Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Gender pay gapGenderLegal sectorEthnicityWorkplace culture

How PR is the missing link in recruitment media

by Rob Moss 29 Jul 2020
by Rob Moss 29 Jul 2020 James Clench, managing director of Harpswood Employer PR
James Clench, managing director of Harpswood Employer PR

Black Lives Matter, gender diversity, workplace culture. The way employers communicate about these issues matters more than ever. James Clench, managing director of Harpswood Employer PR, talks to Personnel Today about how good communications benefit the employer brand.

“Well they would say that wouldn’t they?” One of a journalist’s first lessons is not to take what people say at face value. It is the rigour of the editorial process that distinguishes an article from an advertisement.

James Clench has first-hand experience of this process. With 16 years as a journalist at News UK, including a period as head of news on The Sun, he spent a further four years running the entrepreneurs and business team at public relations agency The PHA Group.

Employer branding

Covid-19 recovery: Employer brands will require ‘seismic shift’

Attracting talent during the lockdown

The next ethical dilemma: do we pay back furlough?

Whatmedia: the recruitment media research tool

“You can talk about your employer brand through social media, through paid advertising, but PR is the missing element,” he says. “I think it’s such a powerful element, because it gives you third-party validation.

“If you’re talking about things on your own social media, there is an element of, ‘well, you would say that about yourself’. What PR gives you is the fact that you have been questioned by a journalist, there has been some rigour applied to this, your claims have been tested, looked at, analysed and – with the right advice and preparation – there is a positive outcome in the media about it.”

Launched this month, Harpswood Employer PR is the UK’s first dedicated employer brand PR agency and is a joint venture with people communications agency Blackbridge Group. Among the services it offers are helping clients communicate their employer value proposition (EVP), training HR spokespeople and providing crisis and reputation management.

Its clients are supported in garnering “earned media” for recruitment campaigns and employer news, such as relocations or mergers.

Culture of the business

“If you can place an interesting news story about a talent attraction campaign with a publication that is being read by potential talent or onto a podcast or radio show that they’re listening to or a TV show they’re watching, it’s another way of reaching them,” explains Clench. “Those messages are all the more powerful for having come through that third party medium.”

Harpwood’s services includes EVP amplification and employer brand training for senior executives. “Some CEOs or senior leaders when they’re interviewed don’t really touch on the culture of the business, and you certainly get a sense of the ones where the culture of the business really means something to them.”

A good example of demonstrating what your business is all about is a recent profile of Louise O’Shea, CEO of Confused.com in in the Independent. O’Shea was heavily pregnant when she applied for the role two years ago; since then she has doubled profits and reached the benchmark of £1bn revenue.

“Everything in that interview was based around the culture of the business,” explains Clench. “She said the recognition of employees is so important to her – not just financially but the pats on the back; good communication is important to her. If you came away from reading that interview and you were thinking about joining Confused, you would have joined them tomorrow.

“Whereas for other businesses it’s about the bottom line and getting returns to the shareholders, but if you can talk well about your employer brand as a senior leader, that’s going to make a huge difference around who’s attracted to your business,” says Clench.

Getting a grip on diversity

The diversity and inclusion agenda, whether it’s how you communicate the nuances behind a gender pay gap or how you make yourself an attractive employer to a diverse range of backgrounds, is also a rich seam for good PR, no less so than in the stereotypically “pale, male and stale” legal sector.

Many law firms are extremely active in D&I, while others appear to be doing little and progress is widely deemed to be slow. The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s last round of diversity research in 2019 found that while 49% of lawyers were women, at partner level that proportion fell to 33%. Larger firms tended to have larger discrepancies between the two figures.

For ethnicity, the number of lawyers identifying as black, Asian or minority ethnic was 21%, compared to 13% of the total UK workforce. Unlike the profile for women, there is little difference by seniority among BAME lawyers: 21% of solicitors were BAME, compared to 22% of partners.

What PR gives you is the fact that you have been questioned by a journalist, there has been some rigour applied to this, your claims have been tested, looked at, analysed and – with the right advice and preparation – there is a positive outcome in the media about it” – James Clench, Harpswood Employer PR

However, the largest firms (50 or more partners) have the lowest proportion of BAME partners – only 8%. This contrasts with one-partner firms, where 36% of partners are from a BAME background.

“There’s a huge advantage to the law firms that really take a grip on D&I,” says Clench. “Some are doing that, but it comes down to not being tokenistic. It has to be meaningful and it has to be a consistent process that encourages the right people to apply to make sure you’re getting the workforce that reflects society.

“PR can communicate that but it has to be running all through business in the first place and it has to be serious and to be meant. If it isn’t, people will see through a tokenistic approach straight away.”

For HR directors in the legal sector and beyond who are struggling to push D&I up the agenda Clench says: “Arguments should be evidence-based and evidence should win the day. You need to look at research and look at the businesses that have embraced diversity and that have shown the positive results from it – and there are plenty of studies out there that do show that.

“As Black Lives Matter has shown, and as the gender pay debate has shown, these things are not going away and nor should they. If businesses don’t face up to them, they are going to be the ones who are out on a limb.”

A case in point

Issues that employers experience can often be shared as news stories that, with the right communications, can benefit a campaign. A prime example was Thames Water last month which earned numerous column inches when it changed the “masculine-coded” wording of an advert for a sewage works technician.

The utility shared its experience of a language tool that detects hidden implications of words such as “competitive”, “confident” and “champion”. After it altered the ad to include phrases such as “we welcome people who want to learn and be team players” it saw the proportion of female applicants rise from just 8% to 46%.

It’s case studies like these (Harpswood was not involved in Thames Water’s story) that Clench says are invaluable. While re-wording adverts to achieve better results is not new, he describes it as great piece of employer PR. “It went in The Times, The Independent and the tabloids,” he says.

“It was a great case study because it was quite extreme – it was a very unglamorous environment but they had still been successful in attracting women there. It worked very well as a piece and it shows what good employer PR can do.”

Recruitment and resourcing opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more recruitment and resourcing jobs

Rob Moss
Rob Moss

Rob Moss is a business journalist with more than 25 years' experience. He has been editor of Personnel Today since 2010. He joined the publication in 2006 as online editor of the award-winning website. He specialises in labour market economics, gender diversity and family-friendly working. He has hosted hundreds of webinar and podcasts, most recently on the challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic. Before writing about HR and employment he ran news and feature desks on publications serving the global optical and eyewear market, the UK electrical industry, and energy markets in Asia and the Middle East.

previous post
Coronavirus and travel: seven questions about quarantine
next post
Furlough costs reach £32bn

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Women in FTSE 350 leadership: ‘A lot of...

20 May 2022

How to build a compelling talent attraction strategy...

12 May 2022

Only 5% of job ad wording fully gender...

9 May 2022

Three ways storytelling can aid retention

4 Feb 2022

How coaching can make retirement an ‘encore’ worth...

4 Feb 2022

End ghosting in recruitment: Technology means there’s no...

25 Jan 2022

Four in 10 think firms should focus on...

11 Jan 2022

Employee Benefits Awards 2022 deadline fast approaching

6 Jan 2022

Succession planning now a priority for in-house recruiters

10 Dec 2021

Personnel Today Awards 2021 winners: ‘Radical’ partnership scoops...

16 Nov 2021
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+