Every year, the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway (TMAC) recruits seasonal staff to work during the summer months, its busiest period. And to find new staff to join several of its departments during this time, TMAC runs an annual recruitment drive from mid-July to the end of September.
With the help of Cape Town’s Flowstars, the campaign last year took on a digital approach – a first for TMAC. This year, the Cableway mixed the old with the new, and it proved to be a winning formula.
New video
Flow videographer Stuart Buchanan filmed a series of nine new videos for the recruitment page on the TMAC site – each an introduction to a different department. Stuart explains: “Our approach this year was to focus on a member of each team, rather than the manager. We tried to show a glimpse of what their day is like, and why they enjoy their job. And the joy, of course, in working on a project like this is that the staff at Table Mountain genuinely enjoy working there – which made my task much easier!”
Last year:
The Cableway’s managing director and the heads of each department were filmed for the introductory videos.
This year:
The Cableway’s human resources manager, Tasneem Rajie, and representatives of each department were filmed for the introductory videos.
The big idea:
For new recruits to put a face to Tasneem, who leads the project and who they’ll get to know during induction, and to hear from their potential peers in a practical, hands-on manner.
Less is more
The recruitment page is a hub of information for potential new staff and it can get overwhelming. It houses all nine introductory videos, a list of tips on how to ensure your application is successful and the recruitment expo details.
Last year:
There was a lot more text – especially under the list of tips and each introductory video.
This year:
We cut it down – less text and shorter sentences.
The big idea:
Video is the way forward; people are more likely to watch a quick 30-second video than read through a long text.
Easier to apply
Part of the digital approach to TMAC’s recruitment drive is an online application form. Flow created the form to replace the hundreds of CVs and paper application forms TMAC usually receives – more convenient for the Cableway’s team and better for the environment.
Last year:
Applicants were required to video-record themselves, save the file and upload it to their application form. Without this, the form could not be submitted.
This year:
Applicants were given a choice – either upload a video of yourself or a photo.
The big idea:
Providing two options for applicants makes the process easier and can increase the number of entries significantly.
A touch of the old
In past years, the recruitment drive took place at a venue where hundreds of people would queue for a panel-style interview. The amount of time and resources it took to process every application and select candidates for a next round of interviews inspired the digital approach.
Last year:
The recruitment expo was given a miss and TMAC relied solely on online applications.
This year:
The Cableway held a successful recruitment expo at Kenilworth Centre. Flow created a shorter version of the online application form that candidates (with the help of a TMAC staff member) completed on a mobile device as they queued at the expo. Applicants were then recorded in a short video interview.
The big idea:
To give anyone who has no access to the online application the opportunity to apply to work at the Cableway.
The Cableway's Tasneem says: “The tweaks to our recruitment process have definitely paid off, in that our aim was to attract a bigger pool of applicants, and we have certainly been successful in this regard. Given that we build on our recruitment drive every year, we will continue to examine whether the process can be streamlined even further.”
And it’s a wrap for 2016 (in numbers)
- 5 534: the number of visitors to the recruitment page
- 5 230: the number of unique visitors to the online application form
- 1 523: the collective number of views the nine videos received (most popular was the introductory video with 766 views)
- 868: the number of online applications received
- 857: the number of people processed at the recruitment expo
- 224: the number of people who selected the ticket office as their preferred department to work in, followed by retail (167) and frontline operations (134)