Welcome
Penna Barkers is one of the UK’s leading providers of recruitment and marketing communications.
We’re known for helping employers develop their brand and reputation; producing compelling candidate attraction materials and strategy; and helping organisations to engage and communicate with their employees.
We’re also rather good at helping colleges and universities market themselves. Not least, we support government and other public bodies with their statutory notices advertising.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of graduate recruiters are wary of using Social Media and one in seven sees it as “dangerous” according to our recently published Social Media Audit – a survey of 84 graduate recruiters, conducted in association with the AGR and launched in at their Annual Conference in July.
We’re running a series of workshops across the UK, designed to help employers develop their social recruiting strategy.
Having secured the award for Best Graduate Website for L’Oreal at The Times Top 100 awards, further success swiftly followed at the OnRec awards where Penna Barkers picked up gongs for BAE Systems (also for Best Graduate Website) and O2 Rewards for Best Technical Innovation.
With social media the fastest growing communications platform ever, and hundreds of millions of people worldwide regularly logging on, it’s no surprise that there’s an awful lot of employment-related social chatter out there.
Middlesex University has awarded Penna Barkers its Advertising Services contract, covering staff and student advertising, following a comprehensive process that included a tendering process, presentations and finally agency tours.
Having noticed our great work for the Highways Agency, Oxfordshire County Council came to us for help with reducing their public notice spend. It was a big challenge, which we met by making everything a little bit smaller.
A national beacon for community cohesion wanted to set the standard for diversity in recruitment. Giving them a strong presence online and out in the community, we helped them bring even more people together.
Balfour Beatty had been breaking new ground for 100 years. Our challenge was to celebrate their rich history, while attracting the high-calibre graduates needed to lay the foundations for their future.
The BBC were heading into one of the biggest changes in their history, moving some of their most iconic brands to Manchester. Our challenge was to recruit the 1,500 people they needed – and to promote some progressive new ways of working and thinking.
Commercial law firm Beachcroft were keen to show that they were interested in graduates of all genders, ages and backgrounds – even those who didn’t go down the typical law route.
For Birmingham City Council, creating a consistent, powerful identity would be a vital tool in recruiting the finest people. And finding the right channels to reach them would be just as important.
Birmingham City Council saw Birmingham Pride as the ideal opportunity to go out and shout about their commitment to equality. We produced a stand so fabulous that over 1,500 visitors came out to see it.
Leading law firm CMS Cameron McKenna’s reputation as a ‘nice’ place to work won them many friends but not enough ambitious graduates. By promoting the firm’s true strength, we got the right kind of candidates talking.
Endsleigh Insurance needed to find 100 call centre staff in just two months. We encouraged them to take a leap of faith and advertise online. The result? High quality candidates at a much lower cost.
After some challenging times, First Great Western wanted to refresh their employer brand and strengthen their teams. They turned to Penna Barkers to help the business arrive at a happier destination.
Good Special Constables are a rare breed, which makes them very hard to find. By making a big local impact in a remarkably short space of time, we helped Gloucestershire Constabulary find 40 of them.
Historic Royal Palaces wanted diversity to be a key part of their future. Our research uncovered over 100 ways to make a difference. And working together, we helped them make a historic change.
Shortly after winning the attraction account for the John Lewis Partnership, we developed a sophisticated, high quality recruitment website that would serve all parts of the business – including Waitrose and John Lewis.
Kent Police had an emergency; they weren’t getting the right response from the adverts for 999 Call Handlers. We answered the call – producing a high-impact local campaign that attracted attention and got the numbers coming in.
After a turbulent time, we’ve worked to completely reposition how people see Children’s Services at the London Borough of Haringey – by highlighting good news in an innovative way.
Canadian ScotiaBank’s internal communications were failing to reach their London staff, based over 3,500 miles away. Our solution was to give the London team a voice that was heard on both sides of the Atlantic.
Most induction programmes are welcoming and informative, but Tesco wanted more. They wanted to genuinely inspire their new people from day one. So we made sure that there was a lot in store for the new starters.
Graduates thought they could get everything from Tesco apart from a great career. Our creative campaign showed them just how wrong they were. The truth was surprising - the fact that application conversion rates subsequently doubled, wasn’t.
"Buzz monitoring" (or understanding what the audience is saying about you) is a vital first step required in developing your social media recruitment/reputation management strategy. In this article we look at some free tools and resources you can use immediately to understand what is being said about your organisation and brand.