HRD talks to the Chief People Officer of SodaStream about how the company used a Game of Thrones star to boost their recruitment strategy
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A major challenge for HR at SodaStream has been enabling the company’s massive growth, according to Galit Zucker, Chief People Officer of SodaStream International.
“Our secret has been to be proactive, look forward, and not be reactive because that would be too late,” Zucker told HRD.
Indeed, last year SodaStream released its new recruitment video "Join the Revolution", featuring Thor Bjornson - aka the Mountain in Game of Thrones.
The video highlights the company's values through a series of comical exchanges between SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum and the Mountain.
The shooting took place in Israel in the company's headquarters, as well as in its global manufacturing campus in Lehavim and features real SodaStream employees.
“We were looking for very talented employees and we concluded that this video could be exposed to heaps of different people,” said Zucker.
“Therefore, we could save a lot of time and effort in trying to look for candidates and reach the world’s most talented people.”
Zucker added that the culture at SodaStream is a “very unique one”, and can be described as open, challenging and exciting.
“We wanted to share our culture with talented people around the world and make them realise how fun and exciting it is to work for SodaStream,” said Zucker.
“Since the video we have had so many people who want to join us it has been unbelievable.
“The objective of Join the Revolution campaign was to really push the boundaries of traditional recruitment marketing techniques.
“As many companies already know, the job market is very competitive right now and candidates are wanting to know more about the culture of the organisation and its background before they are joining - this was a good way to really show them what we look like.”
Zucker added that another important fact about the video is that almost all the people you see are real employees.
“I have a lot of experience in HR, roles in so many companies, and SodaStream is the best place I ever worked for. I have the best role in the world,” added Zucker.
“We can create a change in employees lives and really make them smile – that’s the reason I wake up every morning and come to work,” added Zucker.
“It’s about understanding the needs of employees and then producing the right solutions. This creates a wonderful feeling that you can really impact people’s lives.
“I think the goal of any HR executive around the globe should be to really create the added value to the business while doing good for the people.”