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At Adapt, Covid-19 has provided us with plenty of positive insights. One key change we are focusing on is how we view our engagement with our offices and physical spaces. 

As we come out of lockdown, we are fully embracing what we have learned these past 12 months across our 2,000+ global Welocalize workforce and we refuse to revert to how it was before. 

We know we can do a whole lot more, and by that, we mean we will be more forward-thinking, more innovative, more flexible and more people-focused. 

We will stick to our word and provide a better environment for our team. We want to focus on providing people with a sustainable work/life balance, as well as a more enjoyable future work environment.  

We have one underlying principle: to encourage people to take ownership of their own time and how they choose to engage with our physical spaces when our teams are safe to return. In short, we want to ensure people are given the trust and therefore flexibility to work in a way they feel most productive. 

Why have we decided to change the way we work?  

Our working habits have changed. This pandemic has accelerated some principles for work that may have arrived in the future, but we are very lucky to be able to embrace these in 2021 – far earlier than we would have been able to over the next decade without Covid-19. 

We have very clear, tangible data across our global workforce that shows we simply do not need to gather everyone that works for a business in the same four walls every day to deliver for our clients, be productive and work well together. And our results prove quite the opposite – some of these trends have improved in the last year. 

Over the last 12+ months, our teams in the UK and globally at Welocalize have proven that we can deliver amazing results and work for clients regardless of location.

We have plans to grow our footprint internationally and already have major international hubs in Barcelona, Beijing, London, NYC and Portland.

On top of that, we have shared spaces all over the world for our teams to gather, meet clients and build face-to-face connections.

Embracing a more dynamic way of working, less focused on specific locations and more focused on how we best serve our teams and clients will make us a far stronger business in the future and better able to serve our clients. 

We have learned to embrace this far better than we could before the pandemic. And it is now time to take those findings into the future and shape our culture. 

What is our position on offices now? 

First and foremost, we want to facilitate our teams spending time together should they choose to, and we will do this by providing inspiring collaborative spaces around the world at Welocalize for people to gather on their own terms, with colleagues and clients. 

Where we have clusters of employees and clients, we will invest in collaborative spaces for people to use to their own benefit and to fuel their own productivity. 

As a result, we are opening a new collaborative space in Bristol city centre. 

This new space, ready to use when it is safe to do so, will give us a great opportunity to stay true to our new direction… to better support our team and clients where we have a strong presence. 

We could not be more excited to have a Bristol base to socialize and build stronger rapports and support the networking and growth of our team relationships. 

Want to join us?! 

Do you like our new approach to working? Do you want to work for a business that trusts you and gives you this kind of flexibility and has an international outlook? 

We have many current roles open across our business! Click here for Adapt and Welocalize careers. 

In today’s hypercompetitive market, attracting the best talent to join your businesses is no easy task. It’s your job to ensure your company stands out among the competition, and advertising active vacancies on online platforms and across your own social channels only go so far. 

In such an overcrowded market, you need to be ensuring you are doing something that catches the job seekers attention and entices them to want to find out more about your company. 

A great way to differentiate your company is by giving candidates a window into your employer brand and company culture, and video is one of the most successful ways of doing this.

Research has long heralded the powerful impact of video on social posts. Social media posts with video get 1200 percent more shares than social media posts with just text and images, according to Responsive Inbound Marketing. Furthermore,  Wyzowl research shows that 81 percent of people have been convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video.

Those statistics are pretty mind-blowing, right? With the attention spans of today’s consumers growing increasingly smaller, video is the most effective form of content to capture a slice of this. Add to this the opportunity to attract and inform job seekers, and you’ll understand just how much value video adds to a recruitment strategy. 

As a southwest video agency that has helped numerous clients unlock the benefits of video, we’ve put together a few tips on how to use this type of content as an extremely effective recruitment tool.

Convey your company culture

One of the first things candidates look for when browsing for job opportunities is for validation on whether they can see themselves working at that company. The last thing they want to do is find themselves joining a company where the environment is hostile, wishing they knew more about the company culture ahead of joining.

Video can be a really effective way of giving candidates a flavour of your company culture and the wonderful people who make it so brilliant. The key to this is keeping it authentic,  rather than using actors or staging it. Capture behind-the-scenes footage during the working day, during projects and on work trips. Testimonial-stye interviews are also a great way to allow your current employees to share their experience of working for your company.

