Beiersdorf Group is a prominent employer of young talent. Although the Group and its brands are famous for their products, it may not be the first name that springs to mind when university talent size up their reputation as an employer. To change this, our University Relations Team has set itself the task of improving how the company is seen by the next generation of talent, while at the same time concentrating on bringing the recruitment methods up to date for digital natives.
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Instead of one major leap, the company has placed smaller stepping stones to develop its connection with students and graduates from universities across Europe. Since the end of Covid restrictions, the company has noticed that digital natives are not returning to physical events, so a fresh and more experimental plan has had to be devised.
The pandemic disrupted university recruiting in many ways, and one in particular is how future talent looks for their first job.
Prior to CoronaVirus, many applicants had to be rejected for live workshops due to excess demand. Throughout the pandemic however, there were far fewer participants as many students kept their distance. Yet personal interaction with students remains vitally important for the company and cannot be allowed to decline.
“We are also asking ourselves whether campus events are still relevant or whether virtual events are now better received by the target group”.
Building a virtual university network has been challenging for two reasons - no infrastructure to manage all activities sustainably and no easy way to communicate with each individual on a more personal level.
“We also need to strengthen our employer brand: everyone knows products like Nivea and Hansaplast, but not so much the employer behind them.”
"We have been looking for ways to open up. We are increasing our transparency and accessibility by being more proactive in sharing our values and opinions on trending topics, innovative projects or stories of co-workers."
We noticed that after the Coronavirus there was a considerable decline of reach via the physical student fairy. And we were searching for a solution to this problem. We’ve been using CareerFairy to host virtual career events for 3 years. I find that the advantage of CareerFairy is not just a purpose-built live-streaming platform. For us, the most important aspect of CareerFairy is its university network. We reach more universities with one live stream, leading to a higher ROI. Also, being able to back our recruiting and employer branding decisions with data is very important to legitimise our decisions. The data shows us the bigger picture helping us recruit better the next time.
Kira Steffens
Using CareerFairy’s live-streaming platform as a strategy:
Through the vision of CareerFairy, which places the entire European university network onto a comprehensive platform to facilitate university recruiting process, Beiersdorf has upscaled university recruiting from Regional in Germany, to National, and now via the DACH Region to International live streams in English.
All desired universities can be addressed simultaneously at one live stream leading to a much higher ROI for Beiersdorf.
The Beiersdorf University Relations Team feels that Zoom, Teams and similar general virtual meeting tools are not interactive enough. For them CareerFairy offers a more proactive, tailor-made solution to recruiters' needs, as it is gamified, offering better opportunities for streamers and participants to interact. In addition, CareerFairy enables participants' questions to be submitted in advance, making the live stream even more individually relevant.
Live-streaming format is a great way to build long-lasting professional relationships. Beiersdorf has started the virtual conversation by introducing themselves, talking about their values and important topics such as innovation and diversity. But to get the maximum out of CareerFairy live streams, the conversation quickly evolves from general to recruiting specifics.
The Analytics dashboard gives the University Relations Team an overview of how many students they reached, where they came from and other details.
Analysing the feedback section after each event, the Beiersdorf University Relations Team can compare whether the topics that are important to the company resonate with participants.
Agility in adapting to recruitment trends that come with generation change has allowed Beiersdorf to remain competitive in the 'war for talent'. Generation Z is harder to reach through the more 'traditional' approach, so therefore proximity to the audience and an open feedback loop is key to engagement.
