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How a Kidney Care Company Drove 42% More Job Applications from LinkedIn

The steps DaVita took to build a healthy social media recruiting strategy using Hootsuite Amplify

  • 24K
    shares
  • $1.5M+
    in equivalent ad value
  • 136%
    increase in applicants coming from LinkedIn on their career site

Seeking the best people to provide the best patient care

DaVita is a healthcare company focused on caring for patients throughout the full spectrum of kidney disease. With roughly 2,700 centers in the US and hundreds more across 10 countries, DaVita treats over 200,000 patients internationally. They do this with the support of over 60,000 dedicated employees—or ‘teammates,’ as they’re called within the organization. 

To provide the level of care DaVita promises its patients, they know it’s crucial to have the right people in place, explains Katherine Wright, Director of Recruitment Marketing and Employer Brand at DaVita. 

“The patient’s experience is directly tied to the type of teammate that we’ve hired,” she says. “So if we want to make sure our patients have the experience they deserve, we have to hire the right type of candidate.”

But hiring patient care professionals, especially nurses, is not easy. Labor markets are increasingly competitive. Budgets are getting tighter. 

Faced with these challenges, how could DaVita attract the right people?

The Strategy

Products used in this study

Hootsuite Amplify
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Inspiring teammates to share the DaVita story

While social media is typically the domain of marketing, and recruitment usually belongs to HR, DaVita's teams realized their approach would be stronger and more effective if they collaborated.

First, the teams identified that the best way to attract nurses and patient care professionals is by showing them how great it is to work at DaVita. They highlighted this through four content pillars: innovation, a supportive culture, great benefits, and plenty of career opportunities. 

They also knew that talking about themselves on branded social accounts wasn’t going to get them the results they needed, explains David Tauchen, Director of Communications, Owned Content, Social Media for DaVita.

“Research has shown us that voices of individuals are trusted far more than brand voices,” he says.

By empowering their teammates to share personal work experiences, DaVita can tell the real story: that their people are passionate about patient care. Leveraging their employees’ networks also helps their stories reach a wider audience. Every post gets shared by hundreds of teammates to their own networks. 

But, with nearly 200 talent acquisition partners and ambassadors involved, keeping a unified narrative was going to be a challenge. And that’s not to mention all the compliance and brand safety risks.

Providing ambassadors with compelling content to share

For this strategy to succeed, the teams identified that they needed an easy and scalable way for their ambassadors to share pre-approved, brand-safe content.

Enter Hootsuite Amplify, an employee advocacy platform that makes it easy for employees to safely share company social media posts, boost brand awareness, and expand reach. Kristin Landreth, DaVita’s Employment Brand Content Manager, explains how simplicity was key to adoption.

“Once we write the stories and send to the Amplify platform, our talent acquisition teammates can simply choose the stories they are inclined to share and post on their social media channels,” she says. “They don’t need to worry if it’s on-brand or if it’s approved—it’s all safe content to use.”

Of course, making it easy to use for teammates is just one aspect. It was just as important to make sure that the content was compelling enough to share.

For Jenny Nailling, Communications Manager at DaVita, it was all about sharing inspiring content focused on specific teammates and how the organization helped them build their careers.

Landreth adds, “We want to share the authentic story of DaVita and demonstrate what life could look like as a DaVita teammate.”

Now, DaVita has 200 ambassadors across teams sharing their success stories on social media. And through Hootsuite Amplify, those stories reach a wider audience of potential recruits—seamlessly and safely.

The Result

Between inspiring stories and the ease of sharing them, it’s no surprise that DaVita found success with their Hootsuite Amplify program.

  • Over 24,000 shares

  • Over $1.5M in equivalent ad value

  • 136% increase in traffic coming from LinkedIn on their career site

  • 27% YoY increase in job applications from social media

  • 80% sustained adoption rate of the program

According to Wright, the quality of traffic coming to DaVita’s career website is also much higher. But what’s been most impressive is how outcomes of the program can be directly tied to the Recruitment team’s strategic goals.

It’s been so successful that DaVita is looking into ramping up the program so they can get more ambassadors on board, says Landreth.

“We want to hire teammates that truly care—who want to build relationships and trust with our patients. Living with chronic kidney disease can be very challenging and frightening for patients,” she says. “We want to be sure that we attract nurses who share the desire to make a difference—whose passion is our purpose.” 

With the help of Hootsuite Amplify, DaVita—and their patients—can rest easy.

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We want to hire teammates that truly care—who want to build relationships and trust with our patients. Living with chronic kidney disease can be very challenging and frightening for patients, we want to be sure that we attract nurses who share the desire to make a difference—whose passion is our purpose.”
Kristin Landreth
Employment Brand Content Manager
DaVita