This article was originally published in Charlotte Business Journal
Marketing isn’t just for sales and lead generation anymore.
In partnership with human resources, marketing can play a valuable role in an organization’s talent recruitment efforts. It’s a powerful union, given that business growth is derived from the talents of people.
For Honeywell, a multinational integrated operating company providing products and services in automation, aerospace and the energy transition, a campaign to personalize how employees impact those broad markets helps recruit talent to be part of the company’s mission.
“We use a lot of employee stories in our branding and marketing so when you’re looking at our website, you’re really seeing the personal stories of what you could impact,” says Josh Pascoe, Charlotte-based head of talent acquisition.
Honeywell’s Futureshaper campaign joins the expertise of marketing and HR to show how employees are making air travel safer and more sustainable, creating cleaner energy technologies and helping customers lower emissions or creating sustainable technologies for fuels and chemicals.
Pascoe made his comments as part of a Publisher’s Dinner sponsored by Spiracle Media and hosted by Charlotte Business Journal publisher T.J. McCullough. Joining at the dinner to discuss recruitment marketing were Tim Clinkenbeard, chief HR officer for Charlotte Pipe and Foundry, Timitra Hildebrand-Jones, vice president of culture and chief diversity officer for Albemarle, and Hannah Whitesides, senior vice president of marketing at Driven Brands, Inc. Tim Baier, CEO of Spiracle Media, and Jarod Latch, co-founder and COO of Spiracle Media, also joined the conversation.
On leveraging culture in the recruitment message
Key to attracting talent in a competitive job market is explaining to potential new hires who the company is and why it’s a great place to have a career.
For Albemarle Corporation, a global resources and specialty chemical company that, like Honeywell, relocated its headquarters to Charlotte in 2015, identifying talent has been a priority through recent rapid growth.
“One thing we’ve heard a lot in the talent space is this is the best company I’ve never heard of,” Hildebrand-Jones says.
Because of that, Albemarle has focused on explaining how Albemarle’s specialty chemicals and lithium are used in everyday things, such as medicine and glass cooktops as well as EV batteries.
“It helps individuals visualize how they can shape the future, build with purpose and grow together. We’re using that as part of our attraction of talent,” Hildebrand-Jones says.
Charlotte Pipe and Foundry’s culture and local brand recognition has done the heavy lifting for our talent acquisition efforts. Despite strong growth over the past several years, our referral programs and reputation as an employer locally have kept our applications flowing. “Our focus is taking all of the things about our culture that make people join and stay and telling our story to those that may be looking for employment in the communities we serve.”
For Driven Brands, the challenge is to recruit to the parent organization, the largest automotive aftermarket company in the world, and also build the tools that help thousands of individual franchise owners recruit hard-to-find technicians to their franchisees. Driven Brands is the parent company for Mako, Take 5 Oil Change, Meineke and many other collision brands.
Individual franchisors are competing for a dwindling pool of painters and auto body technicians. For people with those skills, there’s a great story to tell about the opportunity available to them, Whitesides says.
“The careers there for those people are incredible in today’s environment,” Whitesides says. “You can have an amazing career today because you have this very specific skill set.”
On jobs that don’t require a college degree
Many of the opportunities available at large companies don’t require a college degree. HR and marketing teams are seeking ways to tell that story and to reach potential new hires who are willing to learn new skills.
Albemarle operates lithium and bromine resources around the world, including a processing plant in Kings Mountain that produces thousands of tons of white-powdered lithium a year. As such, Albemarle has an ongoing need for people who have mechanical and technical experience.
In response, Albemarle is partnering with community colleges and other organizations to cultivate a manufacturing workforce, starting with students in high school who could be attracted to six-figure jobs that don’t require a college degree.
Charlotte Pipe and Foundry has a wide spectrum of jobs that require no college experience to those with specialized degrees. “It is really about skill and not necessarily about the degree. We are turning our attention to those fantastic trade schools and community colleges that help equip people with the skills needed to be successful at a job. Organizations like the Stanly County Community College invited us recently to see the great work they are doing in that community to build a skilled workforce.”
On culture and recruitment
Getting the word out about employment opportunities and even reinforcing the company’s message to support employee retention is an important part of both internal and external communications, says Latch of Spiracle Media. Spiracle works with large and mid-sized companies on telling their stories through video.
