Goals

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.

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Building a university network

The pandemic disrupted university recruiting in many ways, and one in particular is how future talent looks for their first job. 

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Adapting to trends

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”.

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Create a successful virtual career event process

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.  ‍

Strengthen the employer brand with the next generation of talent

“We also need to strengthen our employer brand: everyone knows products like Nivea and Hansaplast, but not so much the employer behind them.”

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Build long-lasting relationships with the next generation of talent

"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." 

Solutions

Using CareerFairy’s live-streaming platform as a strategy:

Expanding reach through virtual events

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.

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Creating an authentic candidate experience

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.

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Building long-lasting brand awareness for the next generation of talent

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.

Gathering valuable participant feedback and analysing results

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.

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Conclusion

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.