• Saved hundreds of thousand dirhams

“The sky is the limit for us, we are going global and we have nothing to stop us.” – Ahmed Fahmy, CFO of SKM Air Conditioning.

The Challenge

SKM Air Conditioning was founded in Sharjah to produce air conditioning equipment in 1974. Today, the company employs over 1,500 multinational employees and has its own in-house research and development department (R&D).

As the company expanded, however, they found that both potential customers and employees did not know ‘SKM’ outside their main industry of work, which was primarily in the industrial and oil and gas sectors. This reality conflicted with their goal to be known in every household and industry, and to be top of mind when cooling solutions are needed.

Another challenge was finding top-tier talent for SKM Air Conditioning – which meant they had to expand their reach worldwide. To find the right people for the job, they would also need to target passive candidates who are not familiar with their brand.

1) Adopting a partner-centric approach

SKM Air Conditioning believes that the key to success for any organization is through partnerships with others. By partnering with other organizations, such as LinkedIn, the company was able to meet their goals of reaching a global market through creating greater brand awareness, engaging employees and attracting a larger and more relevant pool of talent. “LinkedIn serves us from both a marketing and a recruitment perspective,” said Mr Fahmy.

SKM also believes in partnering with their customers. By working closely with their customers to provide customized solutions, they are able to differentiate themselves from competitors and provide a niche in the market.

2) Sharing SKM Air Conditioning’s story, and evaluating user engagement

As the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn was the perfect platform to showcase SKM Air Conditioning’s company story and culture and portray what it feels like to work there.

By monitoring user engagement on postings on their company page, SKM Air Conditioning was able to create targeted communication that resulted in better engagement. They quickly identified the topics and themes that were gaining the highest engagement, such as employee events and testimonials, and built a content marketing strategy based on user engagement. “We want people to fall in love with SKM Air Conditioning. We try to create content that says this is who we are; this is how we provide the best environment for our people – and we’d like you to join us,” said Mr. Fahmy.

SKM Air Conditioning’s employees also have a part in sharing their company’s story on LinkedIn. They became brand ambassadors; “liking” and “sharing” company updates and making them visible to their networks; which expanded the company’s reach and follower base.

3) Targeting passive candidates

Skilled candidates are hard to find especially when it comes to engineering design or R&D, making it essential for SKM Air Conditioning to look beyond the region to target passive candidates, who might not be actively looking for a new job. As the company is not located in countries that have highly-skilled candidates in these fields, SKM Air Conditioning needed a partner to help them expand their reach.

When they started using LinkedIn over 13 months ago, not only did their followers increase, they were able to identify the exact people they are looking for from a pool of passive candidates, and then recruit them.

“We could use LinkedIn to evaluate which candidates would be the right fit for an available role, and reach out to them directly. We can’t do that with any other recruitment solution”.

• 10x increase in followers in 1 year

By working on creating an established employer brand and promoting their company values and work environment, SKM Air Conditioning’s followers increased from 1,600 in October 2015 to over 18,000, connecting them to 70 countries over six continents in just one year. “Our followers are already working in the industry, and as they began to learn more about the company, they started to approach us with job requests,” said Mr. Fouda.

• Taking their brand from a regional to a global audience

By partnering with LinkedIn, SKM Air Conditioning was able to strengthen their employer brand, first in the region and then on a global scale. They launched targeted media campaigns to reach international talent and showcase their employer brand. By doing so they were able to attract a new pool of talent that they couldn’t reach before.

“Through LinkedIn, we were able to target candidates that met specific criteria in different regions such as the Asia Pacific and the United States. Many of these candidates were successfully recruited into our company” said Mr. Fouda.

• 31% of senior hires sourced from LinkedIn

As a multi-level, multi-cultural organization, SKM Air Conditioning has employees that range from workers to technicians to upper management. Using traditional methods of recruitment to find senior employees incurred high commissions and fees. LinkedIn Talent Solutions, however, allowed SKM Air Conditioning to fill vacancies more efficiently.

By using LinkedIn to hire up to 31% of senior roles, the company was able to save hundreds of thousand dirhams annually. With savings like these, “LinkedIn has over-exceeded our expectations and next year we will raise the bar even more,” said Mr. Fahmy. 

“It’s not easy to convince your CFO to spend money. However, with LinkedIn your ROI will be very positive and it’s convincing. We have tried it, and it works.” 

- Ahmed Fahmy, CFO