Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Flyer by vacareers

November 16, 2020

VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (VHA) Annual Performance Report

Workforce Management and Consulting (WMC)

Table of Contents Executive Summary ...........................................................1 Media Purchases and Results ...........................................5 Job Boards & Recruiter tools ...................................................................................................7 Search Engine Marketing .........................................................................................................9

Monitoring, Evaluation and Optimization .....................11 Google Analytics .......................................................................................................................11 Choose VA ....................................................................................................................................13 Paid Social Media ......................................................................................................................14 Organic Social Media ...............................................................................................................15

Digital Programmatic Display and Video ......................18 Paid/Geotargeted Events and Outreach ........................20 Conferences ................................................................................................................................20 PSA Campaign ...........................................................................................................................21

Media Content Report .....................................................23 Marketing Strategies .......................................................27 Outreach - External ..................................................................................................................27 Outreach - Internal ...................................................................................................................28 Special Events (Focused Marketing Efforts) ....................................................................29 GovDelivery Email .................................................................................................................... 31 Video and Photo Shoots .........................................................................................................32

Events ................................................................................33 In-Person Events ........................................................................................................................33 Virtual Events ..............................................................................................................................34

Production ........................................................................35 VA Recruiterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Toolkit and Recruitersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Resource ..............................................................36 VA Careers Website ...................................................................................................................36 Recruiter Training ......................................................................................................................37

Leads Report ....................................................................38

Executive Summary The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the nation’s largest integrated health care system. VHA must be prepared to provide medical care to all 19 million Veterans and fully staffed to serve the more than 9 million Veterans currently enrolled in VA health care. Providing high-quality care across 1,255 health care facilities throughout the nation requires that VHA strategically recruit, hire and retain people in the top 10 mission-critical occupations and top 20 shortage vacancies identified in the OIG Determination of Veterans Health Administration’s Occupational Staffing Shortages FY2020 report. 1

Maintaining a first-class competitive recruitment and retention program is critical for several reasons: VHA must reduce shortages in physician specialties, nursing and other occupations and replenish the increasing number of positions that will be left vacant by the large cohort of the VA workforce nearing or at retirement age. As VHA continues to expand specialty care, managed care and primary care, there is also a need to hire physicians who are generalists and the mid-level practitioners who support the delivery of care that promotes health and prevents disease. These positions must be reinforced by highly competent support employees. In addition to these concerns, VHA faces additional hiring

and recruitment challenges, including intense competition in attracting new health care professionals to work at VHA and the various recruitment hurdles created by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the office leading recruitment marketing, VHA Workforce Management and Consulting (WMC) must reach numerous prospects, engage with those who are qualified and hire the best. This Annual Performance Report details our Fiscal 2020 (FY20) marketing and advertising campaign successes in meeting VA’s hiring goals. Below are some highlights followed by detailed trends, key performance indicators and results.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

[

Increased leads, applications and hires. VA Careers’ combined marketing and advertising strategies and tactics contributed to 2,068,796 total applications received during FY20 (Oct. 1, 2019–Sep. 30, 2020) and 53,789 total hires, an increase over Fiscal 2019 (FY19) total hires (49,409). Key accomplishments by mission-critical positions include: }

14,818 physician applications, 755 selections and 3,041 hires, at a cost per hire of 1/20th the industry average.

}

243,999 nurse applications, 8,169 selections and 9,390 hires, at a cost per hire of 1/10th the industry average.

Greater awareness of VA Careers. In FY20, we redistributed :30 second English and Spanish TV and :30 second English radio versions of the “Stand With Us” Public Service Announcement (PSA), with updated distribution materials, packaging and monitoring. This highly successful effort generated the following value-added benefits and results for VA (through September 2020): }

Total donated media value of over $42 million across TV and radio — more than $32 million higher than FY19. An increase in donated media value can be attributed to the elevated importance of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Appetite for the “Stand With Us” PSA surged in Q3 at the height of the pandemic, resulting in over $20 million in donated air time.

}

Total donated impressions: 463,170,259.

}

Total of 100,786 airings across 840 stations, both national and local.

}

Total donated media value of OOH PSAs: $9.8 million.

VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) determination of VHA’s occupational staffing shortage, FY 2020, page 7

[

Implemented “spotlight” campaigns to raise awareness of high-priority careers and topics. }

}

Military Spouses: –

Published a blog that attracted 27,000 external views on the VA Careers blog.

–

Broadcast Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) program roundtable video on LinkedIn, garnering 953 reactions and 1,351 comments.

–

Added a section on the MSEP program to VACareers. VA.gov that included the MSEP promotional video VA Careers produced featuring Tracey Therit, VA’s chief human capital officer.

National Nurses Week: –

Developed kickoff blog post that earned nearly 2,000 external views.

–

Earned reposts of Nurses Week content on Daily Nurse website and social media pages of the American Legion and American Association of Nurse Practitioners. VA Careers Nurses Week coverage was also mentioned twice in the same week in the VA Secretary’s Standup Report.

Transitioning Military: –

Implemented a nationwide marketing plan for Transitioning Military Personnel (TMP)/Intermediate Care Technician (ICT) careers that resulted in new hires and excellent experiences: Palo Alto ICT Daniel Mendoza’s COVID-19 blog was featured in a twopage advertorial in Recruit Military Search & Employ Magazine, in a full post on G.I. Jobs, and reposted by Veterans of Foreign Wars HQ on Twitter and Facebook, American Legion, National Rehabilitation Information Center and the American Psychiatric Association.

–

Developed two VA ICT profiles for the VAntage Point blog, which received more than 2,000 views.

}

Operation COVID-19: In March 2020, VA put out an immediate call to action to reach and recruit retired VA and federal health care clinicians to help support our nation in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. VA Careers promptly answered the call to assist VA with recruitment marketing aimed at reaching re-employed annuitant (retired) health care clinicians. Week over week, Team VA Careers helped VA expand the call to action to also include nonretired health care providers, such as registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified registered nurse anesthetists, IT support specialists and other clinical and nonclinical employees. VHA’s Operation COVID-19 marketing efforts led to recognition from FedHealthInnovation & Technology (FedHealthIT) in September as a 2020 Disruptive Tech Award Winner. The G2XChange Disruptive Tech Awards “recognize those Federal IT and Consulting programs from industry and Government that embody this new and dynamic culture, and work to take calculated risks and positively disrupt the Federal market, driving this new culture of progress and the critical missions of the Federal Government.” –

Developed a COVID-19 update banner on the VA Careers website, including links to critical openings. As a result of self-apply buttons created within the banner, we received 2,084 applications from retired annuitants, 578 applicants for the Emergency Response Travel Team and 1,179 applicants for IT support specialist positions.

–

Added a COVID-19 hiring banner on the website, which resulted in a major spike in page views between March 29 and April 2, with the largest spike occurring on April 2 totaling 53,592 views in one day.

–

Produced seven blogs encouraging applications for critical-need positions. This content was shared by big VA and through partners, culminating in 111,000 total views achieved through the initiative, which was also supported by VA Careers’ organic social media posts. The “Calling IT Professionals: VA hiring nationwide in multiple specialties” blog earned over 56,000 views alone, one of the most viewed blogs in VA Careers history.

–

Produced VA Careers-owned social media posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram that earned retweets and pickups by NPR, NBC Today.com and Military Times.

–

Sent email blasts to promote nurse recruitment which resulted in contact with 2,980 supervisors of retired nurses including 1,220 opens and 14 click-throughs (0.4% CTR).

–

Created email blasts to promote housekeeping positions which were then sent to a targeted recipient list in Boston area (42 recipients) and another to targeted list nationwide (13,405 recipients).

–

Created flyer for VACO Chaplain to send to U.S. faith group leaders, which was then disseminated via email to 2,548 faith group leaders nationwide.

[

Boosted VA Careers’ presence on social media. Organic social media presence — via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn — increased dramatically in FY20 compared to FY19: }

Messages: 38% increase (2,366 posts sent).

}

Followers: 29% increase (1,088,990 total audience).

}

Impressions: 7% increase (23,587,623 impressions total).

}

Engagement: 53% increase (1,316,874 total engagements).

}

Activation: 11% increase (315,482 total activation).

}

Clicks: The objective to increase clicks to VACareers.VA.gov resulted in a 102% increase from FY19, with 128,678 clicks directed to VACareers. VA.gov.

}

Social media delivered historically high-quality leads with a 103% lead-toapplicant conversion rate.

Increased website views and referrals. }

[

Google Analytics showed 6,328,973 user visits to VACareers.VA.gov during the year and 29,388,973 referrals from VACareers.VA.gov to USAJobs.

Increased awareness. }

Launched weekly “Talk About It Tuesday” broadcast on LinkedIn Live in June 2020, with supporting scripts, graphics and blogs recapping each end-of-month Q&A interview. The broadcast resulted in over 435,250 impressions, 22,750 engagements, and 7,099 clicks to VACareers.VA.gov in four months.

