CNC Operators recruitment campaign for GKN Aerospace
CASE STUDY
The Challenge:
GKN Aerospace’s Landing Gear manufacturing facility in Papendrecht, Netherlands faced an urgent need to recruit around 15 CNC Operators for milling and turning roles, a critical shortage within Defence production.
The challenge was clear: over 1,500 similar vacancies existed across the region, with a limited talent pool and a housing shortage complicating relocation. Candidates were highly skilled, typically aged 35-50, often with families, making international relocation even more difficult.
Despite these hurdles, the roles offered state-of-the-art aerospace technology, career progression opportunities, a pristine working environment, and in a country that offered a good standard of living, positioning GKN as an employer worth moving for.
The Solution:
To attract experienced CNC Operators from across Europe, Dawson Walker devise an AI-driven recruitment solution enabling hyper-targeted, localized campaigns across key markets where relocating is an interesting offer:
- Portugal,
- Czech Republic,
- Poland,
- Romania,
- and Hungary.
Dawson Walker developed a creative concept built around GKN Aerospace’s three EVP pillars:
- People - the benefits of relocating for families and life in Papendrecht;
- Planet - contributing to a safer world through aerospace innovation;
- Progress - advancing careers at the forefront of precision technology.
Tailored messaging under these themes engaged audiences’ real motivations, optimized in real time across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google Ads.
The Result:
The campaign delivered strong results across Eastern Europe, using an AI-driven, multi-channel strategy to reach skilled CNC Operators.
Channels
- YouTube was the top performer, achieving the best cost-per-click and click-through rate,
- Facebook provided reliable reach
- Search effectively converted awareness into applications
Countries
- Romania led performance with 54.5% clicks, 1.24% CTR
- Poland 20% click, 0.70% CTR
- Hungary 16.7% clicks, 0.64% CTR
- Czech Republic 0.50% CTR due to tighter labour market and differing online habits
Recommendation
Overall, the campaign showed that video-led, localised content drives the best engagement, with recommendations to expand YouTube, maintain Facebook as a secondary channel, and use Instagram, Display, and TikTok for retargeting and creative testing.
