Our little story9

Back in February 2024, we made a little announcement. That Little Agency was to merge with Brand Point Zero. The coming together of two employer branding agencies, the re-establishment of old friendships, the building of new working relationships, and a strengthening of both agencies with news skills, personalities and services. We lightly referred to the resulting arrangement as the PointZeroGroup. Everything was working perfectly. Both agencies performed well individually, and there was some tremendous joint work. Nothing needed to change, surely?

An unexpected opportunity

And then we heard about something that excited us. The owners of Home, a highly respected employer engagement and internal communications agency in Bristol, were looking for buyers. While we may not have been actively seeking additional companies to join the Point Zero Group, this looked like a fantastic opportunity at first glance. And the more we thought about it, the more excited we got. Rather, typically, the decision to make an offer was made in a pub. We were even more excited when the offer was accepted.

A missing piece to a puzzle?

Brand Point Zero and That Little Agency have delivered some fantastic work supporting employer experience and internal communications. But the people of Home are the employee experts. For over 45 years, they’ve been helping organisations shape experiences and cultures that people want to be a part of. They’re very bright. They’re hugely talented. Their work is not only creative but demonstrably effective. And every member of the Home team is very impressive. By bringing Home into the PointZeroGroup, I believe we now offer our sector’s most comprehensive and holistic approach to employer communications.

BrandPointZero: Employer branding and communications
That Little Agency: Digital strategy, careers websites and content marketing
Home: Culture transformation and employee experience
RewardPointZero: Reward and benefit communications

Mi casa es su casa.

In November 2023, the brands that would eventually form the group were dotted around Bristol, in Clifton, Bedminster and Brislington. All lovely offices, but to make the collective work, we knew we’d have to unite everyone in a single place. Fortunately for us, Home already had that workspace. The office in Brislington is the most impressive office I have ever worked in. In fact, I would describe it more as a community space than a workspace. A space that you want to be in. A perfect place for collaborative or focused work. Designed with both remote or in-person work in mind. Complete with spaces for just one, two or even 50 people to work comfortably. It even has its own event space. So it was no surprise when all four brands moved into – what I like to call TLA Towers – in November 2024.

Take a look at it all coming together.

What’s in a name?

Even before the Home acquisition, the PointZeroGroup name was used to describe the collective of BrandPointZero, RewardPointZero and That Little Agency. Since bringing Home into the group, the name has taken on a more significant meaning. A little legal shuffling (and many signatures) later, the PointZeroGroup now acts as the parent company of the four highly regarded employer communications brands. While each brand continues to operate as a stand-alone company, they do so knowing that the group’s collective power is there to support them. So, while you may never see us pitch as PointZeroGroup, we’ll always remind you that each brand benefits from the knowledge, skills and support of the others.

But Mark, you’re not answering the question.

So, what on earth is the PointZeroGroup? It’s a house of brands*. An unstoppable collective with an alternative viewpoint. Strategists and creatives who are big on culture, change, communications, and amazing client experiences. Whether an organisation is looking for an employer brand that attracts top talent, a culture change that transforms their business, or a little help with all things digital, it’s all here. And all under one roof.

So, what next?

World domination. Obviously. But before that, we’re working hard to nail down the key propositions of the brands and better articulate how they can help organisations attract, engage, develop and retain the talent they need to succeed. We’ll share much more about this soon.

Need a little help?

Drop us a line if you’d like help, support, or even a little chat about what the brands (or the group) can do for you. After all, most of our best work has started with a chat over a cup of tea and a milk chocolate Hobnob.

* Thanks goes to JLR for this phrase.

“Wow. You’re getting the band back together. Very interesting.” That’s the phrase that I have heard most from friends, clients and industry faces following the BrandPointZero and That Little Agency merger. And to a certain extent that’s how it feels. Familiar and safe. But it also feels like the start of something new and exciting. Like when Roger Waters joined Pink Floyd on stage at Live 8. Or when Robbie re-joined Take That for an album and a tour. But less ‘Wish you were here’, and more ‘Back for good’.

Why now?

