Watch: GroupM takes fresh grads on a VR tour of its Singapore office

After winning gold at the Asia Recruitment Awards 2016, Hong Kong for Best Use of Recruitment Technology, GroupM Asia Pacific's team based in Singapore has just introduced an element of virtual reality (VR) for recruiting graduates this year.

In a newly released VR 360-degree video, GroupM's campus recruitment team takes a cheeky and exaggerated view to introducing the Singapore office to students.

This is the first time GroupM is using virtual reality as part of its hiring process. Sabrina Zolkifi, talent communications manager, GroupM APAC, says the idea came from the internal talent team, after which a partner was roped in to bring it to life.

She says: "We decided on VR as it was something that’s still quite new in the APAC market, and we thought it would be a very interesting and out-of-the-box way to give fresh grads and those new to our industry a sneak peek into what we do."

Have a look at the video:

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Zolkifi explains the tongue-in-cheek approach to the video [check out the team that's "cleaning" big data] was intentional, as "that reflects our culture and we knew that the type of people we are looking to attract would enjoy it."

Feedback from students has been positive so far and it has been shared on social around the region.

In an email conversation, Human Resources spoke to the GroupM team for more on such initiatives:

What other new tools are you looking to leverage this coming uarter/year?

Zolkifi: Being inventive is part of our DNA at GroupM and the talent team have been creating a number of innovative approaches over the past few years across all areas of talent management. This year we have welcomed Jessica Maley who has been promoted to head of talent acquisition, APAC from her role with us in Australia and she has some great ideas around content and continuing to make GroupM stand out from the recruitment crowds. Watch this space!

How many graduates are you looking to hire this year?

Jason Leong, talent acquisition lead, GroupM Singapore: Typically we welcome 20 graduates each year in Singapore through our campus recruitment efforts. This year we anticipate increasing that given the growth of our agencies.

Being in a fast moving industry and business we typically have 50 to 60 roles open at any point of time across the agencies in Singapore.

What channels of recruitment are you using?

Lorraine Tan, talent acquisition lead, GroupM APAC: We use multiple approaches given the diversity of talent we look to attract. For entry level this is typically on-campus recruitment and collaborations with key universities. Technology is a key part of who we are so as you would expect we leverage an applicant tracking system and you can find all those roles published on our GroupM career page and career sites like Indeed, Glassdoor, Twitter and LinkedIn. Internship programmes are a great way for people to see whether our industry is for them so we have a high number of applications for full time roles following that, and of course we look internally to give existing people new opportunities or to refer their external network.

Which ones have you seen the most success in so far?

Tan: On-campus recruitment and collaborations with key universities and polytechnics helps us to attract the best young talent. One of the most successful form of recruitment for mid-senior level hires have always been through referrals/word of mouth whereby the best candidates in the industry are attracted to the opportunity with us via our own ambassadors.

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