Don’t be afraid to experiment

What you want to avoid is producing a video that is just like everybody else. Remember, the key is to stand out amongst the crowd and capture the attention of candidates. Producing something that is incredibly corporate and formal is not always the best way to get across the true personality of your company. Going with a more lighthearted style can be way more effective.

Try incorporating natural, unplanned footage as well as sit-down interviews. Try out different shooting styles and environments — don’t just constrain yourself to the office backdrop! Experiment with fun post-production techniques including memes, motion graphics and sound effects. The limit is your creativity! Daring to be different will be a surefire way of capturing attention.

Know your platforms

A key consideration when creating video for your recruitment strategy is to have a good understanding of the platforms you will be sharing it on. This involves knowing factors such as audience demographics, platform intent, the average decision duration, video drop-off times, screen orientation (portrait versus landscape) and more. 

These factors will determine the edit of your video, ensuring it is tailored per platform. Don’t worry —  this doesn’t mean you’ll need numerous budgets! Here at JMP, we leverage the video footage captured in a single shoot and repurpose it during post-production as per our client’s platform requirements. 

For example, a longer-form piece with sits on your company website can be broken down into shorter clips ideal for social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. From the edit, you could also create vertical clips designed specifically for Stories and IGTV. 

Don’t forget to think about those platforms surging in popularity such as TikTok. Gen Z and millennials make up 62 percent of TikTok’s audience, so it is a great channel for reaching and building brand awareness with students, new grads and early career audiences.

Here’s a great 2021 overview of the key demographics for the most popular social media platforms to help with your research.

Keep it brief

We’ve just discussed the importance of tailoring your video per platform, with duration playing a key role in this. If we take a step back and consider the optimum length for attracting candidates during the early stages of recruitment, keeping it short and snappy is most advised. 

While longer-form content is growing in popularity in recent times, with the introduction of IGTV and the surge in podcast usage, this tends to work best for brands that have already established a relationship with their audience. Users who enjoy this longer-form content typically have already invested in the brand.

On the other hand, prospective candidates who are scrolling through are much more likely to engage with shorter content from companies. According to research looking into the optimal video length for the most popular video channel by Hubspot:

• Instagram videos that averaged 26 seconds generated the most comments
• Twitter’s #VideoOfTheDay averaged at 45 seconds
• On Facebook, videos that are around one minute long generated the most engagement

This doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with longer-form video content at all. Many companies find it effective to use longer videos to engage talent who have found their way to your careers page, have completed an application, or simply want to find out more.

Work with the professionals

While advancement in smartphone technology is enabling everyone to have a great quality camera, factors such as post-production, the quality of sound, and poor lighting can really impact how well that video goes down. A poor video can really do more damage than good during recruitment.

Ultimately, you want to show candidates that you’re investing in your employees and bringing onboard new talent. Therefore, bringing in the help of professional videographers and editors will really ensure you’re creating a professional, flawless video that aligns with your company values and is a true reflection of your brand. 

Hiring can be costly, which is why communicating your company cultures and values during the recruitment process is vital to ensure you’re attracting the right candidates, and that likewise, the candidates are getting a good indication of the company they are joining.

Video is a brilliant way to get this message across in a fun and engaging way that’s sure to make you stand out. However, as with any marketing initiative, it’s important to always track your efforts and analyse results to ensure you’re getting a good ROI.

If you’d like to explore the possibilities of how video can ramp up your recruiting efforts, reach out to us here at JMPUK. Check out JMPUK’s own recruitment video here.

Almost without exception, agencies are embracing a more flexible attitude and approach to work and an overwhelming majority of employees would like to see this continue. But as you get to grips with what the future of work might look like, some aspects of agency life should become less flexible and even non-negotiable. And this is actually a good thing.

Flying in the face of constraints, the winning agencies will be the ones with an uncompromising focus on their culture, focusing on how they can support their people to be their best selves and do era-defining work. An awakening for some perhaps, but really just smart business as the battle for talent ramps up. The quality of agency culture is topping the list of reasons for the top talent to stay or go.

So where does an uncompromising approach pay when it comes to the codes you set, the teams you build and the way you work together?

We know from recent research and extensive work with our clients that a new cultural contract is emerging. Operating with a clear purpose, solid values and an unwavering commitment to wellbeing, diversity and open communication is non-negotiable. Structuring and supporting teams to play to their strengths, build healthy habits and be impact-driven is non-negotiable. Creating a connected working experience that makes the most of time and space wherever you might physically be, is non-negotiable.

We explore this new cultural contract and more in the Future Positive Talent guide, which you can download today. Find out more about what a new era of work demands and gain some critical advice on how to master it.