“You’re working for something that’s bigger than you, and here’s how it affects people’s lives, rather than just, here’s a job,” Latch says of the messaging.
Baier agrees that such internal and external communication helps reinforce culture, leading to more stable workforces.
“Mission and values are playing a huge role in everything that we’re hearing from people that are trying to hire this new, younger workforce,” Baier says. “It’s so important to them to believe in the company they’re working for.”
On marketing to employees
To attract talent, companies are putting forward some of the most alluring aspects of working there, including training on new technology and more supportive work environments.
“Nowadays we’re highlighting the really cool technology you get to work with,” says Pascoe of Honeywell. That includes automation and AI. “Highlighting that is making the workplace more exciting. This is the high-tech manufacturing that we’re doing and the cool things we get to work on.”
Hildebrand-Jones says Albemarle is focused on showcasing parts of the culture not usually found in a manufacturing workplace, such as DEI, employee engagement surveys and even tuition reimbursement.
“Our goal is for employees to have the best experience in their career with Albemarle. So we are being intentional about looking at every part of the employee life cycle and what we can do differently to make that happen. It’s about making sure employees feel they are part of this bigger, broader organization and they have the opportunity to continue to grow their career,” Hildebrand-Jones says.
Albemarle’s voluntary turnover rate globally has been around 5% for the past few years, Hildebrand-Jones says, which is below the industry rate that is typically above 10%. She attributes the recruitment and retention to people being intrigued by the work Albemarle is doing to power the future with EV transportation and some of its other lines of business as well as the great reputation around the culture.
“It’s about really leveraging that story on how we play into the future and how the future of global resource manufacturing inspires your career,” Hildebrand-Jones says.
On a search for meaning
HR and marketing leaders say they see generational differences in new hires. To attract those in an early-career stage, it’s important to show employees the greater purpose of their work. Whitesides says franchise owners need to show a new generation of workers why their work has meaning and how they might advance from entry-level positions.
“It isn’t just a day job for people anymore in the younger generation,” Whitesides says.
“They really want to understand the path to growth, and if you can’t clearly provide that you’re not going to keep them more than two years.”
Driven Brands invests in training, education and certifications so employees want to stay and grow.
“It’s really amazing to see when people pass down their businesses to a new generation, or even when those who may have started working in the body shop have a path to someday become the owner of the shop, and that’s a beautiful story that we would love to see happen over and over again,” Whitesides says.
Hildebrand-Jones says HR has to tackle the false analogy that career growth is only a ladder to be climbed and the only reason to leave a position is to move to a higher rank, pay or promotion.
“How can we highlight our careers to demonstrate it’s not a ladder, it is more of a jungle gym or lattice and really have that visual for them to understand that when you take some of these lateral moves or these special projects, you are still growing, you’re still developing and you’re gaining new skills. Just because it’s not a promotion and a step up, it doesn’t mean that you’re not growing and developing,” Hildebrand-Jones says.
In addition to skills and career growth, Pascoe says Honeywell is focused on creating an inclusive environment, including one that supports hires from multiple different generations and more women in a technical workplace.
Clinkenbeard says stability is an underrated factor that can help retain talent. Part of the culture of Charlotte Pipe and Foundry is that the company does not lay off employees. “This commitment from our ownership to not perform reductions in force has meant a great deal to our people over the years — they talk about it often. This demonstrates to me how much stability has paid off.”
On creating career pathways
Whether employees come to Honeywell through an apprenticeship program, an internship, early career hire or an experienced hire, Pascoe says the company continues to develop their skills. There’s a heavy emphasis on cross-training within manufacturing to work across different lines, across different teams to build skills so employees have an ability to move up. And every job is open to every employee to apply.
“We want people to feel like they can own their career,” Pascoe says.
Similarly, Hildebrand-Jones says, all career development and training programs at Albemarle are self-nominated. Employees don’t need to wait for a manager to nominate or invite them. Likewise, all jobs are open to everyone, but Hildebrand-Jones says even with such an open policy, its critical to encourage more employees to apply.
Latch says companies find that even when they offer potential paths for employees, they still have a responsibility to steer employees toward pursuing those opportunities while encouraging self-responsibility.
