As an Employer Branding Consultant, Ellie Francis helps businesses attract and retain new talent.
Read about her career journey
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
I started my career working in the financial services and during this time, I served as Marketing Director for the Junior Chamber of Commerce. I set up Nepturnal in January 2019 as I could see the difficulty organisations had recruiting and retaining key talent particularly in sectors such as technology or professional services.
Now I work with a range of companies, locally and around the world, to help them position themselves as an employer of choice to their target talent and current employees.
What was your favourite subject at school?
Modern Languages as I was able to realise my passion for analysis and communication and how I honed my listening skills. I apply a lot of the skills I developed when studying modern languages in my career today.
Did you go on to further/ higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I studied Law with Marketing at Ulster University Magee.
How did you get into your area of work?
When I worked in finance, it was very obvious that as a business, we weren’t communicating well with prospective and current employees. The business was spending a lot on recruitment, bringing people in, training them and then they were leaving quickly. It soon became clear that they were leaving because, as an organisation, we weren’t connecting with them effectively. I found this frustrating, particularly as the talent we were losing were usually Millennials or Gen Z, the future of the workplace. I knew I had something to offer companies in terms of employee retention and I spotted a gap in the market for employer branding in Northern Ireland. I am a big believer in the vital role communication with key talent plays in the success of any business. How you communicate with your employees should never be overlooked. If you aren’t using a similar communication strategy with your employees as you are with your customers then you’re making critical mistakes.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
No, initially I wanted to be a barrister and ironically, I changed my mind just before starting the institute because I didn’t think I wanted to be self-employed.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
No. However, I found the marketing part of my degree helpful. It is important to bring creativity and credible thinking to the role. In employer branding, as you work with different clients, you need to be able to adapt to different industries.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
A HR or marketing background is a good starting point. You need to have a passion about employees and how we place value on them and also know how to communicate with them effectively.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
Communication is key and you need to have good interpersonal skills. In employer branding you are dealing with a wide range of people, so you need to be able to adapt to any situation and personality of individuals. It’s also important to have great analytical skills to understand your client and their competitors.
What does a typical day entail?
I start my day by checking my emails and Glassdoor, this is basically Tripadvisor for employees and where they review employers – I monitor this on behalf of my clients because it’s important that we know of any possible risky posts as this can put people off applying for roles.
The rest of my day can be spent carrying out various tasks on behalf of clients – I benchmark against competitors as this can affect how they are viewed by prospective employees; I create employer branding content, for example, employee testimonial videos or creative job descriptions, helping clients to building their value proposition in terms of what benefits they are offering candidates alongside their salary.
A lot of my time is spent working with new clients on strategy sessions to find out where they are in their employer branding journey, their aims, objectives and growth plans.
I work in competitive markets, for example technology, and I help my clients to stand out and position themselves as an employer of choice using a range of methods to create an attractive proposition and campaign that appeals to the candidate as the sophisticated consumer that they are.
Unfortunately, a lot of our local graduates either move away or work remotely for overseas organisations and my aim is to help local tech companies showcase what they have to offer employees so that this key talent stays within the Northern Ireland market, to work for local companies where they can contribute to their joint successes and contribute to our economy.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
I find it so rewarding to see companies that have worked hard to cultivate a really positive culture and employee experience begin to reap the rewards that they deserve by communicating this properly to the talent market. Employer branding is such a new concept to Northern Ireland and a lot of companies don’t realise the benefits of it. Some organisations don’t appreciate how sophisticated people are when they are weighing up career opportunities and what they need to do to attract and retain the top talent.
Therefore, it can be challenging if a client who has a truly great offer and culture can’t attract talent in numbers due to a poor communication strategy.
Why is what you do important?
By implementing a planned and structured employer branding program, businesses, and Northern Ireland, can attract key talent. It also helps companies hire better fit candidates which leads to better overall retention and productivity rates.
How has Covid-19 impacted your business/role?
Covid-19 has transformed the way businesses do Employer Branding. Two key changes in the landscape are, of course, the increase in employees working remotely which has caused more candidate interest and questions around remote working, flexible working and overall what it looks like to work for an organisation post-Covid.
The second key change is that global organisations are offering a number of remote opportunities which means that industries such as technology are finding it even more difficult to recruit as they now have more talent competitors.
What adjustments have you had to make?
The majority of my meetings have moved to online platforms however given the nature of the work my clients do internally, this has been a seamless process.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
Get to know your client on an intimate level so you understand the beating heart of their business. It’s your job to help them standout and attract their specific, ideal candidate so you must know what makes them tick.
If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?
I honestly can’t imagine doing anything else.
What is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?
Have the confidence to value your opinion, to know that you have something to add to a valued discussion.
Describe your ideal day off.
I’m from Portrush and love nothing more than heading home, going to the beach, enjoying a meal out and spending time with family.
And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?
Research and find out as much as you can about the company you are applying for, understand their values and ethos and make sure you are both aligned as much as possible. Don’t just look at the salary. There are some companies offering incredible employee experiences so do your homework and don’t settle for less than you deserve.
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