Recruitment: Trying to Understand the Hot Button Issue

[dstevensonjr 395]

Good day to you all!

 

As someone who is a relatively new member here (still on my first player, came in for the S89 VHL Draft), there are some things that I have a firm grasp on, as well as some things that I mostly understand. Then there are the parts of the league that are still exceptionally foreign to me, one of which is the recruitment aspect. From what I understand and have read recently, the largest issues and gripes in regards to Recruitment that seem to exist are a lack of transparency in terms of what the responsibilities of the department are and how it operates in order to earn the TPE from that role, as well as an issue with quality of the work that is being done. I can't really speak to those specific issues because I'm not sure what the standard of work is supposed to be, so instead I want to focus on a more broad approach to the issue.

 

Regardless of what the specific complaints are about how Recruitment is run currently, the issue that it boils down to is that everybody would like to see more people coming into the league, which is something that everybody can get on board with. I believe that the approach to successful recruiting revolves around a few things:

 

- Understanding what makes the league successful, and in turn marketing that to people who aren't currently involved with the league

- Having a wider reach of people to market to in an attempt to recruit them

- Having quality marketing tools to then turn that reach into recruits

- Compensating the Recruiting team fairly for their time

 

The first item on that list is likely the most important: knowing what makes the league fun to be in, and how to convey that to people who have either never played in a sim based league, or who have done so previously but aren't any more. I believe that part of understanding this revolves around talking to members of the league who have recently joined to find out what they have enjoyed about the league so far, what they haven't enjoyed, and anything that they'd like to see changed or brought in. Part of this focus would also go to retention of new members rather than just recruiting, but would help give focus to what can in turn be the marketing focus to bring in new folks. To that end, I think that it would be helpful to have part of the Recruitment team be dedicated towards a "Retention" Department that would check in with first season members at the midway point of their first season, as well as at the conclusion of their first season with a mini survey or chat focused on the previously mentioned items.

 

The second item on the list involves expanding the reach of the Recruiting department through multiple avenues to find a wider base of people to bring into the league. I'm not sure which ways are being used currently, but being an internet based league, I would think that there are probably corners of the internet that we aren't reaching. I would imagine that part of the push for more transparency from some members could be a report of what recruiting items are being posted/run in different locations each season to determine if there are other avenues that should be pursued.

 

The third item on the list is based on the marketing tools that are being used to reach people in an attempt to recruit them. I myself am graphically/artistically challenged, which is why my theme week choice is an article and not a graphic. This is an area that seemed hotly contested because it is difficult and time consuming to come up with new and fresh graphics on a consistent basis that also serve the purpose to help recruit people rather than just be for specific players. Part of this section will tie into the next section, but the decision needs to be made about whether having a dedicated group who have to spend a lot of time designing these marketing tools, but are only compensated with TPE is one worth fighting over. In terms of a quantity aspect, maybe there needs to be a set amount of time that certain graphics are used as promotional before they are cycled out, or a set amount of new graphics at a time that can be used together before a new crop is needed. From the quality side, it's much more subjective because everybody has a different standard as to what they find acceptable. Speaking for myself, I don't expect to see high-level ads that would be comparable to a marketing campaign from a large company because that's not really who we are.

 

That final item on the list comes down to compensation for the recruiting team for the time spent working on recruitment. While every job in the league is important, there is no doubt that there are some jobs that are more involved and time consuming. Paying someone to work with TPE is fine in the sense that it goes back into the league, but the time and effort put in must match what is being given. The expectation that these jobs be done at the same TPE rate that is given to other jobs that require a fraction of the time to do is likely an unfair one, and one that I've seen raised in conversations about the Recruiting role. The concession must be made that either we're okay with the status quo for the compensation for these jobs and the quality and quantity of the marketing work will remain relatively "low", or the large amount of time involved to do so much be rewarded in other ways. I'm not sure exactly how the financial situation with the league works, but I'm not sure that we want to get into a "which jobs should be paid with TPE, and which jobs should be paid with money" debate. This issue feels like the toughest to solve, but it may also be the most important.

 

To summarize, here are a couple of points that might work:

 

- Creation of a "New Member Chat/Survey" to determine that they've enjoyed, disliked, and would like to see changed about the league

- Report from Recruitment on currently running marketing tools to ensure that nothing is being left on the table

- Discussion on the amount of new graphics required, as well as how many new recruiting graphics are reasonably required

- A review of the compensation for the Recruitment team to determine what is fair, both in their eyes and the members eyes

 

Thank you for reading my article, I hope that it helps the issue!

[animal74 1,808]

15 minutes ago, dstevensonjr said:

Creation of a "New Member Chat/Survey" to determine that they've enjoyed, disliked, and would like to see changed about the league

Love this!

[dstevensonjr 395]

1000+ words Media spot, claim #2.