It’s an interesting question. The reality is that our little agency is well past our start-up phase and we started to think about the future of the firm. Do we stay little? Do we grow? Do we change our model? Do we even focus purely on digital development? And, of course, who will step up to replace Mark when he suffers from the massive heart attack he’s inevitably going to have?

So, it was more than a little serendipitous that following our win for best employer brand at The Firm Awards, we met the BrandPointZero team in the bar. Champagne was ordered. Toasts were made. And the conversation turned to what used to happen ‘back in the day’. Whether it was nostalgia, the high of the win or simply the champagne, there was a suggestion that we may just be stronger together than we are apart.

Just the spark of an idea

In fact, now felt like exactly the right time. It wouldn’t have happened before. And it couldn’t happen if the TLA team had agreed on another way forward. Proving just how grown up a conversation this was, absolutely no wine was involved. And anyone who knows me, knows that some of my biggest decisions have been made over a cheeky Malbec. This time it was just coffee. Lots of coffee.

But it wasn’t a long-drawn-out discussion. Just a series of friendly chats between two like-minded agency heads who wanted to re-establish a partnership that had work so well during their time together at another agency. Add to that the prospect of working with old friends and the spark quickly became an all-consuming wildfire of an idea. So we made the BrandPointZero and That Little Agency merger happen.

A bigger, better agency

BrandPointZero is a much bigger agency than our little one. A well-established and talented studio, a group of very clever people in client services and an offering beyond just talent acquisition. One thing that they don’t have is a digital offering. But we do. It is probably what we’re most famous for. But what you may not know is that we’ve silently been helping BPZ deliver their digital projects for years.

Although they never properly articulated it, I’ve always known that our clients were concerned about the future proofing of TLA. If I was no longer around, would the agency be able to support them? It happens. People get knocked down by buses all the time. But the infrastructure of BPZ will allay those fears. After all, Andy, Sandy and Adam are pretty good players to have on the bench.

So, what now?

To be honest, we’re still working it out. Which is why for the foreseeable future we’ll continue to run BrandPointZero and That Little Agency as stand-alone employer branding and marketing agencies, under the stewardship of the PointZero Group leadership team. Over the next few months, we’ll be working to clarify the proposition, strengths and offerings of each agency and then build our future strategy around this.

While there are clearly efficiencies to be found as we merge some of operational roles, one thing that won’t change is the team. Over the past seven years we’ve become a home to some fantastic and hugely talented people. An enviable team who, together, have delivered some highly effective and award-winning work. I am really pleased that they were all happy to join me on the next chapter of our little story.

What about me?

This year I am 50. Yes, I know. Only 50. Just so you know, I had a very hard paper-round as a child. But with this milestone comes a little self-reflection. Nothing too deep. But a realisation that I am not going to play the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury or win a Grammy. That I won’t be the next James Bond or win a BAFTA. But what I can do is help shape the future of this great business and the people within it. We can help more clients achieve their goals. We can deliver more great work and, perhaps, win a few awards along the way. Including a RAD.

But otherwise, for now, it is business as usual. Just don’t be surprised if as well as me and my team, you also get to work with some of the awesome people of BrandPointZero. Including the inimitable Andy Bamford, who when asked about the merger said, “We’re coming back together to pool our expertise, supported by a brilliant team. What’s better than growing a global business with somebody you know and trust?”

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about the BrandPointZero and That Little Agency merger, please ask. I’ll happily jump on a call and talk you through the opportunities that being part of the PointZero Group will offer us all. You can find out more about the Group here … https://www.pointzero.group

Need a little help?

If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around your careers website or aspect of your employer brand and talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a Zoom call.

Just in case you were wondering, the hero image is from 2004. And since then four out of the five people featured have gone on to own and run their own employer branding agencies. There must be something in the Bristol water.

If it’s not Brexit, then it’s COVID. If it’s not COVID, then it’s the cost of living crisis. And of course a war in Ukraine. Add in the death of a monarch, numerous Prime Ministers, energy prices escalating, interest rates going up, a winter World Cup and numerous strikes. No wonder people are happy to see the back of 2022. I am one of them.