}

Hulu continued to be a strong driver of awareness, delivering 12 million impressions and 11 million video completions, for an extremely high video completion rate of 90.55% overall. Rotated in new video content in Q4 to help boost performance by giving users an updated viewing experience.

Media Purchases and Results Overview

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

In FY20, VA Careers continued its successful “digital first” approach to reach VHA WMC’s primary and secondary audiences. This approach allows us to reach media consumers more directly, with tactics that can be optimized in almost real-time producing accurate results. Digital tactics used throughout FY20 included search engine marketing, paid social, and digital programmatic display and video. Broad awareness tactics were also employed through TV and radio Public Service Announcements (PSAs). Digital native was also introduced in FY20 to drive traffic to relevant blog content as an additional awareness and engagement driver.

[

Supported recruiters through job board and recruiter tool purchases, with reserve budgets set aside for additional purchases as needed throughout the year.

[

Launched audience and occupation-specific search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns throughout the fiscal year, with adjustments completed as needed.

[

Launched paid social media, as well as digital programmatic display and video tactics in Q1 for the duration of the fiscal year, with updates provided as needed.

[

Redistributed the “Stand With Us” PSA on TV and radio.

[

Developed and distributed Out-of-Home (OOH) PSA materials, including mailers and billboards.

[

Geofenced VA-attended conferences prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to reach attendees before and after events.

[

Conducted seven virtual career fairs through Brazen.

[

Partnered with Velocity Resource Group to provide candidate sourcing and recruiter support for approximately 50 hard-to-fill vacancies.

Media Buy Results and Return on Investment (ROI) - Fiscal 2020 Media Buy Summary

Focus and Tactics

Media Buy ROI

Media Buy Categories

Budget Allocation Per Category

Recruitment Category

Recruitment Vendors

Recruitment Tactics

Total Impressions

Total Clicks

Search Engine Marketing

$979,252

All health care

Google Ads, Microsoft Ads (Bing)

Targeted search nationwide against key vacancies

8,600,991

1,046,933

Paid Social

$419,634

All health care

Facebook, Instagram, Tiwtter, LinkedIn

Promoted posts and organic boosts

69,849,841

2,048,084

305,257,376

1,095,845

$1,926,460

All health care

MiQ, Undertone, Digilant, GroundTruth, Hulu, Taboola

Targeted digital display and video placements across the web, conference geofencing

$674,877

All health care and Specialty Boards

3RNet, CareerMD, Doximity, Health eCareers, PracticeLink, PracticeMatch

Targeted candidate communications and job board postings

33,892,919

1,100,504

Job Boards

$341.238.45

All health care and Specialty Boards

Diversity Nursing, Glassdoor/Indeed, HBCU Connect, Nurse. com, RallyPoint

Job postings and promoted job postings

32,997,760

1,669,418

PSAs

$88,439

All health care

PlowShare for distribution and tracking

Video, radio and OOH to drive awareness

463,170,259

N/A

Events Reserve

All health care

Reserve budget for events purchases

Spotlight Initiative

$269,980

All health care

Velocity Resource Group, Brazen

Candidate sourcing

N/A

Ad Serving

$7,425.76

All health care

Sizmek

Social and digital tracking

N/A

Reserve Budget

$131,324

All health care

Various

N/A

Digital Programmatic Display and Video

Recruiter Tools

Job Boards & Recruiter Tools Overview Job boards, which include recruiter tools, are a lower funnel tactic that reach active health care job seekers. Purchases in FY20 were sustained from FY19 and renewed with little to no changes. This allowed VA Careers to monitor usage and performance throughout the year to inform optimizations for FY20.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Supported recruiters with access to job boards and recruiter tools.

[

Migrated job boards to VA Careers XML feeds or USAJobs scrapes for posting positions, where appropriate.

[

Incorporated top performing job board NHCN-AHA from previous recruiter support contract into National Recruitment purchase for FY20 to efficiently reach candidates on a large network of relevant sites.

[

Renegotiated Doximity purchase to better serve Center of Excellence (COE) structure and provide each team with enough DocMails each month to source candidates, which increased click through rates (CTR) and efficiencies quarter over quarter.

[

In late July 2020, Glassdoor and Indeed announced a new partnership strategy realignment, shifting all job promotion and hiring strategies from Glassdoor to Indeed. Glassdoor will continue to serve as the main employer branding and promotion hub for VA. All of VA’s Glassdoor-sponsored job campaigns migrated to Indeed for the remainder of the fiscal year, with minor adjustments.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

HBCU Connect — a purchase of job boards across a network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and African American organizations and associations — consistently delivered the strongest CTR and lowest cost per click (CPC).

[

PracticeMatch job listings delivered the lowest CTR and highest CPC, while also delivering one of the highest conversion rates. This is attributed to the niche nature of this job board and the reliance on recruiters to post listings and email candidates.

[

Glassdoor/Indeed delivered an overall apply start rate (click through to USAJobs) of 11.62%, well above Glassdoor’s average of 6%.

Recruiter Tools Results – Fiscal 2020 Media/ Categories

Media Spend

Impressions

Clicks

CTR

Cost Per Click

KI ATS Leads

KI ATS Applicants

3RNet

$15,000.00

2,838

N/A

18.75%

HealtheCareers

$180,000.00

31,846,590

1,089,868

3.42%

$0.17

225

143

63.56%

Doximity

$143,932.00

350,749

8,607

2.45%

$16.72

96.83%

PracticeMatch

$246,000.00

1,251,938

520

0.04%

$473.08

169

141

83.43%

PracticeLink

$51,995.00

440,804

1,509

0.34%

$34.46

436

346

79.36%

CareerMD

$37,950

TOTAL

$674,877

33,892,912

1,100,504

3.25%

$0.61

973

706

72.56%

Job Board Results – Fiscal 2020 Media/ Categories

Media Spend

Impressions

Clicks

CTR

Cost Per Click

KI ATS Leads

KI ATS Applicants

Diversity Nursing

$9,562

385,467

N/A

Nurse.com

$37,643.10

63,008

11,972

19.00%

$3.14

RallyPoint

$10,788

926,233

4,554

0.49%

$2.37

HBCU Connect

$5,000

3,277,201

1,413,805

43.14%

$0.004

Glassdoor/ Indeed

$158,245.35

22,981,441

236,332

1.03%

$0.67

33.33%

NHCN-AHA

$120,000

5,364,410

2,755

0.05%

$10.89

81.58%

TOTAL

$341,238.45

32,997,760

1,669,418

5.06%

$0.20

78.05%

Search Engine Marketing Overview

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a lower funnel tactic used to reach active health care job seekers. VA Careers developed and refined headlines, ad sets and keyword lists to create tailored campaigns for primary audiences as well as missioncritical occupations. These occupations include, but are not limited to, jobs for health care professionals, nurses, physicians, students and trainees, Veterans and mental health professionals.

[

Initiated SEM by launching brand, nurses and physicians campaigns with Google and Bing during Q1.

[

Over the course of FY20, the VA brand campaign consistently had the lowest CPC and CTR. The nurses and physicians campaign also received consistently successful results.

[

In March, Team VA Careers implemented new Google Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), which dynamically serve the most relevant combination of headlines and ad sets to users searching for both branded and non-branded terms.

[

Google conversation tracking pixels were added to VACareers.VA.gov in mid-August, allowing for further conversion by reporting on users who clicked from an ad to the homepage and then clicked out to view job opportunities on USAJobs.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Overall, SEM delivered over 6.7 million impressions and over 832 thousand clicks through to VACareers.VA.gov.

[

CTR consistently improved quarter over quarter for an overall CTR of 12.41%. This is a significant increase in CTR versus FY19, which concluded with a CTR of 7.23%.

[

Final CPC was an extremely efficient $0.88, another significant performance increase compared to FY19â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final CPC of $1.08.

[

The majority of clicks were driven by brand campaigns, followed by the nurses and physicians campaign.

[

After conversion tracking pixels were added to the landing page, Google drove 5,908 conversions to USAJobs from VHA branded terms. Nursing and physician search terms delivered an additional 2,796 conversions.

