The village and aged care operator has taken a unique approach in its latest campaign to attract new staff – using their own residents to vet potential employees.

Check out the video here.

Featuring the tagline ‘We only want the best people. So, we’ve enlisted the best people we know to help us find you’, the clip shows a man – named Tom – and a young mother individually preparing for an interview with Ryman before revealing that they will be sitting down to face a panel of four residents.

You can watch videos on each of their resident recruiters – Anna, Les, Terry and Janet – and what they look for in candidates here.

Involving aged care residents in the recruitment of staff was an idea raised during the Royal Commission into Aged Care’s hearings, but this is the first example we have come across of an operator actively engaging residents in the process.

Campaign designed to put residents at the centre

Ryman Healthcare Recruitment Manager Matt Wright (pictured right) tells us that the operator developed the idea of its resident recruiters with its creative agency Strategy Creative as they look to grow their staff in Victoria, particularly construction leaders, nursing and care workers, sales advisors and office specialists and leaders.

“We wanted to create an advertising campaign that showed our pioneering spirit and aligned with the culture of the organisation, which has always put residents at the centre of everything we do,” he said.

“Our residents are amazing people with a huge amount of experience and expertise, many of whom have had extremely successful careers. We thought, ‘Who better to help us identify the next generation of Rymanians than the people they are building our villages and caring for?’.”

‘Casting call’ held for resident recruiters

Ryman wanted to identify residents who had successful careers in nursing, business, sales and construction, which align with the main areas of the organisation, completing a ‘casting call’ for residents through its sales and village management teams.

15 residents were identified with six selected to meet with the film director and recruitment manager before the final four were chosen.

“All of them had really interesting and inspiring stories to tell about their lives and careers, and their stories have been known to give people goosebumps!” Matt stated.

Social media ads attract 100 applications in five days

While the mainly digital advertising campaign – which is appearing in both NZ and Victoria – is only a few days old, initial social media comments have been really positive and Ryman has already received over 100 applications in the five days since it launched.

“Residents involved in the campaign have been extremely positive, with all of them saying they feel it has been a privilege to be involved, and they have really enjoyed the opportunity to contribute to the recruitment of new team members,” Matt added.

The campaign follows Ryman’s Pioneers campaign released earlier this year in February, a series of videos aimed at potential residents which highlighted the “pioneering” new way of living offered by Ryman.

Founded in 1984, Ryman now has 39 villages with over 11,700 residents and 6,000 staff across New Zealand and Australia.