The second largest port in Europe? You can find it in Antwerp! With a port this large, you can already guess that there are quite a lot of job opportunities at Port of Antwerp-Bruges. To position themselves even better as an attractive employer, the organization found its way to Allyens. Read on to discover how we approached this challenge. Full speed ahead!
Port and employer of the future
Port of Antwerp-Bruges loves innovation and sustainability. That explains why the organization wanted a new employer branding. They want to reach future employees in a different way, and keep current employees satisfied. Not an easy task, because Port of Antwerp-Bruges is a big organization with a multitude of different job offers. From technical to theoretical profiles, and from desk jobs to working on site. However, this diversity wasn’t apparent in the influx of applicants, so this became one of the objectives of the new employer branding. How do you present yourself as an inclusive employer to attract more diversity, when there isn’t much diversity (yet!) in the workplace? Thankfully this is a question that we had the answer to.
Playing the cards you are dealt
First and foremost, we went looking for the employee value proposition that makes Port of Antwerp-Bruges an attractive employer. We ended up with five brand pillars, some of which were interesting for specific target groups like people with a different ethnic background. We continued working on a foundation that was already there. Our research showed that only one of those five pillars was well-known among current and future employees. It seemed that it was mainly a matter of communicating about those five pillars. And that started off with a new, dynamic baseline: “Samen …, da’s hoe wij het doen” (EN: Together, that’s our way).
All aboard: everything for employer branding
Starting from this baseline, we accomplished some other things for Port of Antwerp-Bruges. First and foremost, we set up an employer brand book with guidelines for copy, design and photography so that all communication would be unified with the new employer branding. Then we rewrote the vacancies and mail letters, and designed an accompanying HR-guide to erase as many obstacles as possible in the recruiting process. We also took care of all online channels through which Port of Antwerp-Bruges distributed vacancies, including the description of the company and the texts on their own job site. Finally, we added a number of video testimonials to the job site in which Port of Antwerp-Bruges employees took the stage.
Did we reach our final destination?
This trajectory is an important step for every employer that wants to become more inclusive. After being able to communicate the essence of your company in the right, inclusive way, you still have to take on the recruiting process and build an inclusive work environment. The D&I story of Port of Antwerp-Bruges has not reached its destination, but they are certainly going in the right direction!