Google Ads Results - Fiscal 2020 Quarter

Media Cost

Impressions

Clicks

CTR

CPC

$172,197

2,070,430

216,431

10.45%

$0.80

$184,754

1,802,533

199,983

11.09%

$0.93

$185,243

1,338,965

193,314

14.44%

$0.96

$186,492

1,490,895

222,303

14.91%

$0.84

TOTAL

$728,686

6,702,823

832,031

12.41%

$0.88

Microsoft Advertising (Bing) Results - Fiscal 2020 Quarter

Media Cost

Impressions

Clicks

CTR

CPC

$58,284

466,320

69,156

14.83%

$0.84

$59,998

342,813

37,371

10.90%

$1.61

$62,063

551,596

55,245

10.02%

$1.12

$70,221

537,439

53,130

9.89%

$1.32

TOTAL

$250,566

1,898,168

214,902

11.32%

$1.17

Monitoring, Evaluation and Optimization Google Analytics Overview Health care market competition means VHA WMC must optimize the performance of every platform, tactic and tool. The foundation for effective optimization is having accurate, timely data (e.g., number of hires, cost per hire or hire rate) and a clear picture of how that data relates to organizational goals along the recruitment marketing funnel. By understanding the performance

of individual campaign components, we refine each area to move VA closer to its goal of filling critical health care vacancies. Landing pages with consistent messaging and ideal user experiences are eight to 10 times more efficient in driving conversions. VA Careers builds engaging web-based assets, including landing pages with

compelling calls to action (like web forms or click-to-call messaging) that are designed and built based on best practices. This method allows us to measure number of leads, cost per lead, traffic/visits/visitors to page and percent lift in awareness of VHAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brand image. VA Careers employed Google Analytics website traffic throughout the fiscal year to clearly track, understand and report VA Careers data.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

The VA Careers homepage was the most common landing page each quarter; however, the majority of visitors landed directly on a job description or job search page.

[

VA.gov referrals consistently represented the most engaged audience. Growth in these â&#x20AC;&#x153;freeâ&#x20AC;? traffic sources are valuable and were consistent throughout the fiscal year.

[

VA Careers consistently ranked in the top 15 of user referrals to USAJobs.

[

Many visits to the VA Careers page begin on specific career-related pages, including the mental health, nursing and physician pages. Over the past year, mental health pageviews have fallen the most.

[

New and returning visitor percentages trended slightly towards more new users throughout FY20. This shift was most likely due to new COVID-related campaigns reaching new candidates.

[

A major spike in page views occurred between March 29 and April 2 due to the addition of the COVID banner on the website, with the largest spike occurring on April 2 totaling 53,592 views in one day.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Total user visits to VACareers.VA.gov:

[

Total users sent from VACareers.VA.gov to USAJobs:

}

Quarter 1: 1,375,600.

}

Quarter 1: 7,832,655.

}

Quarter 2: 1,499,363.

}

Quarter 2: 7,924,852.

}

Quarter 3: 1,705,927.

}

Quarter 3: 6,881,463.

}

Quarter 4: 1,748,083.

}

Quarter 4: 6,750,003.

Total FY20: 6,328,973

[

Paid search consistently drove traffic to the VA Careers website throughout the fiscal year. It was the largest source of traffic in FY20, followed by referrals, then digital display and video.

[

Digital display and video have consistently been the fastest growing traffic source throughout FY20.

[

The majority of traffic to the VA Careers site was consistently from the United States.

Total FY20: 29,388,973

Choose VA Overview VA Careers must have an organizational identity that immediately conveys its value proposition to all audiences and integrates into broader VA efforts like Choose VA. With a recognizable identity — reflective of a clear vision and mission — VA Careers develops credibility among audiences and is well positioned to convey and secure buy-in of its goals and objectives. This identity elevates the VA brand among target health care providers who can serve Veterans. VA Careers reviewed existing research and analytics on all VA career portals and channels to understand how key stakeholders view the Choose VA brand and how it relates to the marketplace VA occupies. We reviewed analytics through our KPIs to see how many recruitment leads are generated from Choose VA; the level of time they stay on the Choose VA versus the VA Careers website; and where users go after accessing Choose VA, VA Careers or other VHA careerrelated websites. We explored how audience segments perceive Choose VA and, if there is a gap between the current organizational identity and the desired identity’s effect, generate recommended mitigation strategies.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Explored partnership opportunities with Choose VA to increase referrals to VACareers.VA.gov. }

[

Linked 22,682 users from Choose.VA.gov to VACareers.VA.gov during FY20-Q2, due to COVID-19 campaign banner.

[

Linked a total of 27,129 users from Choose.VA.gov to VACareers.VA.gov during FY20.

[

Increased the number of users and pageviews from Choose VA to VA Careers, specifically during COVID campaigns between March and May 2020.

[

Analyzed the amount of time users spent on the VA Careers website during FY 2020: }

Quarter 1: 165 seconds.

}

Quarter 2: 169 seconds.

}

Quarter 3: 169 seconds.

}

Quarter 4: 133 seconds.

Analyzed the time users spent on the Choose VA website from Q1 to Q4: }

Quarter 1: 212 seconds.

}

Quarter 2: 97 seconds.

}

Quarter 3: 75 seconds.

}

Quarter 4: 143 seconds.

Paid Social Media Overview Paid social media posts are a top- and middle-funnel tactic employed to target VHAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary audience from the start of their decision-making process and throughout their interaction with VHA. Through paid social, VA Careers targeted niche audiences across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn with relevant messaging based on job titles, employer, behavior and engagement with pertinent content.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

Fiscal 2020 Results

[

Relaunched paid social in Q2 with new creative and ad campaigns structured around physicians, nurses, mental health, students and Veterans. These campaigns continued throughout the duration of FY20.

[

With strict targeting restrictions put into place by Facebook in regard to employment advertising, focus was shifted more to LinkedIn, where more niche job function targeting is available.

[

Paid social tactics delivered over 69 million impressions and over 2 million clicks throughout the campaign.

[

Facebook led with the highest CTR and lowest CPC.

[

Twitter saw increased performance compared to FY19 with an increase in CTR and decrease in CPC.

[

The overall average CTR across all platforms was 2.94%, an increase in CTR compared to FY19.

[

Over 3.4 million engagements reported across all social channels throughout FY20, driven by promotion of organic content. Facebook/Instagram delivered over 2.5 million of the total engagements.

[

Continued strategy set forth in FY19 to incorporate promotion of organic content throughout the year to drive awareness and encourage engagements. This tactic was extremely effective; Facebook continually had the highest number of engagements.

[

Leveraged video creative across all platforms.

[

Implemented optimizations throughout FY20 on both the audience and platform level, allowing VA Careers to take advantage of trends in real time and combat any performance dips due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite shifting focus to LinkedIn, where nuanced targeting can result in higher costs per click, overall CPC only slightly increased year over year, with FY20 delivering an extremely efficient overall CPC of $0.20.

[

Performance across all social platforms dipped in Q4, potentially affected by content fatigue as well as an increase in competition due to the massive influx of political advertising, which often leads to increased costs. Optimizations made throughout the quarter helped prevent any significant drops in performance and delivered a 2.55% CTR, exceeding industry benchmarks.

[

There could be some opportunity to make some minor changes/tweaks/modifications that may provide a cleaner experience.

Media Buy Results â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Fiscal 2020 Platform

Media Cost Impressions

Clicks

CTR

CPC

Engagements

Facebook/ Instagram

$151,704

24,478,024

1,306,961

5.34%

$0.11

2,507,534

Twitter

$92,139

41,395,512

707,127

1.71%

$0.13

886,404

$175,791

3,976,295

39,096

0.98%

$4.50

25,712

TOTAL

$419,634

2.94%

$0.20

3,419,650

69,849,831 2,053,184

Organic Social Media Overview To support VA health care recruitment across VA Careers’ social platforms, a social marketing plan was developed to influence, engage and activate potential VA health care employees. Once messaging is visible to VA’s target audience, strategic social marketing could transition these health care professionals through the social media recruitment marketing funnel, where they became passively aware, engaged candidates and, finally, active leads. Objectives were measured by passive (impressions), engaged (shares, comments, likes) and active (clicks) KPIs. VA Careers developed comprehensive content calendars and posted daily across social media platforms. Efforts focused on achieving the following three objectives to capture candidates through social media into the recruitment funnel: [

Influence (Impressions): Audiences are aware of VA as a favorable employer and a thought leader in healthcare.

[

Engage (likes, shares, comments): Education about VA careers resonates with and engages target audiences.

[

Activate (clicks): Audiences become activated and access websites with an option to apply to a VA career.

Social Media KPI Results – Fiscal 2020 Date

Messages

Posts

Impressions

Engagements

Clicks

185

688

5,963,746

313,425

61,710

188

716

6,447,090

338,276

104,829

253

948

5,325,020

397,983

76,729

251

919

5,851,767

267,190

72,214

FY20 TOTAL

877

3,271

23,587,623

1,316,874

315,482

FY19 TOTAL

768

2,366

22,073,813

858,820

284,862

COMPARE

14.19%

38.25%

6.86%

53.34%

10.75%

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Key overarching accomplishments of social media efforts include: }

Posts sent: 38% increase (2,366 posts sent) in FY20 from FY19.

}

Engagement: 53% increase (1,316,874 total engagements) in FY20 from FY19.

