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Recruitment gets new look, new lines

The Yukon wants you! And it's apparently going to get you with its new slogan and image. The Yukon Public Service Commission recently spent $76,000 on an initiative for employee recruitment.

The Yukon wants you!

And it’s apparently going to get you with its new slogan and image.

The Yukon Public Service Commission recently spent $76,000 on an initiative for employee recruitment.

Part of that budget covered a contract awarded to Midlyn Day, a Vancouver-based communications company.

It conducted background research through internal and external research groups “about what people in Whitehorse, for example, think about the government and working for the government and then they polled together our research,” said Martha Kenney, the Public Service Commission’s director of human resources.

Then, after an unknown amount of time brainstorming, the firm came up with the main tagline, “Comes with the territory.”

“We love our work and we know it shows in the creativity, quality of service and strategic thinking that shines through everything we do,” says the company’s website.

Curiously, that same slogan is used on Whitehorse’s online employment page.

“A rewarding career comes with the territory!” it reads.

The city’s been promising that since 2005, said city manager Dennis Shewfelt.

As of a few days ago, Yukon is using pretty much that same “creativity” and “strategic thinking” in its recruitment brochures and handouts, on the website and for internal employee communications.

The government hopes to attract prospective employees by proclaiming, “A wide-open career,”“A great job, a great place to live,” and “Doing what matters.”

Those are the three theme lines.

But the $76,000 initiative is about more than slogans.

“A slogan in and of itself does nothing,” said Kenney. “It’s the whole brand, the whole approach and the whole consistency. We just need to portray a modern, consistent image to attract people to come and work for us.”

So the government’s recruiting efforts have a whole new look, too.

“It’s not as if any one thing is going to attract people. It’s the whole image you portray to people, both inside and outside of your organization.”

To help the government’s job recruiters use the branding to its full potential, they created a 40-page brand book.

“It says what your tagline is, what suitable images would be, if job descriptions should be attached to the ads, how much information should go in,” explained Kenney.

Having a uniform style for recruitment will save the government money, she said.

“We believe there’s going to be significant cost savings by having developed one consistent approach because various departments are going out and getting a considerable amount of materials done and, each time they have to do those materials, decisions have to be made and a look pulled together.”

This new branding was needed because the territory has been having trouble with recruitment. It’s been a major issue for employers across the country, she said.

Other provinces have responded by creating these new looks and slogans.

Now Yukon is jumping on the brand bandwagon.

“Frankly, we have been a bit behind and so we’re just trying to get ourselves a professional, modern, co-ordinated approach.”

Contact Larissa Robyn Johnston at

larissaj@yukon-news.com