Managing communications in talent acquisition: Anthony Haynes
Anthony Haynes writes: Having recently published interviews with colleagues from FJWTS, I find myself in the rather odd position of having to interview myself.Here goes, with our usual questions.
1. Your job title is? What exactly is the function of your role?
I’m Communications Director. My job is to produce an annual communications plan and then implement, directly through my own contributions and indirectly through working with colleagues and associates.
To devise the plan, I use a resource from Meaning Business: https://meaningbusiness.com.au/the-shorter-comms-plan/.
2. What does your work look like in practice?
These days, the activity’s focused almost entirely on external comms. (We took the opportunity over the COVID-era to restructure the way we work, including the way we communicate internally -- We now do most things via the various functions afforded by Microsoft Teams.)
I do-hands on work, for example loose-scripting episodes of our podcast, Recruitment in the Modern World.
I also contribute practically to our business development process. My role is the analyse the communications (principally web pages) produced by our sales targets.
I seek to identify the language they use, the voice they speak in, and the media they use -- and then draw inferences about their values and preferences.
3. What are the satisfactions of the role? What gives you the biggest buzz?
I enjoy trying to learn, for each form of communication, what the ‘trick’ is.
For example, we worked out pretty quickly that the trick to producing a podcast episode that we were happy with was to keep it short – much shorter than the standard podcast.
The biggest buzz comes from actually recording. I like the ‘live’ aspect, It helps that we draw on the talents of Sherah Beckley, who’s very professional.
4. What skills do you find yourself deploying most?
One skill is to think strategically – in particular, deciding what not to do.
These days, there’s a huge range of channels and media available and you can’t do all of them, so there’s a premium on identifying the least appropriate and then ignoring them – however sexy people tell you they are!
My main hands-on skill is writing in a plain-speaking voice. I learnt this from working with engineers (for whom I designed a resource on the topic).
5. What about life outside FJWTS?
With my wife, Karen, I own and run Frontinus Ltd, a communications consultancy focused on the engineering and infrastructure sectors.
Outside work, I enjoy reading – currently travel writing and crime fiction – exploring the Howardian hills in Yorkshire, and watching sport, especially cricket.