Why can’t we just have a normal year? That would be too easy. But in amongst the mayhem, our little agency has had a good year. New clients, new projects, new friends, some really lovely work and a few awards. And that’s alongside great relationships we already have with our existing clients. And overall we’re all fit, healthy, warm and well-fed. We hope that anyone reading this is well too. After all, that’s all that really matters.

But here are a few things that we are particularly thankful for.

We’re thankful for our little gang

There were 14 people at our Christmas party this year. In 2017 there were two. But everyone who sat at that table this year played a huge role in the success of the agency this year. Nobody left. A few more friends joined. We grew our delivery team across research, creative development, film making and project delivery. We missed out on a Christmas party for the last two years due to COVID, so it was a joy to bring everyone together. However, I am sure that for the past two years they didn’t miss sitting through a gushing speech where I tell them just how brilliant they all are. How they’re the cornerstones on which this little agency is built. That their passion, drive and talent is what makes me get up in the morning and be excited to start the day. That our clients are truly grateful for all their efforts and love working with them. Thank you, gang.

We’re thankful for our clients

We are very lucky. We work with some great businesses. Our oldest client is Hastings Direct and this year we helped them re-launch their careers website, www.hastingsdirectcareers.com. And there’s more coming early in 2023. We did more work with Jaguar Land Rover, Wolseley, Nisbets and Vectura. And of course NFU Mutual. We’ll talk a little more about them later. We helped our existing clients define their employer proposition, develop their employer brand, deliver their careers website and so much more in between. They kept us busy. They helped us return quickly to full speed. They understood that we could really help each other come out of this challenging time stronger and fitter than we went in. Thank you, friends.

We’re thankful to be busy

And we are. Busier than we’ve ever been before. We get around two new business enquiries every week. And we’re continuously surprised by the size of the businesses and profile of the brands that would like to work with us. Heads of Resourcing, Recruitment and Talent Acquisition have moved from one company to another and taken us with them. We’ve been recommended by friends within the industry and new clients have come our way. And some have arrived just by Googling ‘employer brand agency’ and finding us. Three of our biggest clients have come this way. I knew that SEO would be worth it. Thank you, Google.

We’re thankful for new friends

This year we welcomed some fantastic new clients to the agency. And judging by the Christmas cards we’ve received this year; they’re already enjoying the experience. In 2022, we said hello to Bishop Fleming, Coventry Building Society, DLA Piper, Horiba Mira and the Royal Horticultural Society. All of which have kept us busy this year and will again next year. But as well as working with new clients, new contacts within existing clients are looking to refresh, renew and revitalise their employer brands or careers websites. It’s always exciting working with new people. It’s amazing how a new point of view can breathe life into a project. The enthusiasm is always infectious. Thank you for your passion. All of you.

We’re thankful for the recognition

All the awards were back this year. And we kicked the year off with the gang going to the RADs. Sadly, we didn’t win the ‘Best Employer Brand’ award that we were up for, but we certainly won the ‘most disgracefully drunk agency’ gong. But it was great to be there. For some of the team it was their first time. Little RAD virgins. Yeah, we broke them. And we’re back there again in January with our friends at Miele X. Who knows this may be the one.

But for us a massive highlight of the year was picking up the ‘Best Supplier Partnership’ award at this year’s FIRM Awards. We were recognised for the work we’d done with NFU Mutual. Who themselves picked up the award for Large Recruitment Team of the Year. Well done to Heather, Siobhan and the team. You’re awesome.

And then there was a little surprise one. Our friends at Anchor picking up the ‘Brand Innovation’ award in the 2022 Marketing Week Awards. While we supported them in developing their employer proposition, actually all the amazing work was done in-house. Thank you Greg, Rachel and the team for allowing us to bathe in your glory.

Outside of that it has been quite a quiet year on the awards front. As we were still elbows deep in delivering some really interesting projects for Miele X, Bishop Fleming, Coventry Building Society and the Royal Horticultural Society. We’re hoping to see their names on the shortlists of the FIRM Awards, Recruitment Marketing Awards and the RADs. Thank you to our clients for being so bold and brave. Faint heart never won fair lady. Apparently.