}

Followers: 29% increase (1,088,990 total audience) in FY20 from FY19.

}

Activation: 11% increase (315,482 total activation) in FY20 from FY19.

}

Impressions: 7% increase (23,587,623 impressions total) in FY20 from FY19.

[

FY20 social media results by message category: To optimize content planning and tracking, VA Careers social messaging is categorized into clear focus categories. This categorization is used in the strategy to optimize social content calendar planning and improve tracking capabilities for quantitative and qualitative performance. Through understanding our audiences’ preferences and needs based on message category analysis, Team VA Careers was able to plan successful micro-campaigns, leverage the success of our most popular messages and reach the historic milestone of over 1 million followers across all Team VA Careers social media profiles. }

}

Career advice: Progress was notable by leveraging the success of career advice messaging to live video, leading to over 22,500 engagements during FY20. See below for more information. National conversation: By leveraging our most-clicked messaging category, national conversation, we were able to increase the clicks directed to VACareers.VA.gov significantly. See below for more information.

[

VA Careers LinkedIn Live video tactic: Broadcasts were established as a consistent effort during Q3 to support VA’s health care recruitment initiative. In June 2020, the “Talk About It Tuesday” broadcasts began airing regularly on a weekly basis. These live videos featured VHA Brand and career advice topics, as well as a range of VA staff. “Talk About It Tuesday” posts resulted in over 435,250 impressions, 22,750 engagements, and 7,099 clicks to VACareers.VA.gov in four months.

[

Over 1 million followers across channels: VA Careers social profiles increased followership by 29% the previous contract year. By the end of FY20, total cross-channel followers reached 1,088,990.

[

VACareers.VA.gov clicks: Through the user experience-designed strategy, the objective to increase clicks to VACareers.VA.gov was successful, resulting in a 102% increase from FY19. During FY20, 128,678 clicks were directed to VACareers.VA.gov.

KPI-driven campaigns: Several campaigns were implemented throughout FY20 to achieve the respective KPI goals. All campaign efforts were designed to improve and maintain audience perception of VA as a favorable employer through emotionally driven incentives, such as envisioning how one could be a part of VA innoVAtion. Campaigns resulted in high periods of success in the respective KPI objectives.

IMPRESSIONS #NewYearNewCareer

ENGAGEMENT “Talk About It Tuesday”

ACTIVATION Operation COVID-19

The #NewYearNewCareer campaign resulted in over 270,300 impressions. This effort succeeded in the goal to inform the public that VA is an active employer looking to hire a variety of positions. The complexity of applying, VA Careers as a responsive employer seeking to help all interested apply.

The “Talk About It Tuesday” weekly live videos averaged over 700 comments per broadcast. With a goal to raise engagement among internal and external audiences, the tactic successfully encouraged LinkedIn followers to interact with VA Careers. The aggregated results from “Talk About It Tuesday” produced approximately 22,500 engagements — 13,500 comments and 9,000 likes / shares.

The Operation COVID-19 campaign resulted in over 11,100 clicks to VACareers.VA.gov. This effort focused on driving audiences to COVID-19 direct-apply hyperlinks by promoting calls to action to click and apply. When social media messaging was shared and republished by numerous national and regional media outlets, activation results surged and achieved the goal to direct the target market to VACareers.VA.gov.

Fiscal 2020 Results FY20 social media results by message category: The charts below highlight FY20 performance by message category in terms of impressions (message reception), engagement (audience interaction) and activation (audience clicks). The average (AVG) click rate bar chart provides a more comprehensive view, where one gains understanding of audience preference by message category. This statistic is evaluated by dividing the total number of clicks in a focus category by the number of category messages disseminated.

[

Audience activation preference for national conversation and career advice: Of all messaging categories, national conversation and career advice accounted for the highest AVG click rates. National conversation messages accounted for over 16,000 clicks to the VA Careers website. This success points to audience preference for VA Careers narratives being tied to national conversation topics. Additionally, audience preference for career advice content continued from FY19, especially when messages were tailored to user experience and helped with specific actions in the application process.

[

Audience targeted recruitment preferences: Targeted recruitment AVG click rates began to decrease in March 2020, likely due to a shift in calls to action. Where FY20-Q1 and -Q2 focused on medical specialty-specific messaging, FY20-Q3 shifted to non-specific, health care-wide recruitment promotion. As a result:

}

Targeted recruitment AVG click rates in the first half of FY20 averaged 347 clicks per message.

}

The shift to health care-wide messaging in the second half of FY20 averaged 189 clicks per message.

Digital Programmatic Display and Video Overview Digital programmatic display and video was utilized in FY20 to reach niche target audiences with little waste. Using programmatic buying techniques, we can target a person and optimize media and creative in real time. This is a top-funnel tactic that drives qualified candidates into VHA’s candidate pipeline by serving advertisements across desktop, mobile and tablet devices. These advertisements drive qualified candidates to VACareers.VA.gov. Throughout the fiscal year, VA Careers leveraged a mix of display, video, high-impact, native and mobile-only partners, continuously evaluating data and optimizing toward the best performing tactics and partners. Targeting was based on demographic, behavioral, geographic and contextual data segments.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Relaunched digital programmatic and video campaigns in Q1, continuing with top performing partners from FY19.

[

Digilant and MiQ served as programmatic display and video partners, driving high CTRs at low cost.

[

Continued successful custom high-impact placements with Undertone, designed to catch the user’s eye and encourage clicks and engagements.

[

Utilized GroundTruth as a mobile-only geofencing tactic, reaching qualified leads within a specific radius of relevant locations — such as competing hospitals, medical schools, mental health facilities and doctor’s offices — using device ID targeting.

[

Continued with highly successful Hulu campaign for additional awareness in a premium video environment. Rotated in new video content in Q4 to help boost performance by giving users an updated viewing experience.

[

In Q2, incorporated native display tactics through Taboola, driving traffic to select relevant VAntage Point blog content.

[

In August, conversion tracking pixels were implemented on VACareers.VA.gov giving VA Careers further insight into users who landed on the site from a digital advertisement and then clicked through to USAJobs to search opportunities. These pixels reported on conversions from Digilant, MiQ, GroundTruth and Undertone.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Undertone continued to be the top performer overall, with high-impact units delivering a strong CTR of 1.91%.

[

Of the programmatic partners, Digilant slightly edged out MiQ with a 0.20% CTR (vs. 0.18%).

[

In Q4, digital partners drove 108,405 post-click conversions through to USAJobs for a post-click conversion rate of 37.67%. }

Undertone delivered the strongest post-click conversion rate at 43% with 84,354 conversions to USAJobs.

}

MiQ delivered the second-highest post-click conversion rate at 32%.

[

Hulu remained a strong driver of awareness, delivering 12 million impressions and 11 million video completions, for an extremely high video completion rate of 90.55% overall.

[

Taboola delivered the most efficient CPC overall at $0.47.

Mental Health

Transitioning Military

Undertone High-Impact

VA Careers

Digital Programmatic Display and Video Results - Fiscal 2020 Media Vendor

Media Spend

Impressions

Digilant

$283,082

40,114,952

Taboola

$69,758

MiQ

Video Video Completion Completions Rate (Hulu Only) (Hulu Only)

Clicks

CTR

CPC

78,599

0.20%

$3.60

128,872,052

148,419

0.12%

$0.47

$277,765

40,217,338

71,289

0.18%

$3.90

Undertone

$455,815

33,078,072

631,079

1.91%

$0.72

GroundTruth

$298,102

54,856,470

166,440

0.30%

$1.79

Hulu

$541,937.84

12,204,778

11,051,257

90.55%

TOTAL

$1,926,460

309,343,662

11,051,257

90.55%

1,095,826

0.35%

$1.76

Paid/Geotargted Events and Outreach Conferences Overview

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

As part of the digital programmatic and video strategy for FY20, VA Careers utilized GroundTruth as our geofencing partner for specific event targeting. A continuation of the successful strategy set forth in FY19, the goal was to serve relevant ads to conference attendees through device ID targeting, messaging them both while they were at the conference event space and affiliated hotels. Following the completion of the conference, retargeted messaging was employed for two weeks post-conference.

[

Developed advertisements for during- and postevent geotargeting.

[

Geofenced a total of six conferences before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled in-person events for the remainder of the fiscal year. At that time, the remaining funding dedicated to event geofencing was absorbed by other GroundTruth targeting tactics.

[

Received consistent impressions across conference advertisements, with a higher number of clicks from attendees at nursing events.

[

Found top performing conference was American College of Chest Physicians, with an average CTR of 0.19% across both proximity and retargeting tactics.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Delivered over 6 million impressions and 9,656 clicks from conference geofencing campaigns, resulting in a very strong CTR of 0.15%.

[

Discovered that performance varied by conference and depended on audience size and location.

