Recruitment advertising focus: Drum Resourcing

Drum ResourcingDrum Resourcing is a recruitment advertising agency founded in 2001 to help organisations reduce media spend and lower their cost per hire. In the last year alone, they gave away more than £200,000 of inventory to clients to help reduce their hiring costs. 

From ditching the office to saving clients £1million, Armen Lloyd, owner of Drum Resourcing, reveals his secrets of success and why charities need to shout louder about their benefits.

A unique offering

Drum Resourcing is a small and unique recruitment advertising agency. They invest their profits into buying bulk contracts with numerous job boards and save charities around 50% off a typical job posting. In the last year alone, Drum gave away £200,000 of inventory to clients, most of which were charities - saving them around £1million.

Why does Lloyd run his company this way? He explains: “We treat our clients as much more than commercial revenue streams. We don’t need massive profit margins - this way we create much more meaningful and mutually beneficial long term partnerships. By offering charities big discounts, we’re not only helping them to reduce their hiring costs but we retain them as clients permanently. As a result, most of our clients such as ActionAid and Rainbow Trust have been with us for around 10 years.”

A hub of recruitment expertise

A key ingredient for Drum’s success has been the agency’s ability to retain the core team’s recruitment expertise.  Five years ago they decided to ditch the office and embrace flexible working. As a result, they stripped out £50k in accommodation costs and passed the savings to clients through free and discounted job postings.

Lloyd comments: “All eight of us in the team use the latest technology and work from home, cutting out the cost and time of commuting completely. We are more successful and productive as a result as we can dedicate more time to working instead of spending that time travelling to and from work. More importantly, we have been able to keep decades of valuable knowledge inside the company.”

Drum Resourcing

Bluntisham Blasters under-7s, sponsored by Drum Resourcing

 

Giving something back

For Lloyd, the heart of his business is about giving something back. He wanted to move away from the ‘what’s in it for me?’ lifestyle to making sure he was leaving a positive imprint on the world. A portion of Drum’s profits are used to support community projects with schools and football teams. They also help finance third world female business start-ups, which they do through a lending programme called Kiva.

Giving has also reaped some personal rewards, as Lloyd enthuses: “Seeing how you have made a difference in the world is rewarding in itself. But there’s a real fun element to giving back - I’ve been privileged to meet many people I would not otherwise have met - from Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to some of my rockstar heroes.”

Charities need to tell their stories 

Lloyd is clearly passionate about the third sector but says “charities need to get better at telling their stories”. He also believes that recruiters needs to think more creatively about how they attract talent as it is getting tougher to attract candidates for fundraising roles. 

Lloyd’s top tips for fundraising recruitment:

  • Look beyond your usual talent pool: seek transferable skills such as commercial, interpersonal, digital, social media and creativity - don’t be afraid to look outside the third sector to find these skills.
  • Tell your charity’s story: Tell people about the impact your fundraising is having on the world. Tell candidates about the great benefits you offer, whether it’s training, time off or maternity leave cover - and translate it into pound signs. Many charities offer better benefits than commercial companies but aren’t so good at communicating them.
  • Simplify your application process: Do you need a lengthy application form or will a CV do? Make sure any forms are optimised for mobile and tablet or you risk losing half of your potential applicants.

 

Visit Drum Resourcing 
Contact Armen Lloyd, Drum Consulting: armen@drumresourcing.co.uk.
Facebook: Drum-Resourcing

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