University of the Sunshine Coast

UniSC is known for its dynamic and exciting culture and brand, and yet when it came to its brand as an employer, this was largely uncharted.

The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) is a young, vibrant and ambitious university based in Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. The university is driven by an unwavering belief that community and culture is just as important as a world-class education, delivered by world-class educators.

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As a young university, UniSC isn’t confined by the red tape found inside sandstone institutions and the organisation actively rejects stale traditions or phrases like “That’s the way we’ve always done it”.

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Kristie immediately felt like exsona was the right fit for UniSC.

The challenge

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As a rapidly growing organisation, amid industry talent shortages, and with the ever present threat that staff could go elsewhere, the university realised it needed to focus on its employer brand.

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According to Kristie Husk, Talent Acquisition Manager at UniSC, attracting and retaining talent was a significant challenge.

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“One of the biggest issues is attracting candidates that are not only appropriate and relevant for roles, but also aligned to our brand, vision, ambitions and values.”

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“As a regional university, there are some complexities that bigger universities don't necessarily experience in regard to attracting people to move to the region.”

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Further compounding the problem are industry-wide talent shortages in the post-pandemic market.

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“Previously for more niche academic roles we were able to look at the international market. We had a much more global-based talent pool than what we have domestically. That has shifted significantly.”

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“In the local market, the majority of higher education providers have the same sorts of benefits as us such as higher superannuation, reduced working hours, work-life balance, career progression and stability. What we needed to unveil was what makes us quintessentially different and why people choose to work at UniSC over other universities.”

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In a competitive talent market, it was essential that UniSC stand out. UniSC partnered with us to develop a unique and attractive employee value proposition (EVP) and employer brand to help articulate and reinforce what makes working at the university so great. Having just completed an exciting brand refresh, the opportunity to review and design an effective EVP at UniSC was timely.

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How we helped

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Our founder Ryan McGrory and partner Clint Strahan took the lead on this project. They’re both based on the Sunshine Coast - in fact Ryan is literally located next door to the campus - so they were really familiar with the challenger brand. Ryan had also attended the university several years back, so knew about the university’s unique culture. Ryan and Clint brought 25 years of combined experience working in the employee engagement and people space to this project.

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Kristie immediately felt like exsona was the right fit for UniSC.

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“Ryan, as a former head of employee experience and Clint as a former head of talent acquisition, really understood what we were trying to do. The other consultancy that we were talking to were a group of marketers. They really understood marketing, but they didn't get the struggles of being a people and culture department. Ryan and Clint spoke our language and understood our unique talent acquisition challenges.”

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We would go on to design a four stage process to deliver the UniSC EVP:

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Stage 1: Discovery

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We started with a gap analysis where we audited UniSC’s existing communications such as the careers website, job ads and candidate communications to see what messaging was used. It soon became apparent that while UniSC’s communications about its employer brand were underdeveloped, underutilised and ad hoc. Multiple narratives existed and the messaging wasn’t intentional. The goal became to create a consistent narrative around the employer brand.

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Our next challenge was to do a deep dive into what was attractive about working at the university through extensive research and consultation. We ran several focus groups with employees to find out what they loved most about working at the university and what attracted them in the first place. The workshops captured different cross sections of the university to ensure we were getting a broad picture of the workplace culture from different perspectives across departments, tenures and backgrounds.

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To contextualise our research, we developed four UniSC employee personas that characterise the EVP behaviours, expectations and experiences for new starters, senior leaders, professionals and academics.

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At the same time we worked closely with the HR team to get their view on the culture as well as examine the market and competitors, and identify what candidates in the industry are looking for. It was important to line up both elements to maximise the efficacy of the EVP.

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Kristie really appreciated exsona’s research-based and tailored approach.

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“They really took the time to get to know us. We didn’t want a cookie cutter solution, we wanted something that was really going to define the essence of UniSC. They got that, and they got it early.”