GroundTruth Conferences - Fiscal 2020 Conference

Tactic

Media Cost

Impressions

Clicks

CTR

CPC

US Psych Congress

Proximity Conference Targeting

$3,181.31

605,964

692

0.11%

$4.60

Retargeting Device IDs

$3,082.45

587,133

912

0.15%

$3.38

Proximity Conference Targeting

$2,663.16

507,269

815

0.16%

$3.27

Retargeting Device IDs

$2,595.35

494,353

716

0.14%

$3.62

Proximity Conference Targeting

$3,239.59

617,065

1,233

0.19%

$2.62

$3,077.11

586,117

1,020

0.17%

$3,02

$3,244.13

617,929

961

0.15%

$3.38

$3,189.12

607,452

828

0.14%

$3.85

$2,896.78

551,767

741

0.13%

$3.91

Retargeting Device IDs

$3,063.36

583,497

669

0.11%

$4.58

Proximity Conference Targeting

$2,292.59

440,882

360

0.08%

$6.37

Retargeting Device IDs

$2,217.20

426,384

709

0.17%

$3.13

$34,712.15

6,625,812

9,656

0.15%

$3.60

American Society of Anesthesia

American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) Retargeting Device IDs American College of Gastroenterology American College of Emergency Physicians Society of Federal Health Professionals

Proximity Conference Targeting Retargeting Device IDs Proximity Conference Targeting

TOTAL

PSA Campaign Overview

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

PSAs are a top-funnel tactic used to create awareness of VHA as an employer of choice and of the career opportunities for health care professionals at VA. Messaging is designed to increase brand perception, understanding and likelihood to apply and/or recommend employment with VHA. In FY20, VA Careers continued to work with PSA distribution company PlowShare to redistribute :30 second English and Spanish TV and :30 second English radio versions of the “Stand With Us” PSA, with updated distribution materials, packaging and monitoring. VA Careers continued monitoring of the OOH PSA strategy implemented in FY19 to increase donated media placements in markets where awareness and distribution of TV and radio PSAs were low.

[

Redistributed TV and radio materials with copy updates and new artwork in Q2.

[

Monitored and fulfilled original OOH PSA material order of 650 placements. Due to demand, an additional 89 units were fulfilled.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Total donated media value of over $42 million across TV and radio in FY20. This value is more than $32 million higher than FY19. An increase in donated media value can be attributed to the elevated importance of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic era. Appetite for the “Stand With Us” PSA surged in Q3 at the height of the pandemic, resulting in over $20 million in donated air time.

[

Total donated impressions: 463,170,259.

[

Total of 100,786 airings across 840 stations, both national and local.

[

Total donated media value of OOH PSAs: $9.8 million.

TV Radio

VHA OOH PSA Campaign Metrics Results - Fiscal 2020 OOH Company

Locations

Medicine

Male

Female

Health care

Total

Adams

Ypsilanti, MI; Lansing, MI; Florence, SC

190

Barnes

Zanesville, OH

Lamar

Bridgeport, CT; Windsor, CT; Davenport, IA; Dubuque, IA; West Springfield, MA; Freeland, MI; Gladstone, MI; Muskegon, MI; Granite Falls, NC; Williamsport, PA; Indiana, PA; Scranton, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Abilene, TX; Amarillo, TX; Temple, TX; Rapid City, SD; Richmond, VA

115

118

110

461

Keleher

Bartlesville, OK

Standish Johnson

Greene, RI

TOTAL

739

Media Content Report Overview Highlighting information about the people who contribute to the high-quality care of Veterans and the benefits of working at VA is a vital part of brand awareness. We conducted outreach and subject matter expert interviews for content featured on the VA Careers blog — employee and workplace profiles, career advice, event promotion content and audience-targeted content (transitioning military, military spouses, executives) — to showcase the career potential, quality of care and innovation present at VA, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also engaged in strategic partnerships to highlight content on non-VA channels and developed related media such as brochures and flyers to assist in human resources and recruiter outreach. This fiscal year, we shifted VA messaging to focus less on “Choose VA” and highlight the “Work at VA” tagline to drive traffic to the VA Careers website and specific subpages. Integration with social media enabled greater awareness among all audiences and increased blog views.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights Blogs [

Produced 84 blogs for VA Careers (an increase of 67% more content from FY19) and two for RallyPoint.

[

Other Media [

As part of the COVID-19 spotlight initiative plan, seven blogs were produced encouraging applications for critical-need positions. This content was shared by big VA and through partners, culminating in 111,000 total views achieved through the initiative, which was also supported by VA Careers’ organic social media posts. The “Calling IT Professionals: VA hiring nationwide in multiple specialties” blog earned over 56,000 views alone, one of the most viewed blogs in VA Careers history.

Launched weekly “Talk About It Tuesday” broadcast on LinkedIn Live, with supporting scripts, graphics and blogs recapping each end-of-month Q&A interview. FY20 included 17 broadcasts that garnered a total of 178,285 views, 460,263 impressions, 8,948 likes/shares and 13,469 comments.

[

Published new flyer on VA Law Enforcement careers in external and customizable versions.

[

Published refreshed “Journey of a Job” infograph flyer.

[

Launched the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) program spotlight initiative plan, which included a six-blog series focused on creating awareness around careers available to military spouses and recruiting them.

Developed Workforce Recruitment and Retention Service (WRRS) brochure — in final stage of design based on client feedback.

[

Developed Virtual Recruitment and Hiring Campaign Guide — in final stage of design based on client feedback.

[

Worked closely with several subject matter experts to create a Total Rewards Psychology brochure featuring a comprehensive display of the benefits of working at VA. The digital publication uses illustrations and imagery to showcase the totality of benefits VA offers, including a three-pronged retirement savings plan.

[

Interviewed or collected questionnaires from five VA employees for in-depth profiles of VA Career professionals with a focus on executives and repurposed content for articles and testimonials used in other media. This increased VA Careers visibility with high-level professionals.

[

Promoted video content by creating a VA Careers blog series recapping the videos and pointing sources to relevant information on VA Careers website.

Fiscal 2020 Results Blogs [

[

Created seven-blog COVID-19 recruitment blog series that reached 111,000 views: }

VA to retired health care clinicians: Help us fight COVID-19 | 18,000 views.

}

Housekeeping staff needed at VA facilities | 27,000 views.

}

VA expands digital health care, work options | 3,000 views.

}

Returning Peace Corps volunteers: Consider a VA career | 1,000 views.

}

Calling IT Professionals: VA hiring nationwide in multiple specialties | 56,000 views.

}

Meet a Palo Alto ICT on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic | 1,000 views.

}

VA hiring housekeeping staff: immediate need to fill positions nationwide | 7,000 views.

Developed a six-blog series for outreach to military spouses that received 36,000 total views. Highlights include: }

VA actively recruits military spouses for careers serving Veterans | 27,000 views.

}

Get answers to military spouse employment questions on Feb. 20 | 2,000 views.

}

Three ways VA helps military spouses continue their education | 2,000 views.

Crafted 12 career advice blogs that reached over 189,000 total views, highlights include: The most viewed blog in VA Careers history: }

Five VA jobs you may qualify for with military training | Total views: 99,000.

}

These five educational programs can help boost your VA career application | Total views: 32,000.

}

How Veterans preference can help boost your VA application | Total views: 14,000.

Other Media [

Developed and updated 10 brochures and flyers related to Education Debt Reduction Program; Employee Incentive Scholarship Program; National Nursing Education Initiative; Total Rewards; VA Police; VA National Education for Employees Program; and recruitment (Journey of a Job, WRRS, Virtual Recruitment and Hiring Campaign Guide).

Marketing Strategies Outreach - External Overview

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

This tactic involved expanding connections internally and externally through outreach to VA employees, health associations, military and Veteran intermediaries, internal partners, Veteran service organizations and others who could raise awareness through information sharing and other collaborations.

[

Conducted outreach throughout the year to nearly 200 external organizations, associations, publications and minority advocacy groups as well as internal entities to gauge willingness to form information-sharing collaborations.

[

Created new Outreach Marketing Plan in June 2020. The plan is designed as a phased approach to help leverage existing and dynamic new and diverse partnerships and audiences both inside and outside VA with the goal of expanding awareness, growth and visibility.

[

Established and developed relationship with 12 high-profile external partners who have regularly shared VA blog content via their own websites and social media.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Sent 1,000 emails and made 600 calls to over 200 contacts.

[

Added 10 external partners who joined G.I. Jobs and RallyPoint: }

Daily Nurse.

}

VFW.

}

American Legion.

}

American Academy of Nursing.

}

National Rehabilitation Information Center.

}

American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

}

Minority Nurse.

}

National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association.

}

Fisher House Foundation.

}

American Psychiatric Association.

[

Nearly 50 blogs reposted via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and partner websites which have generated thousands of views with external audiences.

