Blog Content
Recruitment Leaders want to inject more value into their staffing companies, and often recruitment awards are seen as an obvious tactic. We have 9 tips to share to help you win a recruitment award.
Winning a recruitment award can increase the value of your business by 37%.
Plus they can make your business attractive to your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues).
I have been a judge for some of the best recruitment awards. My experience of recruiting awards led me to create a valuable Recruitment Awards Toolkit full of practical tips to help you win over the judges.
I want to share my insights whilst being a judge, sharing time with other judges, and being on panels interviewing recruitment leaders.
What Judges Say and Think Whilst Judging Recruitment Awards
Take note of the list below. It gives some insight into what you need to do with your award entries to make them at least become shortlisted.
I like the way they’ve structured this – it makes it easier to read
This has caught my attention
The client testimonial is anonymous!
Where are the financials?
This is different and interesting
This is difficult to read
Nice and succinct case study
Did anyone actually proof read this?
Paying the minimum wage – when did this become award-winning?
I like the way they seem to be really proud of what they’ve done
There’s quite a lot here that you would hope that everyone does…
I like how they have got their internal stakeholders testifying
This one is really personal – I like how they are telling me about the individuals in the business
My 9 Tips to Help You Craft a Winning Recruitment Award Entry
Let me summarise some key rules for recruitment award submissions:
Don’t use only 800 words when you are given 1000 words, unless you totally nail it.
Don't leave it to your marketing department to draft your entry. An awards entry is a business case for winning, so the business needs to be involved, especially the stakeholders.
Don't turn your submission into a clickfest with lots of links!
Be passionate and real. Be proud. A passionate entry is more compelling than one simply based on facts.
Stick to sanity stats (sales, speed, cost, growth) and if you need to add vanity stats (web clicks, social media engagement), show how the vanity translated into sanity.
If you can, format it cleverly and ensure accessible. Make it an engaging read.
Read the question, and answer it. Then once you've answered it, read the question again and critically and coldly judge your answer.
If you are asked to provide financials, add them. I've seen submissions thrown out when these vital facts are missing or glossed over.
If you say you have improved, increased, decreased, reduced, be sure to evidence these statements with facts and / or testimonials.
The ONE Recruitment Award that Every Recruiter Needs to Win
And a bonus tip for recruiters who want to use awards to improve their business. Focus on the awards that your candidate and client communities value. Read my blog "How to Use Awards for Sourcing and Selling" for tips on generating ROI. I also talk about how to find awards that could add the most value to your business. (Hint - they are NOT the usual recruitment awards...)
Good luck!
Recruitment Training
We are passionate about training recruiters. We deliver the best Recruitment Training through live webinars and our online training platform Recruitment HIIT.
Our recruitment training helps new and experienced recruiters qualify their jobs, speedily source and advertise, and improve their screening. It boosts CV to interview ratios, whilst giving great tips to prevent counter offers, and secure the placement and beyond.
Plus, if you have Bullhorn, Analytics, Automation, SourceBreaker, LinkedIn, Calendly, Teams, Daxtra, Broadbean, idibu, Hinterview, Paiger, Adapt, and more... we train on those too!
TRY HIIT FREE HERE
Extra Content
Blog Image
Extra Content 2
media centre
Read more-
Lisa Jones
Blog
Tired of Unsubscribes? 5 Email Tips Every Recruiter Should Know
Recruiters, marketers, automators... If you’re running regular email campaigns to candidates or clients, with tech like Bullhorn Automation, unsubscribes are either a fact of life or something you dread, and may even be the reason you are not ambitious enough with your outreach.Through the free consultation calls I have with recruiter / leaders / automators who have Bullhorn, I’ve been finding myself talking a lot about managing recruitment campaign outputs, and dreaded unsubscribes.Unsubscribes can feel like a blow to your efforts, but there are ways to prevent them which I'll explore below.💡Be sure to also read my other blog: How Recruiters Can Turn Bounces and Unsubscribes into $£€- so that when you get an unsubscribe or hard bounce, you could actually create more recruitment opportunities.5 Ways to Reduce Your Candidates and Clients from UnsubscribingI've got lots of tips to share, that we coach in our Automation Buddy programs, but here's 5 to get you started today.1️⃣Clean up / segment your data I guarantee you have data which you no longer need (old sectors / job titles you no longer recruit for).Perhaps the data you need isn't coded well enough for you to segment it, hence you risk hitting parts of your community with the wrong content.But, don't procrastinate over this - you don't need a 100% clean database to start a campaign, or to make an approach. Clean up some data, and hit it. Then move on to the next layer to attack.2️⃣Subject lines need to punch above their weightKeep them short and sweet, but personalised (about them, not you (or recruitment) and relevant to your community.Think "mobile first" and ensure that your subject line can actually be read on a mobile device. For example, the Mail app on iPhones displays up to 78 characters in the subject line area.Emojis can help you stand out in a big list of emails, too.3️⃣Content, creating contentment (not consternation)I'm still seeing way too much recruitment content online, and not enough sector-specific content form recruiters.I yawn at interview tips / what to wear to interviews etc... It works less well than content aimed at your sector and job titles.At a stretch "Interview tips for Accountants" is better than a more generic topic, but even so, if that's the best content you can create, you need to try harder.What tech does your community use? Find out and talk about it.How is AI / world events affecting them? Find