GCHQís not so secret recruitment drive

Ever had questions about what it would be like to work for one of the British Intelligence Services? Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), as part of an integrated recruitment drive, is launching a new website to give potential applicants a better view into life in the top-security organisation. The website is at www.gchq-careers.co.uk/lifestyle which will be live on the 19th August. Recruitment communications partner, TMP Worldwide, designed and is managing the campaign.

The lifestyle site will promote the environment and working culture experienced by GCHQ employees. This includes highlighting the flexible working patterns and giving a personal view of the social life inside GCHQ. The organisation recognises that it will need to attract people from far afield and the new lifestyle site will give a guide to the benefits of working in the beautiful Regency town of Cheltenham.

Alan Thompson, Press Officer at GCHQ, comments: We are making a substantial investment in finding the right people to work at GCHQ. We offer a range of challenging and interesting work in an excellent working environment. Our campaign needs to reach out to a wide and diverse pool of candidates. By combining new technology, digital channels and traditional media we hope to attract the highly skilled and well motivated people we need.î

GCHQ is continuing to exploit new avenues in digital recruitment. The organisation is the first direct employer that has utilised digital displays for recruitment. The displays appear across the London Underground network including London Paddington – the gateway to the West and main thoroughfare to Cheltenham.

TMP is also utilising contextual advertising as developed by Vibrant. This is the first time in-text advertising is being used in a recruitment campaign. GCHQ sponsors relevant key words such as ìcareer adviceî, ìcomputer scienceî and ìproject managerî within the editorial body copy of specific sites (for example www.ITweek.co.uk, www.PCPro.co.uk and www.iVillage.co.uk). When a user mouses over one of these highlighted key words, an interactive creative about GCHQís recruitment campaign is launched.

Kate Clemens, Head of GCHQís Digital Strategy at TMP Worldwide, says: ìGCHQís new campaign builds on the success of online in-game advertising run last year. GCHQ and TMP are committed to extending the reach of recruitment advertising and creating new opportunities to target the appropriate audience within a passive environment. The additional benefit of serving recruitment advertising through in-text advertising is that it is user initiated and therefore engagement with potential candidates is more effective.î

Recruitment ads have also been placed in generic, niche and graduate websites as well as local sports team sites, MSN and MSN Messenger, Hotmail, Bebo, Virgin Media, and in the national press across all channels on their sites. The online campaign is complemented by an offline and outdoor media recruitment campaign.

Launched in July and running until October 2008, GCHQís recruitment campaign includes roles in IT, Internet and Engineering, recruiting both experienced hires and graduates. This will encompass in the later months roles including Linguist and Culture Specialists.