[

The American Academy of Nursing shared our blog information with their Military/Veteran expert panel which was then funneled down to its thousands of members.

[

Daily Nurse reposted the VA Careers COVID-19 ICT and Nurses Week blogs on their website to give added visibility for VA health care opportunities during Year of Nurse. Conducted extensive outreach to the Public Affairs Palo Alto contact team during the COVID-19 blog promotion efforts featuring one of their frontline health care workers.

[

Conducted outreach with Peace Corps external affairs team during Peace Corps volunteer blog promotion.

Outreach - Internal Overview

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

This tactic involved regularly submitting VA Careers content to two weekly internal VA newsletters and a monthly internal newsletter. In addition, internal and external versions of the monthly VA Careers newsletter, VA Careers Connections, are distributed via GovDelivery to VA leaders and employees, recruiters, interagency partners, external partners, students and trainees. VA Careers content raises awareness of the VA Careers program, highlights recent successes and achievements and shares new tools, resources and materials that internal and external audiences may find useful. During this fiscal year, we expanded our internal communications outreach by contributing to additional publications. We also contacted potential internal partners to gauge their interest in publishing our content.

[

Contributed content to Human Capital Management (HCM) Weekly update and VHA Communications Weekly update.

[

Contributed a monthly article to the WMC Connect newsletter.

[

Created and distributed VA Careers Connections newsletter via GovDelivery monthly.

[

Began contributing regular updates to the Biweekly Activities Report (BAR) in March.

[

Began sending submissions in February for consideration to the VetResources weekly newsletter.

[

Contacted additional internal communications sources about contributing VA Careers content, including VA Insider, VAnguard Magazine, the Workforce Resource Newsletter and VA News Network (VNN).

[

VNN agreed to promote and run VA Careers new PSA, as well as our current PSA, “Stand with Us,” along with three additional videos: one on VA culture, another on rural living and a third on why physicians choose to work at VA.

[

VA Insider featured the following VA Careers blogs on its home page: “How VA’s retirement plan benefits your bottom line,” “VA tops two best employer lists“ and “How VA encourages providers to care for their own mental health.”

[

The Workforce Resource Newsletter published “How VA’s retirement plan benefits your bottom line” in its August issue.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Produced 52 submissions to HCM Weekly update and VHA Communications weekly update, with VA Careers content featured weekly in both publications.

[

Produced 12 articles for the WMC Connect newsletter.

[

Produced and distributed 12 issues each of the internal and external VA Careers Connections newsletters.

[

Produced 16 issues of the BAR update.

[

Sent 13 submissions to VetResources; three were published.

[

Acquired three new internal partners: VAnguard, VNN and VA Insider.

[

Pitched a list of story ideas to VAnguard magazine. VAnguard accepted a proposed article on the LinkedIn Live broadcast series for publication in the November 2020 issue.

Special Events (Focused Marketing Efforts) Overview VA Careers supported many special events/focused marketing efforts throughout the fiscal year to promote the hiring of military spouses, spotlight nursing careers during Nurses Week, connect transitioning military and Veterans with ideal job opportunities at VA and more. Each of these efforts involved meeting with internal subject matter experts, drafting focused marketing plans, executing integrated strategies and tactics, and capturing results and lessons learned. This successful work generated results in brand awareness and hires, drew high praise from internal clients and resulted in repeat requests for similar support. In March 2020, VA put out an immediate call to action to reach and recruit retired VA and federal health care clinicians to help support our nation in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. VA Careers promptly answered the call to assist VA with recruitment marketing aimed at reaching re-employed annuitant (retired) health care clinicians. Week over week, VA Careers helped VA expand the call to action to also include nonretired health care providers, such as registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified registered nurse anesthetists, IT support specialists and other clinical and nonclinical employees.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Developed and executed four focused marketing plans on career pathways for medical and nursing executives, military spouses, COVID-19 staffing, and transitioning military and Veterans.

[

Developed, organized and executed military spouse roundtable video with high-profile participants that aired on LinkedIn with support via blog post and social media posts.

[

Created a comprehensive marketing plan for Year of the Nurse that included logo, blog banners, slogan and messaging. Quickly pivoted the plan to a targeted effort on Nurses Week, to include blog, paid ads and social support.

[

Developed a COVID-19 update banner on the VA Careers website, including links to critical openings. VHA’s Operation COVID-19 marketing efforts led to recognition from FedHealthInnovation & Technology (FedHealthIT) as a “Disruptive Tech 2020 Award Winner”. The G2XChange Disruptive Tech Awards “recognize those Federal IT and Consulting programs from industry and Government that embody this new and dynamic culture, and work to take calculated risks and positively disrupt the Federal market, driving this new culture of progress and the critical missions of the Federal Government.”

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Operation COVID-19: }

}

Designed and mailed 4,359 postcards to retired nurses and 1,555 physicians Developed a COVID-19 update banner on the VA Careers website, including links to critical openings. As a result of self-apply buttons created within the banner, we received 2,084 applications from retired annuitants, 578 applicants for the Emergency Response Travel Team and 1,179 applicants for IT support specialist positions.

}

A major spike in VACareers.VA.gov pageviews occurred between March 29 and April 2 due to the addition of the COVID banner on the VA Careers website, with the largest spike occurring on April 2 totaling 53,592 views in one day.

}

VA Careers-owned social media posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram earned retweets and pickups by NPR, NBC Today.com and Military Times.

}

Developed email blasts to promote nurse recruitment which resulted in contact with 2,980 supervisors of retired nurses including 1,220 opens and 14 clickthroughs (0.4% CTR).

}

Created email blasts to promote housekeeping positions. These blasts were then sent to a targeted recipient list in the Boston area (42 recipients) and another to targeted list nationwide (13,405 recipients).

}

Created flyer for VACO Chaplain to send to U.S. faith group leaders which resulted in reaching 2,548 faith group leader nationwide via email.

[

Military Spouses: }

Published blog that attracted 27,000 external views on the VA Careers blog.

}

Broadcast Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) program roundtable video on LinkedIn, garnering 953 reactions and 1,351 comments.

National Nurses Week: }

Developed kickoff blog post that earned nearly 2,000 external views.

}

Earned reposts of Nurses Week content on sites such as Daily Nurse, and the social media pages of the American Legion and AANP. VA Careers Nurses Week coverage was also mentioned twice in the same week in the Secretary’s Standup Report.

Transitioning Military: }

Implemented nationwide marketing plan for TMP/ ICT careers that resulted in new hires and excellent experiences: Palo Alto ICT Daniel Mendoza’s COVID-19 blog was featured in a two-page advertorial in Recruit Military Search and Employ Magazine, in a full post on G.I. Jobs, and reposted by VFW HQ on Twitter and Facebook, American Legion, National Rehabilitation Information Center and the American Psychiatric Association.

}

Developed two VA ICT profiles for the VA Careers’ blog, which received more than 2,000 views.

}

Received reports that all ICT candidates had excellent experiences in the hiring process in terms of VA responsiveness and short time to hire.

GovDelivery Email Overview VA Careers used GovDelivery to share information with internal stakeholders, reach potential candidates and keep existing leads engaged and informed. Over the course of FY20, we expanded our external nurturing list, continued use of the monthly content calendar to regularly engage contacts and increased the reach of our internal and external newsletters.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Roughly doubled our external nurturing list (~7,500 users to ~15,000).

[

Increased our unique email open rate from 17.5% in FY19 to 23% for FY20, a significantly higher percentage than the median open rate for the federal sector of 14.9% (source: 2020 Granicus Civic Engagement Benchmark Report).

[

Increased the total number of opens by 250% compared to FY19.

[

Increased the total number of clicks by 510% compared to FY19.

Fiscal 2020 Results GovDelivery Email Results - Fiscal 2020 GovDelivery Email Overview Statistics Total Number of Emails Sent

Total Number of Recipients

669,786

Total Number of Opens

206,022

Total Clicks

32,264

Video and Photo Shoots Overview VA Careers developed a new PSA series including a :60-second video PSA, a :30-second video PSA, and a :15-second radio spot, all produced in English and Spanish. The PSAs focus on the importance of innovation at VA and how VA employees drive innovation forward. The team also developed two :30-second video assets with a general health care theme, using footage from the Topeka video shoot. The spots currently appear on YouTube and Hulu. The team also conducted a two-day photo shoot at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in New Orleans. The goal of the shoot was to capture images of providers and patients wearing masks to demonstrate VA’s commitment to COVID-19 safety precautions. In addition, VA Careers produced a video promoting the VA Trainee Recruitment Events (VA-TRE) program and a video promoting the MSEP program.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Following approval of three high-level PSA concepts in December 2019, Team VA Careers developed four scripts for consideration. On February 25, 2020, the team presented the four scripts to leadership at VACO. Each script included a :30-second, :60-second and :15-second radio version. The leadership team selected “Innovation” as the final concept and provided approval on the scripts.