We’re thankful to see the back of bad, old practices

It’s December, and this month we’ve been invited to three competitive pitches. But in each case, even before we saw the brief, the client gave us a call and talked through the potential project. In the first case we didn’t even see the brief, because the call quickly established that we weren’t the right agency for them. In the second, we quickly established a conflict of interest. We were both gutted. But the third we got very excited about. By the time the brief arrived in my inbox, we were already emotionally engaged in the project, loved the project team and were passionate about winning the project. Actually, we didn’t win it, but we did pitch with passion. Bye, bye beauty parade. Thank you, but don’t come back.

So, what now?

Who knows what’s around the corner? This year we’re not making any definite plans. We’ll continue supporting companies in better telling their employer story, we’ll deliver more high-quality (hopefully award-winning) projects and we’ll keep being told by our clients that they think we’re brilliant. And that’ll do for me. For now. Thank you.

Need a little help?

We hope you’ve found this content helpful. If you want help, support or even just a chat about this or any aspect of your employer brand or talent strategy, drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea or a Zoom call.

What a year. I don’t really know what to say. Actually, I do. I hope that anyone reading this is fit, healthy and untouched by any tragedy that the last two years has left us all open to. That’s all that really matters. Because amidst the challenges of remote working, furlough, redundancies and businesses closing, people have been dying. And we should never lose sight of that. People will go back to work, people will find other jobs and new businesses will be launched. The world will right itself. But we’ll never get back the people we’ve lost. And we’ve been very lucky. And we’re very thankful.

We’re thankful for our little gang

We weren’t immune from the downturn in activity and did have to reduce the hours of some of the gang. Thankfully, it didn’t last too long, and we were able to go back to ‘full time’ pretty quickly. But they were very gracious in reducing their hours and helping manage our costs. And when we were back to full speed, everyone worked especially hard to ensure that every piece of work that went out the door was as good as it possibly could be. I can assure you, our clients noticed. Thank you, gang.

We’re thankful for our clients

We are very lucky. We work with some great businesses. Businesses who during the various lockdowns, directions to work from home and workforce challenges, pulled together to deliver some ambitious projects. We helped businesses define their employer proposition, develop their employer brand, deliver their careers website and so much more in between. They kept us busy. They helped us return quickly to full speed. They understood that we could really help each other come out of this challenging time stronger and fitter than we went in. Thank you, friends.

We’re thankful to be busy

And we are. Busier than we’ve ever been before. We get around two new business enquiries every week. And we’re continuously surprised by the size of the businesses and profile of the brands that would like to work with us. Current clients have moved from one business to another and taken us with them. We’ve been recommended by friends within the industry and new clients have come our way. And some have arrived just by Googling ‘employer brand agency’ and finding us. Three of our biggest clients have come this way. I knew that SEO would be worth it. Thank you, Google.

We’re thankful to see the back of bad, old practices

This month we’ve been invited to three competitive pitches. But in each case, even before we saw the brief, the client gave us a call and talked through the potential project. In the first case we didn’t even see the brief, because the call quickly established that we weren’t the right agency for them. In the second, we quickly established a conflict of interest. We were both gutted. But the third we got very excited about. By the time the brief arrived in my inbox, we were already emotionally engaged in the project, loved the project team and were passionate about winning the project. Actually, we didn’t win it, but we did pitch with passion. Bye, bye beauty parade. Thank you, but don’t come back.

We’re thankful for new friends

This year we welcomed some fantastic new clients to the agency. And judging by the Christmas cards we’ve received this year; they’re already enjoying the experience. In 2021, we said hello to Anchor Hanover Trust, Berenberg, Futaba Manufacturing, Miele, Reward Gateway and Travis Perkins. All of which have kept us busy this year and will again next year. But as well as working with new clients, new contacts within existing clients are looking to refresh, renew and revitalise their employer brands or careers websites. It’s always exciting working with new people. It’s amazing how a new point of view can breathe life into a project. The enthusiasm is always infectious. Thank you for your passion. All of you.