Access Creative College (ACC) has begun work on Phase Two of its campus in Bristol City Centre, which will see it occupy the former site of legendary music venue, Bierkeller. The development represents an investment of £4.5m by the college, as it looks to give the space a new lease of life with a host of cutting-edge sound facilities and classrooms for ACC’s range of creative courses.

The Bierkeller site has remained unused since it closed its doors to music fans back in 2018. Over the years, the venue welcomed some of the biggest names in music to its stage, including Nirvana, The Stone Roses and Arctic Monkeys, to name just a few. At over 13,000 sq. feet, ACC’s Phase Two development will more than double the floor space of its Bristol Campus, as the college looks to develop the talent and skills that are so vital to the future growth of the creative industries in the city and beyond.

Mark Smithers, Access Creative College Bristol Centre Manager commented, “Bristol has a rich heritage of creativity and it is an exciting place to be teaching the next generation of digital and arts professionals. As we break through into the former Bierkeller site next door, it will soon be home to some of UK’s leading creatives of tomorrow as we bring it back to life as an education and state-of-the-art events space.”

ACC’s Phase Two facilities will include an events space and stage, a music studio and production pods, where students will be able to mix music, create podcasts and record video and sound. There will also be a range of classrooms equipped with all the latest tech, as well as a number of breakout spaces and student collaboration areas.

Smithers continues, “As an organisation we have been in Bristol for the best part of two decades now. The opening of the first phase of our city centre campus meant we could expand our offering to students, providing a broader range of courses with cutting edge facilities for the very best learning experience. We couldn’t be happier to now take that to the next stage with this new development.”

Following an initial investment of £5m, Access Creative College launched Phase One of its new digital and games campus back in March 2019 and has since rolled out a range of courses including Esports Management, Creative Computing, Software Development, Games Art, Games Technology, Film, Video & Photography and Graphic & Digital Design.

Jason Beaumont, Chief Executive at Access Creative College, added, “As we approach our 30^th academic year, this Phase Two development is proof if our intentions for further growth. We understand that by listening to the needs of our students and the wider industry, we’ll be in the best position to provide meaningful education and continue our track record of high student achievement and progression.’

“We are continuing to adapt our curriculum to support the increasingly digital market and of course working closely with industry and employers to best prepare our learners for careers remains a core focus of ACC’s approach to Further Education.”

Having previously operated out of its campus in Hengrove for over 18 years, ACC was Bristol’s first college with a sole focus on the creative industries. Artist Development, Music Technology & Production and Vocal Artist courses, which were previously run from the South Bristol site, will now be brought into the main campus in the city centre, where ACC’s Phase Two facilities will play a pivotal role in skills development.

This announcement follows a significant year for Armstrong Learning group, the owners of the College, during which it secured investment from Apiary Capital and welcomed the National College for the Creative Industries (NCCI) to its portfolio. ACC has also recently announced a number of new senior appointments, including former Minister of State for Universities Jo Johnson, as the college’s new chair, and former Ofsted inspector and Adult Learning Inspectorate Steve Stanley as Director of Evaluation and Impact.

For more information on the development, please visit http://www.accesscreative.ac.uk/bristol

Announced Summer 2020, the Kickstart Scheme offers thousands of job opportunities for 16-24-year-olds to help them take the first steps in their career. Here at Digital Visitor, we are excited to be part of such an important project and will be offering placements as part of the scheme.  

The Kickstart Scheme 

The Kickstart Scheme offers paid 6-month placements to young people who are most at risk of future unemployment, bringing them into work and equipping them with the skills they’ll need to succeed. 

At Digital Visitor, we will be offering multiple placements to fit alongside our award-winning team to provide genuine, integrated work experience and give applicants the first steps of a career in digital marketing. Alongside direct experience, we are committed to helping develop our applicants’ softer skills and try and help them secure future opportunities via CV support and interview training.  

“As experts in our field, we pride ourselves on our knowledge so we’re very happy to be part of the Kickstart Scheme and be able to share our skills with those that have been hit particularly hard over this last year. Digital skills are incredibly important in today’s world and so we hope these placements would be a great opportunity for applicants to help launch their careers” Samantha Hickery-Cabreira, Head of Finance & HR, Digital Visitor

The roles on offer:

We will initially be offering five placements. An overview of each role can be found on the Digital Visitor careers page.

