Delivering a reinvigorated APAC wide innovative people programme

After numerous years in the graduate market, Microsoft APAC had a number of clear objectives for their APAC internship, graduate and MBA (Master of Business Administration) hires. Microsoft wanted to:

• Attract top talent across the 9 countries that serviced a range of markets across the APAC region

• Generate graduate, intern and MBA opportunities for the APAC region

• Centralise the attraction and selection methods across the markets

• Adopt new technologies in the attraction and selection process

• Demonstrate the organization’s innovative and progressive approach at all attraction stages

• Prioritise the talent experience at the center of the selection process

Solution:

ICE helped Microsoft defy convention at every stage of the process.

Aligned with the magnetic power of the Microsoft brand, the chosen online attraction strategy was highly adept at driving traffic to a freshly-created APAC graduate careers website. A mix of banner ads, job board postings, HTML emails and social media generated tens of thousands of user visits alongside campus activity. The new careers website, specifically for the APAC region, was designed to give users all the detail they needed for the shortest journey time and showcased Microsoft's technological know-how.

ICE managed the whole process, with different stages of screening in preparation for the final assessment of the top talent. We customised this with immense flexibility to ensure we met the needs of the home country markets and the subtleties that go with it. No market across Asia is the same - we are specialised in this. We even included translation services where needed. We jointly devised a comprehensive high-touch communications strategy to keep our audience engaged at all times.

We were able to provide Microsoft with real-time statistics, data and reporting throughout the campaign

Results:

ICE’s agile, innovative and customer-focused approach meant our clients received standout feedback from hiring managers across the region on the quality of talent throughout the campaigns. During each campaign period the new APAC website would have more than 20,000 views per month, the talent experience and the time to hire was shortened from 2-3months to 2-4weeks. The results were remarkable, and Microsoft continues to be ranked in the top 10 Graduate Employers in APAC.