How Certis CISCO made the security industry 'exciting' for talent

Trying to attract talent for a sector which is made up of a matured workforce and is perceived to be dull and monotonous is no easy feat.

But that is exactly what the team at Certis CISCO Security managed to achieve, through its usage of digital media.

As a consequence, the firm bagged a gold award for the best use of digital media (in-house) category at the inaugural Asia Recruitment Awards, Singapore.

The key objectives of Certis CISCO's digital media initiatives were to improve the public image and perceptions of auxiliary police officers, recruit and retain talent and promote employer branding.

The firm employed a three-pronged approach to engage more than 28,000 employees.

It developed three campaigns, namely the Inspire Me Campaign (to improve public perception of industry), Certis World of Opportunities Campaign (to drive recruitment) and Winning Hearts and Minds Campaign ( to boost its retention rates and enhance its employer branding).

The company took various elements into consideration before implementing these strategies.

These included expanding reach, managing negative comments, and shortening response time to fans’ comments and keeping the content engaging and up to date on social media.

The company's efforts paid off, as its various online pages, contents, and posts saw a spike in impressions and engagements.

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For instance, the posts in the company's Facebook page saw a total engagement of 15% in 2014, i.e, an estimated 49.2k users would click on it or share a story.about it.

Besides that, the firm also noted active participation in its social media activities, including users commenting and sharing posts with their Facebook friends.

A notable contest was the “Guess The World Cup Winner” Contest, in which the company gave out $500 worth of Sportslink Vouchers to five winners who would successfully predict the World Cup Winner.

For this entry, the company received an overwhelming response of 552 comments, 11 shares, and a 17.81% engagement among the public.

The silver award in this category was tied in between JobsDB Singapore and Accenture, who also both proved their mettle in using digital media in ways that surpassed excellence.

Bagging the bronze award was Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA).

"We are glad that our persistence and the willingness to learn and experiment in the digital space paid off," Lau Yin Cheng, IDA’s chief of HR and OD, said.

Image: Asia Recruitment Awards, Singapore