Whitesides says part of Driven Brands’ meritocracy driven culture is the expectation that motivated employees are vocal about the ways they want to grow their career, including training, advancement and promotions to more responsibility.
“We really expect you and encourage you to get after filling in your own gaps,” Whitesides says. “You are responsible for your own career, and we’ll help you figure out how to get there. We put that responsibility on the employees.”
The franchisees build their own culture within their organizations, and that hopefully prevents skilled technicians from being attracted away for a small raise.
“You are responsible as the owner of that business to create your own culture,” Whitesides says. Some owners succeed with exemplary employee benefits, others build a family environment with cookouts and other rewards for their teams.
“Maybe the shop down the street that’s going to offer an employee a dollar more an hour at some point becomes less attractive when you’ve created this culture of inclusivity,” Whitesides says.
Clinkenbeard says he’s seen organizations hold back ambitious employees by saying they are not ready for a larger role.
“One of the things I’ve observed at Charlotte Pipe is a willingness to invest in people to build skills they may not have initially for a role. However, if you have the desire and motivation to learn, we’ll teach you the rest,” Clinkenbeard says. “Let’s go ahead and move you into the role because we know what kind of worker you are. That is the kind of talent mindset that matches up with our culture.”
On DEI
HR leaders say focusing on recruits as individuals and as different demographics helps build a larger and more sustainable workforce.
Honeywell goes to find talent wherever they are, Pascoe says, including connecting with students in high school and military veterans who are looking to move into the private sector.
“Part of our strategy is to go where the individuals are in diverse organizations and build our brand talking about why Honeywell is good,” Pascoe says.
Hildebrand-Jones says Albemarle has sought to attract qualified women to apply for its manufacturing jobs.
“We’re looking at what can we do internally to make it more attractive,” Hildebrand-Jones says, such as the potential for more flexibility which would be attractive for everyone.
Whitesides says her membership in Women’s Industry Network, an organization specifically for women in the automotive collision space, exposed her to other women in the male-dominated industry and helped her see that she could be a leader and build a career at Driven Brands.
“It was truly impactful to the rest of my career,” Whitesides says.
On hybrid work’s impact
While companies debate whether allowing employees to work from home some or all of the time is a necessary ingredient to being an attractive place to work, Clinkenbeard says the hybrid work debate has become unnecessarily contentious. What all employees want is flexibility and trust.
“I think what we’ve gotten into, which we tend to do on every issue, is it’s one extreme or the other. You’re in the office or you’re remote. There is a spectrum of things in between,” Clinkenbeard says.
Employees want to feel trusted and often need some flexibility to attend to the various needs in their life. What I think is needed is healthy two-way conversation between employees and management to find that right balance between the needs of the employee and the needs of the company.
Hildebrand-Jones says Albemarle created remote guidelines and asked employees to commit to the days they would work in the office so the company can plan for space.
“When you think about the flexibility that a company can offer, it ties directly to mental health and people being able to create a balance for themselves and being able to feel trusted,” Hildebrand-Jones says. “I can create my own balance. I think that goes a long way for the mental health of our employees.”
Whitesides says Driven Brands has become more flexible with a hybrid work schedule, some days in the office and some from home. The company has also added unlimited PTO to help attract talent.
Pascoe says the challenge is new hires can be far removed from the manager, who isn’t connected to the team.
“If you are coming to the office, that’s how you’re developing in your career. It’s part of engagement. It’s harder to leave if you feel connected to your team.”
On worries for the workforce
Open roles, AI disruption and the rapid pace of change in the workplace make it challenging for HR and marketing leaders to prioritize investments and support the business. Dinner guests shared the biggest sources of worry in their roles.
Pascoe says he thinks about the areas where Honeywell has skill shortages.
“How do we hire advanced manufacturing engineers that can make our factories more efficient? How do we hire cybersecurity people? AI skills and data analytics skills — how do we compete in that environment where there are skill shortages?” Pascoe says.
Whitesides says she thinks about providing tools to franchise owners to be able to find talent in a dwindling pool of tradespeople.
“We have an aging workforce in the automotive aftermarket part of this industry,” Whitesides says. “I want to make sure that I’m part of this bigger, broader educational moment for people to show them there’s a career path with these amazing small business owners that want to invest in them and their careers.”