[

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the team was unable to shoot a live-action PSA as planned. Instead, the team proposed using a hybrid of b-roll and motion graphic overlays to create a new video product using the same approved script. Much of the b-roll footage was filmed at VA facilities, which adds to the authenticity of the spot.

[

The team planned a photo shoot in New Orleans within three weeks, including gathering quotes from three photographers in the New Orleans area, selecting a photographer, creating a photo shoot proposal and shot list, and coordinating schedules with the New Orleans VAMC public affairs officer. The photographer captured images of a variety of VHA occupations wearing masks including doctors and nurses, housekeeping aides, executives, telehealth professionals, support staff, Veteran patients, front desk staff and IT professionals. These subjects were photographed in their work settings and in the studio for professional headshots.

[

VA Careers produced two video ads to run on Connected TV on Hulu that were also promoted on VHA’s YouTube playlist:

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Finalized six versions of the new PSA: :60 video, :30 video, :15 audio all in English and Spanish.

[

Created two new videos with a general health care focus for Hulu ads.

[

The VA-TRE program video had over 5,600 views on YouTube.

[

The MSEP program video had over 6,000 views on YouTube.

[

Captured 237 new images for use on the web and social media.

[

}

VA Careers General Health Care 1

}

VA Careers General Health Care 2

VA Careers produced two additional videos in FY20: }

VA Trainee Recruitment Events (VA-TRE) program video focusing on Health Professions Trainees and featuring Jessica Pierce, VHA Program Manager and Michael Owens, VHA Program Specialist.

}

MSEP program video featuring Tracey Therit, VA’s chief human capital officer, uploaded to VACareers.VA.gov.

Events In-Person Events Overview VA Careers attended eight in-person events during FY20. Event support included development of event marketing plans, creation and distribution of pre- and postevent GovDelivery emails, paid digital marketing, development of promotional blog posts and social media promotion on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. All in-person events and accompanying support took place during the first quarter. By FY20-Q2, all in-person events VA Careers planned to attend had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Developed and executed event marketing plans for eight in-person events throughout the country.

[

Designed a comprehensive Event Guide to provide guidelines and information to recruiters and other VA employees who wish to attend a virtual or in-person event.

Fiscal 2020 Results In-Person Event Summary Total Events on Calendar

Total Events on Calendar

Total Event Marketing Plans Created

Total Event Social Media Posts

Total ATS Leads*

293

Total ATS Applications

*ATS Leads are defined as leads recorded in the Ki Applicant Tracking System. These differ from â&#x20AC;&#x153;potential candidates,â&#x20AC;? which the Event Program defines as the number of attendees who visit the VA booth.

Conference Title

Target Audience

Media Cost

Impressions

Psych Congress (Oct. 3-6)

Mental health clinicians

$73.00

American Society of Anesthesiologists (Oct. 19-23)

Anesthesiologists

$131.00

CHEST (Oct. 19-23)

Chest physicians

$109.00

OMED (Oct. 25-30)

Osteopaths

$142.00

American College of Gastroenterology (Oct. 25-30)

Gastroenterologists

$322.00

American College of Emergency Physicians (Oct. 2730)

Emergency medicine physicians

$80.00

Association of American Medical Colleges (Nov. 8-12)

Physicians

$180.00

AMSUS (Dec. 2-6)

Physicians, Surgeons

$116.00

Virtual Events Overview With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual events became more important than ever as a means of engaging potential candidates and building awareness of VA as an employer of choice. VA Careers implemented a weekly VA Careers Virtual Open House series on the Brazen platform. The series took place every Wednesday at 12 noon ET and was promoted through social media and the VA Careers Event Calendar. All CareerMD events were also moved to a virtual format after Q1.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Hosted seven virtual career fairs through Brazen, four of which were part of the VA Careers Virtual Open House series.

[

Supported event marketing, including working with hiring managers to build the event shell in Brazen, coordinating training sessions, promoting the event through social media, paid advertising and GovDelivery, and providing live tech support/ troubleshooting during each event.

Fiscal 2020 Results

Virtual Events Summary Total CareerMD Events

183

Total Brazen Events

Total Event Marketing Plans Created

Total Event Social Media Posted

Total Brazen Candidate Registrations

292

Total Brazen Chats Completed

191

Production Overview An integrated creative strategy, execution and production process is vital to the success of the national recruitment marketing plan. VA Careers understands that creative executions must resonate with target audiences and be integrated by messaging and calls to action across collateral and platforms. We integrate design into every aspect of recruitment marketing and communications planning, resulting in collateral that furthers engagement. Our creative strategy, execution and production for national recruitment marketing campaigns is informed by evaluating the full range of tools available, including traditional print products (fact sheets, brochures, presentations, toolkits), web-based products (banners, digital ads, e-newsletters, webcasts), articles, call scripts, social media and video (HD and SD). As a result, we create occupationally, demographically and regionally diverse advertisements and graphics to ensure that there is a wide variety of creative to use for each marketing effort. For each marketing effort, we collaborated with VHA WMC using cyclical review sessions to outline creative products, ensuring requirements were met and avoiding the risk of costly do-overs. For repeatable processes, such as creative design initiatives that were updated monthly (e.g., social media templates), we created standard operating procedures to easily capture requirements, imagery needs and creative look and feel.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Generated creative materials for campaign use including social media images, digital programmatic content and videos, flyers and brochures.

[

Developed templated imagery for events, specific campaigns (e.g., Year of the Nurse/Nurses Week, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Talk About It Tuesdayâ&#x20AC;?) and blogs.

[

Ensured all materials were Section 508 compliant, used web-safe fonts, had easy-to-read font sizes, and had appropriate image and video quality resolution.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Disseminated monthly VA Careers Connection newsletters to internal and external audiences.

[

Generated an up-to-date suite of materials for VA Careers Live video campaign, including social media images, event images and in-video-use graphic cards.

[

Created approximately 75 custom social media images a month for placement across four platforms.

[

Created custom social media images for the Virtual Events Program.

[

Updated the Total Rewards Physician brochure and scholarship flyers (NNEI, VANEEP, EISP).

[

Designed and developed WRRS brochure, Virtual Hiring and Recruitment Event guide, Journey of a Job flyer and Total Rewards Psychology brochure.

VA Recruiter’s Toolkit and Recruiters’ Resource

VA Careers Website

Overview

The VA Recruiter’s Toolkit is a one-stop shop for recruitment materials including VA-branded advertisements, banners, brochures, flyers, public service announcements and more featuring VA employees doing what they do best: serving and caring for the nation’s Veterans.

The team maintained and improved the functionality of VACareers.VA.gov throughout FY20. The site, which promotes VA as an employer of choice and serves as a hub for information on various career paths, continued to be an instrumental tool in engaging candidates and driving applications.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights

[

Migrated content from VA Pulse to the Recruiter’s Toolkit, including photos, videos, social media posts and toolkits.

[

Performed audit of site and made recommendation to move content to the Recruiters’ Resource page on VA’s SharePoint.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

[

Supported development of 42 pieces of customized collateral developed using AdCreator. Uploaded 55 events to and maintained the events calendar, which lists all national and local sessions, to the VA Careers website.

[

Created, built and launched internal search function that offers users an easier way to find content.

[

Added a new “About Us” page to better promote and provide links to VHA, VBA and NCA.

[

Translated and launched a new version of the homepage for Spanish speakers.

[

Updated homepage images to better reflect patient care during COVID-19.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Increased website views and referrals. Google Analytics reported 6,328,973 user visits to VACareers. VA.gov during the year. There were 29,388,973 referrals from VACareers.VA.gov to USAJobs.

[

Paid search consistently drove traffic to the VA Careers website throughout the fiscal year. It was the largest source of traffic in FY20, followed by referrals, then digital display and video.

[

VA Careers consistently ranked in the top 15 of user referrals to USAJobs.

Recruiter Training Overview Recruiter training helps advance organizational productivity, efficiency and quality by improving stakeholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skills, capabilities and performance in relation to specific business goals, position requirements, change imperatives or identified deficiencies. For the recruiters to be effective, they must understand how to correctly use available tools and resources to maximize return on investment. Through training and effective knowledge sharing, recruiters can promote current best practices, amplifying message resonance and reach. VA Careers reviewed performance reporting to identify job boards and resources that were underutilized or underperforming. Based on findings, we developed best practices and refresher trainings for key target audiences which we shared during recurring VHA Strategic Marketing and Advertising Recruitment Team (SMART) Committee and COE meetings.

Fiscal 2020 Highlights [

Participated in SMART committee meetings and developed and disseminated a survey to understand recruiterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s preferred job boards and resources.

[

Coordinated demonstration of virtual career fair (VCF) technology prior to each of the seven career fairs.