We’re thankful for the recognition

This year saw the return of the in-person awards ceremony. And we’re very pleased and proud to have been able to pick up awards for our work with Derbyshire Constabulary, NFU Mutual, The Telegraph and Toolstation. We only really do employer branding and careers website projects, so loved picking up those gongs at the NORAS, Recruitment Marketing Awards and Recruiter Awards. And there is still the RADs to go. Fingers crossed. Thank you to our clients for being so bold and brave. Faint heart never won fair lady. Apparently.

We’re thankful for small mercies

Sadly, we had to cancel our Christmas party this year. Three of the gang had COVID. While they’re probably thankful that they didn’t have to sit through a gushing speech, they did miss out on me telling them just how brilliant they all are. How they’re the cornerstones on which this little agency is built. That their passion, drive and talent is what makes me get up in the morning and be excited to start the day. That our clients are truly grateful for all their efforts and love working with them. But they won’t miss out. We’ll regroup in the New Year when people are fit and healthy again. I’ll say thank you then. Again.

I think we’ll call it a ‘thanksgiving’.

So, what now?

Who knows what’s around the corner? This year we’re not making any definite plans. We’ll continue supporting companies in better telling their employer story, we’ll deliver more high-quality (hopefully award-winning) projects and we’ll keep being told by our clients that they think we’re brilliant. And that’ll do for me. For now. Maybe things will change in 2022. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

As June passes in July, we celebrate our fourth anniversary as an Agency. A little one, but a great one. I couldn’t be more proud of what we have achieved over the past four years. Particularly in the last year. The last crazy year. Recruitment has always been a good barometer for the state of the World, and the World has been in a pretty awful state for the past 18 months. And for many, so has recruitment. But we’re still here. And we’ve been doing more than just keeping the lights on.

We’ve welcomed a few new clients

It seems that we’re rapidly gaining a reputation for being great people to work with. How can we tell? Well, people and organisations are starting to come to us. It seems that all the blog writing, webinars and LinkedIn activity is paying off. We feel very lucky to have started working with the likes of Anchor Hanover, Deichmann, Derbyshire Constabulary, Gazprom, ISG, Reward Gateway and Somerset County Council this year. And on some really nice projects as well.

We’ve enhanced our team

We’re really proud of our associate assisted delivery model. It means that we’ve been able to work with some fantastically talented people across all our projects this year. But it would be wrong of me not to pick out one in particular. And that’s David Thompson.

We knew David when we were at ThirtyThree, and his knowledge of employee engagement, employer proposition definition and employer branding development are unrivalled. And we are blessed to have him in our little agency. Clients love him. The creative team love him. He’s been with us for over a year, and we celebrated this milestone by filling up the beer fridge we bought for Oli’s anniversary.

Work that we’re proud of

We’re unapologetically a start-up, therefore every job we do needs to be impressive. It needs to delight the client not simply answer the brief. Which is handy because that’s the only way we would approach a project anyway. And our clients have given us the projects and freedom to delight them:

We designed, developed and delivered a careers website for Jaguar Land Rover
We designed, developed and delivered a careers website for Derbyshire Constabulary
We developed an employer brand for The Telegraph Media Group
We designed, developed and delivered a careers website for NFU Mutual
We designed, developed and delivered a careers website for Wolseley

They’re all projects that we are very proud of. And some of them have been recognised by our peers.

An award-winning agency

Our thoughts on the value of awards are well documented, but we certainly didn’t think that we’d be picking any up in our first few years. But we’ve got some clients whose ambitions match our own, and with the work that we’re doing having an almost instant impact, we had something to talk about and something to enter for awards.

