One of the biggest fears most new challenge leaders face is recruitment. Whilst this is by far the most demanding element of your year as a challenge leader, it can also be the most rewarding. I'm hoping that by the end of this blog you will realise that, actually, recruitment can be one of the highlights of your Choose a Challenge experience.

Your role as a recruiter is fundamentally one of sales and, as with any sales role, trust is key. Whilst a quick post on Instagram with a cool photo of Kilimanjaro could attract attention, is it really going to convince students to part with a sizable chunk of their student loan to take on such a significant fundraising target? In my view, there are two key components to ensuring you build trust with someone considering your challenge. The first one and by far the most important is accountability. Put your money where your mouth is and advertise yourself! Stick your face on all the promo you can get your hands on and make sure people know you are the challenge leader. When people pay their registration fee, not only are they paying because they believe in themselves to reach their fundraising targets, but they believe you are going to be able to help them get there! It makes sense, then, that the next key component to building trust is being knowledgeable about your trip, and about Choose a Challenge. If you’re going to discuss the trip with potential signups, you’re going to need to know the basics. Familiarise yourself with the pricing scheme, some key highlights of your trip and you’ll be good to go!

In traditional recruitment, you would have been able to sit in a public space with banners and preach about what an amazing opportunity you’re offering passers-by, have a conversation with them and naturally build trust. The beauty of the Choose a Challenge system is that you don’t really need to sell the trip. You just need to sell your info meeting, where the amazing team at Choose a Challenge will run a deep-dive and Q&A to answer any of the burning questions your signups-to-be will no doubt have at this point. In an ideal world, this would have been the way I approached my own recruitment, but obviously, things were different this year.

While the COVID pandemic completely changed the way we recruited over the 2020/21 season, the key ideas really didn’t change that much. As I wasn’t able to sit outside of the university and shout at people, I instead made a quick video running through the basics in about 30 seconds. No doubt you’ll hear Choose a Challenge bang on about this ‘Elevator Pitch’ style, and for good reason! Getting the information across quickly and efficiently is vital especially if you advertise online, where people can get bored in the time it takes them to swipe onto the next post. I took my video and spammed it wherever I could, getting it into overheard pages and asking Instagram pages if they would also share it. The more people that hear your story, the more likely you are to find new signups. The key here is resilience and patience. Not everyone will say yes, but that’s fine! There are plenty of students to get through and not a huge amount of time to do it in.

Think outside the box! On a student campus, there are always 101 things trying to grab the attention of undergrads just trying to make it through their next lecture. If you’re going to be the one who gets them, you’ve got to make yourself stand out. Set up a ‘recruitment Tinder’ to try and find potential ‘matches’, plan a flash mob with your mates! Try and feature on the university gossip social media channel or even create a bedsheet banner!  The only limit really is your imagination. 

If you’re going to take anything away from this blog post, know that recruitment doesn’t have to be scary. In some ways, it was my favourite part of my Challenge Leader experience. From sneaking around the student village, putting up posters, to having those conversations and getting to know students, I have annoyed basically every Swansea-based Instagram or Facebook page with news of the trip. Have fun, be yourself and the signups will come.

Written by:

Kieran Burnie - Swansea EBC 2020/21 Challenge Leader