[

Rolled out COE-focused strategy to help ensure recruiters understand available job boards and resources.

[

Facilitated conference calls with VA representatives during each of the seven VCFs. During these calls, we addressed questions and resolved technical errors.

[

Facilitated communications with recruiters about Doximity usage and provided guidance on how to effectively use DocMails.

[

Sent out quarterly Velocity Resource Group requests and follow up reminders asking for projects.

[

Sent out weekly reminders to recruiters with links to biweekly live group training on Brazen platform.

Fiscal 2020 Results [

Conducted seven virtual career fairs through Brazen.

[

Partnered with Velocity Resource Group to provide candidate sourcing and recruiter support for approximately 50 hard-to-fill vacancies.

[

Received feedback from 14 recruiters on the Recruiter Tool and Job Board Survey. This feedback informed strategy and media buys for FY20.

Leads Report Overview We must evaluate the ability of the VA Careersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; marketing and advertising strategy to generate leads and high-quality hires. This evaluation is performed by reporting on the recruitment funnel results from all marketing efforts. As recruits exit candidacy and convert to leads and applicants, they are manually recorded in the Kontact Intelligence (Ki) Applicant Tracking System (ATS). VA Careers reviews the data entered to evaluate overall program performance and assess if marketing and media buy goals are being achieved. This effort is conducted on a monthly basis and informs VA if the recruitment goals are being met while providing the macro and micro ROI analysis of tactical efforts. Overall, this evaluation delivers actionable insights where VA Careers can repeat successful tactics and reduce the cost per hire.

FY20 Ki ATS Lead and Applicant Data Entry Executive Summary FY20

Leads

Applicants

1,014

-41%

557

-56%

55%

-26%

2,148

+112%

2,003

+260%

93%

+69%

3,975

+85%

3,867

+93%

97%

+4%

893

-78%

384

-90%

43%

-56%

TOTAL

8,030

+50%

6,811

+93%

85%

+29%

FY20 Ki ATS Lead and Applicant Data Entry by Procurement Source Ki ATS Lead Procurement Data Entry FY20

Total

VA Owned

Unknown

Media Buys

Referral

Event

Online

OPM

1,014

227

356

268

2,148

1,343

376

297

3,975

1,951

1,112

346

225

255

893

117

387

304

TOTAL

8,030

3,499

2,102

1,303

412

363

291

CHANGE

+50%

+423%

+89%

-41%

+48%

-52%

+22%

-24%

Online

OPM

Ki ATS Lead Applicant Procurement Data Entry FY20

TOTAL

VA Owned

Unknown

Media Buys

Referral

Event

557

117

298

2,003

1,483

174

230

3,867

2,214

812

258

232

279

384

221

TOTAL

6,811

3,801

1,192

1,007

371

306

CHANGE

+93%

+710%

+100%

-48%

+61%

+54%

+63%

-27%

[

Leads and applicants: VA Careers focused on evaluating the recruitment marketing and advertising program efforts by the percent of leads that converted to applicants. }

Lead procurement data entry increased by 50% from FY19.

}

Applicant procurement data entry increased by 93% from FY19.

}

The most successful procurement tactic of FY20 was the Ki ATS hyperlinks on the VACareers.VA.gov web banner during Operation COVID-19.

VA Careers Contract Lifetime Lead-to-Applicant Conversion Over Time

FY19 (BASE YEAR)

[

Lead-to-applicant conversion rate: Rather than oversaturating the top of the recruitment funnel, VA Careers procurement marketing focused on candidate quality, where a higher percentage of Ki ATS leads converted to applicants. }

[

VA Careers FY20 candidate quality resulted in 85% lead-to-applicant conversion.

Return on investment (ROI): To facilitate ROI for recruitment marketing tactics, leads are categorized by procurement source. This allows for data analysis and actionable insights where VA Careers can repeat successful tactics, while reducing the cost per hire. Average cost per lead in FY20: $560.07. }

FY20 (OY1)

[

Media buy results and trends: As candidates are procured from media buy vendors, recruiters manually enter them into Ki ATS and the candidate becomes a lead. FY20 media buy procurement decreased by approximately 45% in both leads and applicants. This result could be a correlation to COE Recruiter tool usage rates. }

Average cost per media buy lead in FY20: $825.93.

}

Average cost per media buy applicant in FY20: $1,068.70.

Average cost per applicant in FY20: $660.31.

FY20 Ki ATS Lead and Applicant Data Entry by Clinical Occupational Shortages

[

Events: Leads and applicants from events are entered into Ki ATS through several routes: }

Pre-event: VAntage Point VA Careers blog directing traffic to application options.

}

During-event: Recruiter entry from networking and event booth scanned-badge lists.

Post-event: Event-provided attendee lists and GovDelivery hyperlink to Ki ATS. VA Careers worked closely with the VA WMC recruiters to identify improvement opportunities in recording leads from events.

}

Events Ki ATS KPIs

Leads

Applicants

Conversion rate

In Person

271

11%

Regional

50%

Virtual

63%

TOTAL

363

24%

Due to external environmental impacts (COVID-19), in-person event tactics were discontinued beginning in FY20-Q2. In response, the program quickly shifted to a virtual event recruitment plan exclusively. Results highlighted a divergence in results: }

Event lead data entry performed highest at in-person events but decreased by 89% on average when shifting to only virtual events.

}

Event applicant data entry fluctuated but performed highest with virtual events. When comparing the running maximum results, virtual events sourced 103% more applicants than in-person events. Health eCareers virtual events partnering with high-profile medical associations was the catalyst for applicant procurement.

}

Results should be tested when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted to understand if trends are isolated to time periods with strict social distancing measures nationwide.

Referrals: Trends in referral recruitment data continued from FY19, highlighting that the procurement source consistently delivers high-quality applicants. }

Internal referrals and COVID-19: Internal referrals increased substantially when national media outlets included Veterans Affairs in narratives discussing COVID-19. Success could be replicated by capitalizing on employeepreferences for campaigns that promote positive emotions surrounding patriotism, national unity and appreciation for Veterans.

}

Internal referral medical specialties: The majority of FY20 internal referral success highlighted that target audiences responded by medical specialty, rather than COE team. The majority of internal referral applicants were primary care, technicians and psychologists.

Referral Ki ATS KPIs

Leads

Applicants

Conversion rate

Internal

159

152

96%

External

253

219

87%

TOTAL

412

371

90%

[

Media buys: Media buy procurement entered into Ki ATS was mainly derived from job boards, email campaigns, text message blasts and spotlight initiatives (Velocity Resource Group, Ki ATS Apply Link, etc.). Top-level funnel tactics (social media, blogs, PSA, etc.) are rarely captured in the bottom level of the recruitment funnel. }

FY20 media buy performance declined from FY19. It is possible the decline in Recruiter Toolkit usage correlated to the decline in media buy performance.

Contract Lifetime Media Buys Lead-to-Applicant Conversion Over Time

FY19 (BASE YEAR)

[

FY20 (OY1)

Social media: FY20 VA Careers social media messaging strategy goal to drive target audiences to application opportunities delivered higher-than-expected results. Social media is implemented as a top-level recruitment funnel tactic to inform and engage potential candidates. However, FY20 resulted in a notable increase from the procurement source. In Ki ATS data entry: }

Social media leads increased by 11% (200 total leads) from FY19.

}

Social media applicants increased by 35% (205 applicants) from FY19.

}

Social media delivered historically high-quality leads with a 103% lead-to-applicant conversion rate. Conversion rates only exceed 100% if leads are qualified for more than one position.

SM Ki ATS KPIs

Leads

Applicants

Conversion rate

155

160

103%

Facebook

103%

Twitter

100%

Instagram

Input Required

88%

TOTAL

200

205

103%

[

VA owned sources: The Ki ATS direct hyperlink on the VA Careers web banner was the most successful tactic implemented during the program lifetime in quantity and quality. This marketing effort accounted for 36% of total contract year leads and 47% of total contract year applicants.

Unknown leads and applicants: Data entry margin of error continued to impact VA Careers Ki ATS lead and applicant analysis in FY20. Unknown leads accounted for 26% of total FY20 Ki ATS data entry. Conducting a monthly data entry audit by COE team and VRC to amend data sources might decrease the margin of error.

VA Owned Ki ATS KPIs

Leads

Applicants

Conversion rate

Websites

359

318

89%

Programs

268

256

96%

Ki ATS Hyperlink

2,861

3,227

113%

TOTAL

3,499

3,801

109%

Unknown Ki ATS KPIs

Leads

Applicants

Conversion rate

Blank

1,043

540

52%

Applied Online (missing source)

168

110

65%

Incomplete Data Entry

858

529

62%

Unknown Source

40%

TOTAL

2,102

3,801

57%

Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Flyer

Articles inside

Events

Executive Summary