The FIRM Awards: Best Development of an Employer Brand 2020 – Toolstation (Winner)
NORAs: Best Newcomer Award 2020 – Derbyshire Constabulary (Winner)
EBMAs: Best Employer Brand Management (Retail Sector) 2020 – Toolstation (Winner)
Communication Lens Awards: Best Use of Video (Media Sector) 2021 – The Telegraph (Winner)
RAD Awards: Employer Brand National 2021 – The Telegraph (Finalist)
Recruitment Marketing Awards: Employer Brand 2020 – The Telegraph (Finalist)
Recruitment Marketing Awards: Employer Brand 2020 – Toolstation (Finalist)

And there are a few that are still yet to be announced this summer.

Recruiter Awards: Most Effective Employer Brand Development 2021 – The Telegraph (Finalist)
Personnel Today Awards: Employer Branding Award 2021 – The Telegraph (Finalist)
EBMAs: Best Employer Brand Management (Media Sector) 2021 – The Telegraph (Finalist)
s1jobs Recruitment Awards: Best Recruitment Website 2021 – NFU Mutual (Finalist)
Bristol Life Awards: Creative Business of the Year 2021 – That Little Agency (Finalist)

Not a bad little haul for 2020. Oh, yes and we also picked up the award for ‘Boutique Marketing Agency of the Year’ at the Bristol Prestige Awards. Were particularly proud of that one.

Sharing some great content

If you follow us (or Mark) on LinkedIn then you’ll know we’re working hard to help people negotiate the subjects of employer branding, marketing, careers websites and meaningful data through our blog. That’s because we wanted to not only show you how to do something – such as building and launching your careers website or developing your employer brand, we also wanted to help you show the results of your hard work.

In the last few months, we’ve covered:

What makes compelling content for your careers website?
Using a great candidate experience to help build your employer brand
Employer brand champions. How to get your people to share your story
But you can’t start a sentence with…

A real mixture of thoughts we’ve thunk around employer branding, careers website development and recruitment marketing.

Take a look at all of our articles on our blog

A new way of working

From day one we’ve made sure that everyone who works with us has the tools that they need to deliver great work. Laptops, mobiles, shared folders and VPN access has meant that we were already set up for remote working, COVID-19 just acted as a catalyst for establishing a new set of working practices. We call it ‘the world is our workplace’. Where everyone has the permission and support to work from wherever they feel most comfortable. Focussing on the delivery of key tasks and not the amount of time someone spends at a desk. We work in a way that we feel is best for the team, for the project and for our clients. Whether this is at home, in the office, in a coffee shop or even in the park if it is going to help them get the job done.

Saying thank you

It has been a great year. Challenging but thoroughly enjoyable. We’ve met some brilliant people, started working with some great clients, delivered some highly effective projects and picked up a couple of gongs. Not bad really for our cheeky little start-up. But we still don’t feel the time is right to celebrate. So we’ll wait until Christmas before we raise a glass to success. When we can invite everyone who had helped us in some shape or form over the past 18 months to join us for a boozy little lunch. No speeches. Well, maybe one little one.

What now?

Who knows what’s around the corner? So this year, I am not making any definite plans. We’ll continue supporting companies in telling their employer stories, we’ll deliver more high-quality (hopefully award-winning) projects and we’ll keep being told by our clients that they think we’re brilliant. And that’ll do for me. For now. Maybe things will change in 2022. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

Need a little help?

If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around defining your employer value proposition, developing your employer brand or any aspect of your talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a biscuit.

With the halls decked, the bells a-jingling and our little Christmas party fast approaching, it seems that we’ve become a tad reflective. Reflective on what has been a really, really interesting year. So now seems to be a good time to tell our little story. Part four.

We’ve grown a great little client base

It seems that we’re rapidly gaining a reputation for being great people to work with. How can we tell? Well, people and organisations are starting to come to us. It seems that all the blog writing, presenting and hosting breakfast seminars is paying off. We feel very lucky to have worked with the likes of Jaguar Land Rover, Leicester City Council, NFU Mutual, Nisbets, Pinsent Masons, Telegraph Media Group, Toolstation and Vectura this year. And on some really nice projects as well.

We’ve enhanced our team

We’re really proud of our associate assisted delivery model. It means that we’ve been able to work with some fantastically talented people across all our projects this year. But it would be wrong of me not to pick out one in particular. And that’s Oli Nitch-Smith.

