Bank of America Cyber Security:
Recruitment Brand
Role: Design Director, Strategist, Copywriter
Responsibilities: Strategy oversight, copywriting, creative direction, executive presentations
“How do we get talent who would never feel at home in a bank setting to realize this is where you can actually change the world?”
Challenge:
Bank of America is the largest employer of cyber security talent only eclipsed by the US government and they had an aggressive goal to hire 800 cyber security professionals in 2018. With an increasing shortage of cybersecurity professionals in the market, BAC had to hire the best of the best from the existing cybersecurity talent pool, as well as broaden their recruitment targets to attract top talent who share the cybersecurity professional mindset and have transferable skills.
This means attracting, retaining and developing the best cybersecurity talent to protect the firm, people’s financial lives and ultimately the world’s economy.
How:
Differentiating BAC Global Information Security through a unique recruitment experience and organizational culture to identify, attract and retain cybersecurity professionals from a highly diverse talent pool including a wide range of thought leadership, educational backgrounds and educational experience.
“We were up against some challenges. Cyber Security can be daunting for those not initiated often appearing to lack humanity. Not ideal for diverse recruiting.”
We needed to identity a common mindset across prospective talent all tying to cyber security. Through stakeholder and prospective talent interviews we identified four ideal types of talent, summarized in one over arching ideal candidate type: the Relentless Reformer.
BAC had some big things going for them:
Unfathomable Scale
Real Diversity
A Mission that Matters
Unmatched Agility
“BAC GIS offers a purpose-driven atmosphere demanding your best work and authentic self to negotiate through constant change. You can leverage unfathomable scale to accelerate the growth of careers and minds.”
With our market differentiators and ideal audiences established, we grounded ourselves in four Experience Principles before heading in to our Territory design.
In Territory Design, we intentionally pushed our conceptual ideas as far apart from each other as possible to ensure our testing would produce clear results and distinct reactions.
Territory 1: Made For The Challenge
Territory 2: See the Unseen
Territory 3: Building a System to Thrive
Testing & Methodology
After presenting our territories, we had an exceptionally excited client heading into testing to help us verify which territories resonated most.
Four major themes emerged:
Territory elements emphasizing candidates are more than “just a resume” resonated universally
There’s a clear distinction across elements which resonated with experienced technical professionals and those from non-traditional backgrounds
The culture of communication the territories present gives candidates a reason to believe, and learn more about GIS
Each creative territory painted a picture of GIS which challenged incoming expectations
Through testing, a handful of impact areas arose, enabling Bank of America Cyber Security to focus its overall branding efforts on Territory 3: Building a System to Thrive while incorporating areas of impact from other territories.
Impact areas:
A genuine and, in some cases, unexpected desire to learn more
Curiosity was further prompted by interactive tools
A curiosity about GIS
How we solved it:
Brand Strategy
Stakeholder Interviews
On The Ground Event Research
Current State & Adjacent Research
Target Audience Interviews
Visual Design
XD
Outcomes:
“In the 5 months following the launch of BAC’s Cyber Security brand, 700 employees were hired: 350 full time and 350 contractors, hitting 88% of the hiring goal in less than half the time projected.”