The Background
Essex Primary Care Careers (EPCC) is a division of the NHS established to address the ongoing difficulties in the recruitment and retention of talented and qualified staff within the primary care sector.
The Challenge
General practice and the wider NHS are facing significant workforce challenges and increasing pressure to deliver high-quality patient care. EPCC is tasked with tackling the workforce shortage in primary care – supporting, retaining and recruiting more GPs, nurses and other multidisciplinary professionals. KAT were challenged to create and manage a series of recruitment fair events (5 in total, initially) across the county to showcase, and match candidates with, local vacancies within GP practices, raise awareness of career paths throughout the sector and deliver a program of workshops throughout the event tailored to local GP Trainees and other job types.
The Solution
KAT researched and secured suitable venues within five Essex locations and fully liaised with and briefed venue contacts (including creation of floor plans, acquisition of additional elements such as AV etc). The team also created branded signage and materials, attractor elements (such as goodie bags and handouts) and interactive elements to make the events more fun and attractive.
We utilised the client's data to secure exhibitors to promote their services and vacancies (contacts within Essex GP practices, NHS supporting bodies, colleges and universities and more). A series of e-shots were designed and sent as an initial point of contact followed by a telemarketing campaign to secure attendance. Confirmed exhibitors received ongoing communication from KAT before, during and after each event, including the provision of briefing documents and post-event surveys.
Each event included a targeted speaker program throughout the day for which KAT were responsible.
To secure attendance from the public – including candidates from GP, nursing, allied healthcare and other non-medical backgrounds – website landing pages and a booking form was created, promoted to the public through social media adverts and via direct contacts at local libraries, job centres, colleges and universities and more. KAT created eye-catching graphics for both digital and print to drive public interest, brand awareness and bookings.
Additionally, the KAT team were responsible for full event management ‘on the day’ at each event, from setup, registration of speakers, exhibitors and public attendees, coordination of the speaker program, capturing event feedback, to the derig.
The KAT team tracked post-event data and analysis, creating a presentation to deliver to stakeholders.
KAT’s expertise was subsequently secured by the client for future fairs and expanded to other events.
Testimonial
“KAT Marketing has transformed our digital marketing proposition to give us invaluable insight over our budget and given us the ability to push relevant traffic to our website from multiple channels. Their digital expertise has allowed us to drive vital attendance to primary care recruitment fairs, boost brand awareness across the UK and develop a comprehensive pool of candidates. The access the team give us to reliable tracking and reporting of digital campaigns enables us to funnel funds to the right areas to see the best return on investment. This now represents our most valuable expense in attracting top talent to Essex.”
- Maria Reid, Business Lead at Essex Primary Care Careers