• Junior Account Executive (two positions available)
• Junior Paid Media Executive
• Junior Administration Assistant
• Junior Marketing & Project Assistant

Who is eligible

To be eligible for the Kickstart scheme with Digital Visitor, you must be:

• Aged between 16 and 24
• Currently on Universal Credit 
• Live within a 90 minute travel time of Central Bristol.

If you fit all these criteria and would like to find out more, speak to your work coach at your local Jobcentre for further details and how to apply. 

Here at Armadillo we’re excited to announce that we will now be offering all staff external coaching with renowned confidence coach, Jo Emerson.

The introduction of external coaching follows our decision to move away from a traditional line managed structure. We have chosen to replace line managers with networked support; task-based support to bring clarity to deliverables, skills-based support to build expertise in key specialisms, and growth-based support. This is where the coaching will come in. We hope that this move will give people the headspace to work through their challenges, ambitions, frustrations and ideas, as well as empower staff to seek their own solutions and decide their own actions.

Fiona Craig, our Strategy and Planning Director, explains why external coaching was a must-have for us: “Internal support is very much focused on the work we do for our clients – you could say the client is the key stakeholder here, and all efforts are focused on doing a good job for them.

Fiona continues: “The support offered by external coaching is centred exclusively around the individual – often there can be a tension between the two areas of focus, and in a traditional structure, line managers can struggle to do a really good job of supporting on all fronts. So, this allows those who are exceptionally skilled in one area to excel, while the individual still gets supported on all sides.”

Jo Emerson is a confidence and human behaviour expert, author, and the winner of International Executive Coach of the Year (2019-2020).

Fiona goes on to say “Jo is highly experienced in dealing with change and confidence, and has a wonderful energy that felt right for us here at Armadillo. She will spark some great conversations and even greater ideas, we feel sure.”

Jo adds, “It’s a real privilege to be working with Armadillo at such a critical time and to support team members as they grow and develop within an incredibly fast-paced industry.  Armadillo’s new networked-support structure coupled with external and objective coaching shows what an innovative and agile company they are!”

We hope you will join us in offering Jo a very warm welcome. We thoroughly look forward to working with her and cannot wait to see members of the Armadillo team succeeding in their career and self-development goals.

Spicerack has been named highly commended for the South West in the National Apprenticeship Awards 2020. The virtual ceremony to announce the regional winners was held on 6 November.

Spicerack’s motivation for offering an apprenticeship each year is primarily to offer an alternative to mainstream education that has the potential to really propel a deserved individual into a happy and fulfilling career. If you refer to any online blog, article or government site, the benefits of hiring an apprentice are often very much focused on the employer. It’s true that an apprentice can breathe fresh air into a business, as any employee has the potential to do. When an apprenticeship with Spicerack is successfully completed, we also feel great about the collaborative part we played in that.

As a relatively small company, working for large international clients, we offer an exposure to an array of projects. Our studio environment is extremely collaborative, and it’s an ideal environment for apprentices to absorb the work that is going on around them.

We’re a steadily growing agency, and now see apprenticeship programmes as key to our business. We don’t expect apprenticeships to offer us a low-cost team member. We’re primarily looking to send someone out into the world with exceptional experience and skills. The first apprentice we hired was a great experience for both parties. Although we were unable to offer him a full-time position following the apprenticeship, we were able to support him in joining a competitor agency in the same city, where he still works 4 years later. We were able to offer our second apprentice a full time position, and he has now been working with us for nearly 2 years since completing his programme, working on genuinely innovative web development and agency R&D.

Spicerack apprentice Shannon commented:

Spicerack have been patient and encouraging every step of the way. Working here has opened my eyes to a new way of work and design. I have been given so many opportunities to learn more and grow my career.
Before starting at Spicerack, I had no idea what networking was. I did not even know that design seminars were running in Bristol constantly, and I have been here all my life. We are constantly given opportunities to go and see talks from other creatives, or meet up in networking events to meet others in the south west. It is also invaluable to be allowed to sit in meetings with clients that we are working with, like Dyson or Hill’s Pet Nutrition.

Spicerack’s founding partner Dave said:

We primarily offer apprenticeships to give something back; something we really believe in. Typically, during the first few months, apprentices aren’t skilled to work on commercial work. College work and commitments also take priority, which in turn dictates the type of commercial work our apprentices can work on. But the overall experience as a result is intended in a small part to meet our industry’s future needs. Also, as has been the case previously, if we are able to offer a full time position at the end of the apprenticeship, we will, in the knowledge that the programme we have supported and delivered has resulted in an exceptional candidate who would stand out proudly amongst the more traditional university-educated applicants.