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Stage 2: Development

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At the discovery stage, several broad themes emerged which would go on to inform the EVP. This included how the UniSC company culture wasn’t bureaucratic, that people had great relationships with their colleagues and bosses, and that the environment was very friendly where people would always say hello. These findings were crystallised into what would eventually become the EVP.

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At the heart of the EVP is the EVP statement:

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Community focus, global impact

Our people and communities are at the centre of everything we do. We’re not big, but we do big things and have a real impact.

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To support the EVP statement are three pillars which encapsulate UniSC’s approach to creating a workplace that is both fulfilling and rewarding:

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Do work that matters

Connect with great people

Contribute to the journey

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Additionally, the EVP was crafted to include the ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘how’ behind the new UniSC brand comprising the purpose, vision, mission, objectives, key segments, brand personality, brand DNA, narratives and benefits (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1 - EVP

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To support the EVP, we also developed an EVP Playbook - an easily digestible guide to the EVP containing key talking points and practical recommendations for how to best represent the EVP in written and verbal communication.

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In addition to the EVP we also developed brand guidelines and commenced work on various brand assets.

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Stage 3: Design

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From the outset we set out to deliver a practical suite of solutions to reinforce the EVP. That meant defining the EVP but also implementing it across several channels via the development of several brand assets. This was a huge benefit for Kristie and the team.

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“What I really wanted out of this project was collateral - tangible items we could roll out. My biggest concern, being a regional university, was that we’re super lean on the ground. We don't have a lot of staff to implement things. I was terrified of receiving a strategy document, and then not knowing what to do with it. exsona handled everything end-to-end for us. Nothing was too much trouble. They were also super consultative about the deliverables, always taking on feedback and remaining agile in their approach.”

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Key deliverables included:

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Revision to UniSC careers website content and design
Development of six career videos including interviewing employees, video direction, video briefing
Overseeing photography (50 images) including photography briefing
Content strategy, calendar and 12-months worth of content across multiple channels
Social media templates
Job ad templates
Candidate communications
Yammer communications
Social media guide
Candidate experience surveys

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We project managed the delivery of all brand assets, mapped against the messaging from the EVP and the branding from the brand guidelines.

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Stage 4: Deliver

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The final stage involved rolling out the EVP and brand assets, and embedding the EVP into practices and processes. We developed the rollout plan, coordinated a handover with the team and supported the launch.

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The goal was to arm UniSC with everything they could possibly need to successfully launch and embed the EVP, instead of handing them a document and walking away.

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The results

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Following a comprehensive process, the EVP was presented in September 2023 and was very well received. Kristie noted that the feedback to date has been extremely positive to date.

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“When we presented the EVP to the team there were smiles and goosebumps in spades! It really resonated.”

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The EVP officially launch in March 2024. Once the EVP has been in the market for six months, several key metrics will be measured to assess the effectiveness of the EVP including quality of candidates applying for roles, staff retention, hits to the careers website and LinkedIn.

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The working relationship

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Ryan, Clint and Kristie worked extremely closely throughout the project. They had a great rapport and shared enthusiasm for the project. The team held weekly meetings to ensure that Kristie was up-to-date on all aspects of the project.

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Reflecting on the working relationship, Kristie said, “Ryan and Clint were super down to earth. They were really easy to talk to and really easy to work with. I felt that they were always accessible. They were always either a phone call, text message or email away.”

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“There were never roadblocks along the way. It was always the approach of ‘how do we figure this out and come to some sort of outcome?’”

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Kristie is looking forward to working with exsona again soon.

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“I absolutely wouldn't hesitate going back to them again. I have actually recommended them already to other people within my network. I think they're phenomenal. I think they've got such a strong path ahead of them!”

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It was a pleasure working with UniSC and we can’t wait to see the EVP in action!

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University of the Sunshine Coast

UniSC is known for its dynamic and exciting culture and brand, and yet when it came to its brand as an employer, this was largely uncharted.

Kristie immediately felt like exsona was the right fit for UniSC.

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