Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority Work For Wednesday Social Media Campaign

Target Audience: Prospective bus and rail operators, mechanics, electricians, technicians, communication/fare collection specialists, signals and switches technicians, skilled tradesmen.

Strategy Objective:To develop a creative and impactful campaign that would highlight Metro's job openings and increase the number of applicants, while decreasing the number of job openings. We also wanted to use our current employees to both inspire others to apply for jobs and retain our current talent.

Situation Challenge: The Western New York region is facing a major shortage of bus operators and mechanics, it's an issue facing both public and private transportation organizations. NFTA-Metro was having difficulty recruiting through traditional tactics such as open house events and newspaper ads. Currently, 48% of Metro's workforce is eligible to retire which will leave several vacancies within Metro bus and rail. Our challenge was to find a way to reach potential employees.

Results Impact: We created the #WorkforceWednesday campaign which delivered personal, authentic, and impactful recruitment messages on Wednesdays. We used social media to expand our recruitment efforts and to target a more diverse demographic. From January 2018 through October 2018 the #WorkforceWednesday campaign generated ' 35 Facebook posts with 48,599 impressions; 38 Twitter posts with 28,277 impressions. One of the most difficult vacancies to fill is for electricians and since January we have had a 75% decline in vacancies. As of October 2018, Metro has had a 37% decline in vacancies for bus operators, a 47% decline in vacancies for rail maintenance and a 13% decline in vacancies for bus maintenance.

Why Submit: Traditional recruitment methods were not reaching our targeted audiences or getting the desired results. Creative and personal social media marketing utilizing our employees produced measurable results and boosted morale. Our employees felt they were making a real difference in our recruitment efforts.