Earning any recruitment awards demonstrates your attractiveness as both a recruiter for clients and candidates but ultimately as an employer. It shows the market that you invest in; your team, technology and service and in all the right ways.
Beyond enticing new recruitment talent into your businesses winning a recruitment award means existing staff feel greater loyalty and increased motivation when your, and ultimately their, activities are deemed praiseworthy by outside bodies!
Clearly then, entering awards is a worthwhile pursuit. However, it does require an investment of time that can appear wasteful if you fall short of what judges want in recruitment award entries.
So, here are some insights on how to win a recruitment award.
A culture (reality) check
Ways to be successful in awards for recruitment start with making sure that reality matches any claims you intend to make! A thorough review of you, your systems and policies make sense. Including checking off whether you have a culture that meets contemporary values, such as inclusivity, equality and emotionally intelligent leadership. Also, how do your recruitment record and HR culture stack up when compared to your competition?
This is like a ‘brand audit’, to help you find what aspects are noteworthy, and therefore award-worthy. After that, there are practical things that increase your chance of winning recruitment awards.
Invest in prep
First, take time to thoroughly read and consider the questions and requirements of the award initiative. Many of the recruitment awards we contacted said often “they just didn’t answer the question”. