The Problem
When I joined 8th Light in September 2021, its people strategy had a goal on paper, “Build and Deploy an Employer Brand,” and a weekly working group sketching what that might mean; there was no documented plan yet.
The hiring market was tight. Developers had offers from more aggressive competitors, many saw consulting as less appealing work, and 8th Light had gone remote, so candidates wondered who they’d even be working near. The company also wanted to attract more women and Black talent into senior, principal and director roles.
The Approach
I treated talent like any other audience. We wrote an employer brand plan reflective of the organization’s culture that would resonate with prospective candidates and current employees alike.
Then we got specific about who we were talking to. The first personas split developers by experience and added account and technical directors and business operations, six in all, each with its own objections and the messages that answer them.
The promise to candidates came straight from the company’s new brand platform: “Unlock your potential through craft.” Every stage of the candidate journey, from first look to first day, got a job to do: attract, connect, engage and grow.
What We Built
- An employer brand plan with an employer value proposition, positioning, a candidate journey map and measures for each stage.
- Six talent personas, from junior developers to business operations.
- A relaunched Talent Community: a monthly email of open roles, stories and events for people not ready to apply yet.
- Careers content for the October 2022 site relaunch, plus perks, interview-process and new-hire one-pagers.
- Apprenticeship recruiting campaigns and career-changer stories.
- Reset company town halls and internal newsletters, an alumni newsletter and Slack, and a refreshed LinkedIn Life page.
The Result
1,673
Talent Community recipients by September 2023, up from 288 at the April 2022 relaunch
18.5%
Share of email-driven site traffic from the Talent Community in September 2022, against a 3–3.5% goal
44%
More careers page traffic the quarter after the October 2022 site relaunch
The Talent Community became the company’s best-performing email. Its first relaunch send opened at 42%, against a 20% benchmark, and careers and job pages stayed the site’s top landing pages through 2023.
“Loved the branding of the site. It’s so me.”
A design candidate, as relayed by 8th Light’s talent acquisition team
The positioning for candidates developed in 2022 is largely still used on 8th Light’s careers page and in its recruitment efforts.
