Can Warhammer Make You A Better Recruiter?
Warhammer is the refuge of nerds, beards and socially well-adapted people like me who love playing dice games and enjoy the inner peace that comes with painting a Space Marine.
Warhammer might be a nerd delight, but it is also one of the United Kingdom's biggest success stories in the last 40 years.
Its success is something that the UK should be proud of, a global exporter with unbeatable IP, that manufactures in a region UK city, that is still opening shops. It's popular that its HQ Warhammer World is Nottinghams' best-visited tourist attraction.
To give you an idea of how big Games Workshop was in 2023, the business had sales of £445 million compared to Arsenal Football Club with £446 million, which is pretty impressive. From a retail perspective, Waterstones the book store had a revenue of £400 million. It has the revenue of a Premiership football club and is bigger than the UK’s biggest bookshop chain. Not bad for nerds with toy soldiers.
So what can plastic soldiers, dice and nerds teach recruiters to make them better recruiters?
Let's dive in.
Games Workshop - Key Lessons
Own the Media
One of the most striking and interesting things about Games Workshop is that it “owns” the industry's biggest media outlet: White Dwarf. It is by far and away the biggest Wargaming and Modelling magazine in the UK and many other countries.
The entire magazine is full of articles about Warhammer. And fans pay for it.
On top of this, the biggest wargaming website on the internet is Warhammer Community, which publishes even more content.
On top of this, there is a range of social media accounts. All of this content is ‘useful’ it helps you paint better, learn the rules or tell interesting stories set in fantasy and Science fiction settings.
In short, Games Workshop/Warhammer dominates the content within the space creating an ecosystem that is self-fulling and promoting.
Key Takeaway: Recruiters can ‘own’ their media by blogging, vlogging, using social media and publishing. A recruitment agency is never going to be able to create a magazine as well read as White Dwarf, they however can create industry-leading content that helps them control their brand, educate their clients and candidates and take ownership.
Seek Multplie Sales Channels
Games Workshop uses multiple sales channels to get its product to market
Just a few of its sales channels are listed below:
Retail stores - owned and operated. Gaming and hobby stores - not owned by games workshop Retail stores - small range offering Own online website - selling director to consumer Other Gaming online stores - Scoail Media webstores like Tik Tok Large platform e-commerce websites - Amazon, eBay etc Hatchet publications - selling weekly collection sets Bookstores for their books Merchandise deals. Computer gaming deals. Other board game companies' tie-ins Mobile 3rd party games.
This list is not complete and is certainly not the end of the story.
This strategy of seeking multiple channels to the marketplace, layers with multiple product lines helps it achieve a startling level of sales.
Key Takeaway: Having more than one route to market is important. Just chasing advertised leads, or cold calling 20 clients a day every day is not going to grow and develop your business. You need multiple ways to engage and sell to your clients and candidates through different channels.
As recruitment is a service business, there is a different range of channels that you can work through. For instance, if you are an accountancy recruiter, why not find a local engineering recruiter and swap active leads for other disciplines?
Has multiple Product Lines
Games Workshop has numerous product lines that it can sell via its multiple sales channels.
It creates a range of Warhammer-inspired games. It published one of the most extensive science fiction libraries of books in the UK, if not the English-speaking world. It sells painting and hobby equipment. Apps. Merchandise. Warhammer World as a tourist destination. Events e.g. Warhammer tournament etc Hotel (coming soon)
The above list does not do it just as there is far too much to list. The diverse range of product lines gives fans the chance to buy and helps as a marketing tool bringing people into the hobby as well.
In short, the combination of multiple sales channels and multiple product lines creates a higher lifetime value for customers.
Key Takeaway: Having multiple layered revenue streams helps the business increase sales and fights feast and famine, which is a prevalent part of recruitment. Although no one is going to want to stay in a Recruitment hotel, what other revenue streams could your agency undertake? Could you offer HR consultancy? Payroll services? You will know your industry and client base. Offering different
Customers as evangelists
Users of Games Workshop products are evangelists. Trust me. The next time you speak to someone who is into Warhammer ask them why they are into it and let them talk, listen and look you are listening and you will not believe how animated they will be.
The customers form an army of loyal salespeople, promoting the good work of Games Workshop. Spreading the gospel of plastic soldiers and dice rolling verbally and via social media. Go on Instagram and search ‘Warhammer’ and you will be pleasantly surprised.
Key takeaway: Creating something that people will freely sell to other people in their own time is the holy grail of business and marketing. Recruitment is never going to achieve the levels that Games Workshop manage to get to. However, think about how you could develop a recruitment service that turns your candidates and clients into spokespeople.
In what ways could you give them a WOW service that makes them tell other people about you as a recruiter?
Retail Network as educators
The retail network of shops creates a sales channel, a hub for the hobby locally, both as a community and as a place of hobby education. The staff of the stores are generally hobby enthusiasts and can educate new customers into the hobby, helping them learn the rules, and teaching them how to assemble and paint the models.
This role helps bring new people into the hobby, make sales and form a pos
Key Takeaway: Become an educator in your industry. Helping your clients and candidates to learn is a great way to foster a sense of engagement and customer loyalty. It will also help you learn in the process.
Customers form a community
The customers of Games Workshop products form small local and national communities of players that help foster enjoyment of the products (which is good), facilitate customer retention, and increase lifetime customer value.
Key Takeaway: FOrming a community helps build bonds that bind people. How can you create a community as a recruitment agency?
The calming influence of painting
Painting Warhammer models is something that I find very therapeutic and calming. After an hour of painting little model space marines, I feel like a new refreshed person.
Destressing is very important for all people in their careers and home life. As the saying goes all work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy.
For me, the calming influence of painting arises from its ability to put you in the moment, the rest of the problems of life are washed away in a sea of reds, blues and greens. Your mind is just focused on the paint on your brush and the model in your hand.
For me, this has a large range of benefits including solving problems. It is always amazing how often a solution to a problem will arise out of nowhere after I have been painting. My personal belief is that being focused and in the moment allows the brain to work in the background solving problems and
Key Takeaway: Being stressed and focused just on work will at the end of the day, make you a less effective recruiter. Finding a way to destress will help you solve problems and be a better recruiter.
TL;DR
Here's a TL;DR for the article:
Warhammer's success offers valuable lessons for recruiters, such as owning your media, using multiple sales channels, diversifying product lines, and creating a strong customer community.
Warhammer enthusiasts act as passionate evangelists, a model that recruiters can emulate by delivering exceptional service. Additionally, destressing through hobbies like painting can make recruiters more effective.
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If you are interested in the world of Warhammer, I suggest visiting the Warhammer Community website if you want to get some models, might I suggest checking this out