out and talk about it.It's never been easier to find out more about what makes your community tick - ask them, ask Google, ask AI!4️⃣Formatting to attract attention (but be WCAG-aware)I recently spotted a recruitment campaign where the email content was centred throughout and black and white - very uninspiring, and actually quite difficult to engage with.In the very least breath your brand colours into your content and check WCAG guidelines to ensure that you're not inadvertently muting your content.If your community uses Instagram / Facebook etc... be sure that they expect your content to have a life beyond black and white copy. Colour, emojis, personality - shine!5️⃣"Pitch" the unsubscribeWhat does the unsubscribe footer in your mailers look like?Is it simply an invite to unsubscribe? Or have you pitched that if they do, they'll miss out on future helpful content, and life-changing jobs?I see way too many campaigns that look like the goal is to generate unsubscribes! Ironically the footer is often more engaging than the mailer itself."We're fixated on helping our teaching community stay up to speed with the best tips, tricks, and jobs. You can unsubscribe, but then you may miss your next best teaching hack, or career move"...is better than..."Unsubscribe".A great tip is to allow candidates and clients to "Update their Preferences" which can provide your community with a way to help you make ore relevant the communications you are sending to them and/or update you on what they do find interesting. This can be done within Bullhorn Automation and is a useful way to reduce the Unsubscribes.📍Final Thought: Create Recruitment Campaigns to Keep Your Community SubscribedYour data, message, design are crucial to keeping your community from opting out.By keeping your content relevant, valuable, and human—you’ll build a database that’s active, engaged, and ready to work with you.Want help building an automation and outreach strategy to keep your community of candidates and clients opted in? Let’s talk.I offer free consultations to help leaders / recruiters / automators unlock the power of their Bullhorn database and create opportunities .BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
-
Lisa Jones
Blog
How Recruiters Can Turn Bounces and Unsubscribes into $£€
Recruiters, marketers, automators... If you’re regularly emailing candidates or clients—especially using tools like Bullhorn Automation - you’ve likely become familiar with two things: unsubscribes and hard bounces.At first glance, they can feel like a blow to your efforts—but they’re not always what they seem. In fact, how you respond to them is where the real sourcing and sales opportunities lie.Through the free consultation calls I have with recruiters who have Bullhorn, a hot topic is unsubscribes and hard bounces. Neither outcome gives a nice fuzzy feeling. If someone unsubscribes it limits your chances of reaching out to them again.If you get a hard bounce, their email has failed or the server has blocked you.But rather than get frustrated, slowing down your marketing / automation efforts, get active and turn these apparent dead ends into business opportunities. I've got some tips to help you monetise the "no"!💡Be sure to also read my other blog: Tired of Unsubscribes? 5 Email Tips Every Recruiter Should Knowto help you reduce the volume of unsubscribes.Unsubscribes and Hard Bounces Aren’t Always the EndTake it from someone who sends regular campaigns with Bullhorn/Automation/Sales/Sourcing tips. Here’s what I’ve learned:When you start poking around a database that hasn’t been touched in a while, you need to plan for:Inevitable bad, dirty dataLow trust due to radio silence / low communication volumeBounces and unsubscribesSo:1️⃣ Don’t burn out your entire database all at once and overwhelm your recruiters with pointless "leads". A flood of bounces and unsubscribes is overwhelming—and tempting to ignore. Instead, work with your recruiters to identify the data that matters most (roles, skills, locations), so responses are relevant and recruiters engage.2️⃣ Stagger your outreach. A gradual send schedule helps you build a better picture of your data, keeps your sender reputation healthy, and gives you the time to review and action what’s coming back.3️⃣ Use and A/B testing to tell you what works (and what bombs).4️⃣Then, and this bit is crucial, have a battle plan to turn what seems like a "no" into an opportunity.Not Every Unsubscribe or Hard Bounce is Final🏴Unsubscribes: What we often see—especially in recruitment—is that many unsubscribes are "false flags". It’s not the person opting out; it’s often their old email being shut down or a system admin / manager clearing mailboxes.Often, that person hasn’t unsubscribed —they’ve moved to another company.⛔Hard bounces should be an opportunity to follow the follow the leaver to their new company - and rekindle a relationship.Instead of blindly trusting your email system, build a workflow to monetise the "no".Here’s how I manage unsubscribes at Barclay Jones:Two months after each mailer, I check the unsubscribes.I investigate if they’ve left the company or simply moved jobs.If they’ve moved, I update their details in the CRM and re-engage them.I do the same with hard bounces by checking LinkedIn and updating records.Recruiters can recover valuable contacts this way—some of those “dead” leads could be placements waiting to happen! 💸Campaign the Clean ~ Create the Opps!Treat every email/automation campaign not just as marketing—but as a data quality (and data wealth) activity.Hard bounces? Check if the contact has left.Unsubscribes? Investigate the source.Build this into your CRM workflows—it doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming.With the right process, they’re signals—not setbacks.Want help building an outreach and automation strategy to keep candidates and clients opted in?📅 Let’s talk!I offer free consultations to help leaders, recruiters, and automators unlock the power of their Bullhorn database.BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
-
Downloads
Your Recruitment Training Playbook
-
Lisa Jones
Webinar
Recruiter Productivity Series: Optimise Bullhorn Part 4 ~ Place Faster with Less Effort
-
Wayne Barclay
Webinar
Automation RoI Webinar Series: Unlock Bullhorn Part 4 ~ Place Faster and Easier
-
Wayne Barclay
Webinar
Automation RoI Webinar Series: Unlock Bullhorn Part 3 ~ Sell Faster and Easier
