A little background

A fantastic little Bristol success story, Nisbets is the UK’s largest catering equipment supplier, exporting to more than 100 countries around the world. But they’re are also one of Bristol’s best kept secrets. They asked us to help them understand their employer proposition and develop an approach to their employer communications that would help them attract, engage and retain great talent.

To build creative and meaningful marketing that will help Nisbets engage retail, distribution, contact centre, digital, marketing, sales and business support professionals. With a look and feel that is distinctive, attractive, realistic and consistent and appeals to a wide range of people, but is distinctly Nisbets.

And to help them better tell their fantastic employer story.

The guiding principles

What we were looking for was an employer proposition and identity that:

Represents the modern Nisbets
Resonates with key recruitment and employee groups
Has a clear focus on diversity and inclusion
Is built around the experiences of the people who work at Nisbets
Is flexible enough to be used across all media

Ultimately, a key objective of our new proposition is to attract, engage and retain better people. So (in the short term) the success of the project would be judged on whether there was a clear rise in traffic to our careers website and an increase in applications received by our recruitment team. But equally important was positive feedback from applicants, a noticeable impact on our employee engagement survey scores, and anecdotal feedback from line and hiring managers.

The research

Nisbets identified six core audiences – retail, logistics, sales, digital, contact centre and business support. These were then further segmented into 12 key employment groups. It was these groups that provided the essential insight into what makes Nisbets a great place to work. To help identify the common themes that are universally experienced by everyone who works there.

Competitor analysis

We audited and assessed the employer brand impact and effectiveness of six key competitors for talent.

External interviews

200 interviews with people currently working for FMCG or retail companies.

Insight review

We did a deep dive into the results of previous ‘Great Place to Work’ and ‘Internal Engagement’ surveys.

Internal survey

We collected the views and opinions of over 300 colleagues across Nisbets.

Focus groups

We carried out 14 focus groups with employees from retail, logistics, sales, digital, contact centre and business support.

Executive interviews

We conducted interviews with six members of the Senior Executive team.

The overall proposition

We quickly identified three key themes that each key employment group highlighted – ‘We’re all you’re looking for’, ‘We’ll feed your ambition’ and ‘We’ll help you realise your potential’. These key themes, or proposition pillars, became our main focus as we developed the overall proposition. Knowing that we could ‘dail up’ or ‘dial down’ these key themes depending on the target audience that Nisbets were looking to engage. Even more so, we’re able to articulate this in a simple phrase.

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Recruitment Poster

The creative execution

Nisbets is a place of inclusion, growth and opportunities and has a distinct personality that makes it enjoyable place to work. Our message amplifies this with a playful nod to their industry and conveys the notion that a career at Nisbets ticks many boxes.

The visual approach compliments the messaging with the introduction of emojis to capture their spirited personality and it was important to Nisbets to have a route that didn’t heavily lean on colleague imagery. By utilising their product imagery in a playful way we were able to create visuals that were distinctly Nisbets and had a warm, personal feel that would appeal to colleagues and prospective talent.

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Recruitment Leaflet

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Welcome Pack

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Identity Guidelines

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Cup

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Careers website

The careers website

You never get a second chance to make a great first impression, so the new Nisbets careers website has been designed not only to be interesting and informative, but to have a real, lasting impact on the job seeker. To position them as an employer of choice to a wide range of retail, distribution, contact centre, digital, marketing and sales, as well as those fantastic people who work in professional services. The result is the new Nisbets careers website.

Visit the website

Employee referral programme

An employee referral program taps into the human desire to share things we like with people we care about. Nisbets have found that employee referals are consistently one of the best sources for bringing new talent into the business. After all, sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know, that matters.

The ALL CATERED FOR employer proposition offers Nisbets a new creative platform to raise awareness of their employee referral program. New posters and flyers for the stores, contact centre and head office were created and distributed, as well as a year-long digital campaign to all employees. The result was a 44% increase in hires made through the programme.

That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Referral Programme

The results (so far)

Having launched in January 2023, the ‘ALL CATERED FOR’ employer proposition is still very much in its infancy with the messaging still being rolled out both internally and externally. But we can already see some very encouraging trends. All data has been taken from Google Analytics, the ePloy applicant tracking system and directly from our resourcing team.

126%

increase in website traffic (per month)

70%

of website traffic from non-paid-for sources (each month)

23%

increase in applications (per month)

15%

increase in hires (per month)

The final word

“An employer proposition and identity that is very distinctive, is uniquely Nisbets and not a picture of our colleagues in sight. It’s been fantastically well-received internally and the candidate feedback is equally impressive. What’s more, it is already delivering some encouraging results. Candidates are commenting that they find the information more engaging and easier to navigate and this is feeding into better feedback during an assessment process. And colleagues feel it more accurately reflects our personality and approach.

We can’t wait to see what else we can do with it as it is rolled out further in 2024. So, watch this space. We’re so proud of our new proposition and identity. We know we have a great employer story to tell. And now we have the tools to tell it.”

Claire Fearon, (at the time) Talent Acquisition Manager

Next Project

Cooking up a tasty employer brand refresh for Nisbets