We knew Oli when we were at ThirtyThree, and his knowledge of careers websites, applicant tracking systems and biddable media are unrivalled. And we are blessed to have him in our little agency. Clients love him. The design and development team love him. He’s been with us a year and we celebrated this milestone by buying a beer fridge.

Work that we’re proud of

We’re unapologetically a start-up, therefore every job we do needs to be impressive. It needs to delight the client not simply answer the brief. Which is handy because that’s the only way we would approach a project anyway. And our clients have given us the projects and freedom to delight them:

We designed, developed and delivered a careers website for Leicester City Council
We developed an employer brand for Toolstation
We designed, developed and delivered a careers website for Toolstation
We designed, developed and delivered a new graduate recruitment campaign for Pinsent Masons
We helped deliver a new website for Manchester Metropolitan University

They’re all projects that we are very proud of. And some of them have been recognised by our peers.

An award-winning agency

Our thoughts on the value of awards is well documented, but we certainly didn’t think that we’d be picking any up in our first few years. But we’ve got some clients whose ambitions match our own, and with the work that we’re doing having an almost instant impact, we had something to talk about and something to enter for awards.

What we ended up with was:

FIRM Awards: Best development of an employer brand for Hastings Direct – Winner (Website)
All About Law Awards: Best website for Pinsent Masons – Winner (Website)
OnRec Awards: Best corporate use of online recruitment for Phoenix Group– Finalist (Website)
Recruiter Awards: Most effective employer brand development for Hastings Direct– Finalist (Website)
Recruitment Marketing Awards: Most effective employer brand development for Toolstation – Finalist (Website)
Chip Shop Awards: Ad most likely to start World War 3 – Highly Commended (Website)

And we’ve just found out that the work we’ve done with Toolstation has been shortlisted in the ‘Best Employer Brand’ category of the RAD Awards. As would expect, we’re cock-a-hoop.

Not a bad little haul for 2019. Oh, yes and Mark was even shortlisted for ‘Recruitment Industry Entrepreneur of the Year’ at this year’s Recruiter Awards. Sadly, he didn’t win. But we’ve already seen new business enquiries coming from people who’ve seen us shortlisted or picking up an award. So, see, awards are still valuable.

Sharing some great content

If you follow us (or Mark) on LinkedIn then you’ll know we’re working hard to help people negotiate the subjects of employer branding, marketing, careers websites and meaningful data through our blog. That’s because we wanted to not only show you how to do something – such as build and launch your careers website and develop an employer brand, we also wanted to help you show the results of your hard work.

This year we’ve covered:

Google Analytics, your careers website and your candidates
Recruitment metrics, what you should be recording, how and why
Making sure Google can find your careers website and vacancies
Measuring your online application process with Google Analytics

All this focus on Google and measurement doesn’t mean we ignored employer branding this year. Far from it. If you have employer branding on your 2020 to-do list, you won’t go far wrong with our most popular piece of content this year.

Building your employer brand. A ten-point checklist

Written to help you plan and deliver your employer branding project it covered everything from getting sign-off on the project to deciding what awards to enter. Well, why not?

Saying thank you

It has been a great year. Challenging but thoroughly enjoyable. We’ve met some brilliant people, been engaged by some great clients, delivered some highly effective work and picked up a couple of gongs. Not bad really for our cheeky little start-up. So what better way to celebrate Christmas then by saying thank you. We invited everyone who had helped us in some shape or form over the past 12 months to join us for a boozy little lunch. No speeches. Well, maybe one little one.

What now?

We think that the next 12 months are going to be really important to the agency. We’ll continue supporting companies in telling their employer stories, we’ll deliver more high-quality (hopefully award-winning) projects and we’ll keep getting told by our clients that they think we’re brilliant. One thing’s for sure December 13^th will be a quiet day in TLA towers.

Need a little help?

If you feel that you’d like some help, support or even a little chat around defining your employer value proposition, developing your employer brand or any aspect of your talent attraction strategy just drop us a line. After all, much of our best work has started with a cup of tea and a biscuit.