Air Force Civilian Service
Empowering Your Recruiting Process
MarCom Group developed an innovative solution for improving the recruitment and hiring process by creating a web-enabled platform that builds and maintains a pool of interested talent to facilitate hiring efficiencies. ConnexYou is a unique proprietary system that enables clients to build their own customized and growing talent pool, i.e., database of interested potential candidates. Candidates are invited to subscribe on an organization’s website by providing an email address, their current or preferred occupation, and a preferred work location. Additional related information (e.g., career and education level) and preferences may also be added to the subscription form, but Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is avoided.
Mining for Candidates: Using machine-learning principles and related technology, recruiters can use the database to search for potential candidates, matching subscribers to open positions based on their occupation and location preferences. Through an easy-to-use interface, recruiters can then contact subscribers by direct email, offering matching job opportunities and a link to the job opening announcement (JOA) on USAJOBS and an opportunity to engage further with the recruiter.
Automated Job Matching: Fueled by a daily API data feed of job announcements from USAJOBS, the ConnexYou algorithm runs every night, comparing data sets, matching subscriber preferences—occupation, location, and/or other criteria—to the latest open JOAs, and triggering the automatic delivery of thousands of emails per week to subscribers. This process is fully automated, and emails provide direct links to job applications. Messaging is fully customizable, usable for special announcements such as job fairs, with links to event registration forms and more.
Location Mapping: Another feature of the system plots the location of all open AFCS JOAs on a Find-A-Job map of the United States. Users can select a location on the map and see all the jobs currently available at that location, then access the JOA on USAJOBS with a single click.
ConnexYou has been in use by Air Force Civilian Service (AFCS) since 2012 and has proven to be a highly effective tool for advancing their recruitment and hiring process, helping fill thousands of jobs each year. With nearly 275,000 subscribers in their database, the platform’s automatic email function delivers millions of messages with up-to-the-minute job announcements every month. In March of 2024 alone, ConnexYou delivered 2,050,000 emails to interested prospects, with an open rate of 70% and a click-through rate of over 17%.
A fully branded ConnexYou is available to MarCom Group clients. Reach out to us if your organization could benefit from:
- Automated delivery of personalized emails matching candidates with your open JOAs to keep your organization top-of-mind in their career search.
- Building pools of occupation and location-specific candidates and recruiter access for data mining and personalized recruiting.
- Integration on your career website with customized functionality and fully configurable implementation, compliant with section 508, FISMA, and NIST protocols and requirements.
- Using system data to analyze ROI on current or past recruitment activities to inform future planning and budgeting.
How to Elevate the Hiring Game: Aim Hire
Air Force Civilian Service (AFCS) wanted to engage potential applicants in a meaningful way–in a live webinar! Thus we created Aim Hire, a monthly webinar series designed, produced, and hosted by MarCom Group in collaboration with the AFCS Talent Acquisition Team to educate viewers about the many challenging and rewarding career opportunities in federal civilian service with AFCS.
Each live 60-minute episode of the series features a career field or specific job opportunity. AFCS employees and recruiters share their insights through panel discussions, question and answer sessions, and prepared presentations. As AFCS recruiters explain duties, qualifications, and more, we create audience engagement with quick surveys that capture participants’ interests and/or perceptions about the featured topic. Announcing survey results during the live event further stimulates discussion, and recruiters provide application instructions and guide potential applicants to relevant resources.
A prime example of innovative communications initiatives developed by MarCom Group, we created this series in response to a client need; determined the style and format, selected the hosting platform, and, after winning client approval, launched the series. Each month, we develop a content outline and meet with the AFCS panelists to develop a script to keep the episode on topic and on track during the live presentation. We then provide behind-the-scenes technical support to ensure each episode is a quality production and is recorded.
Thirty-two episodes later and still going strong, each episode has been posted in a library on the AFCS website for anyone interested in learning about career opportunities with AFCS.
What’s in a Name?
Imagine an organization with 170,000 employees, facilities in over 80 locations around the country—not to mention a few overseas—a leadership team of high-ranking officials, and a history that goes back more than half a century, but they have no name. Imagine the problems they have, trying to attract highly qualified candidates to fill important positions vital to the ongoing success of the organization.
Enter MarCom Group. In 2010, in collaboration with this organization’s leaders, we created a name and a brand identity, designed a logo, and developed messaging, and introduced Air Force Civilian Service (AFCS), the civilian component of the U.S. Air Force, to the employment marketplace. Since then, we have supported AFCS’s hiring and retention priorities with strategy recommendations and insights from our Account Services team, our own HR think-tank, and an agile creative team providing innovative solutions that supercharge our advertising and marketing initiatives.
To sustain their exceptional level of support of the U.S. Air Force’s global mission in air, space, and cyberspace, AFCS must hire more than 10,000 civilian employees annually to fill jobs in over 600 career fields, including mission-critical and hard-to-fill positions in STEM disciplines. To that end, MarCom Group provides a broad range of recruitment and marketing services, including:
- Branding Campaigns, Recruitment Initiatives, and Marketing Materials
- Updates and Maintenance for the AFCS Website, including Career Field Profile videos, an interactive Find-a-Job Map, and the ConnexYou job matching subscription service.
- Multi-Channel Media and Outreach
- Internship Program Development and Support
- Program Monitoring and ROI Analysis
- Data & Resume Mining Tools
- Event Planning and Management
- Salesforce CRM Development and Support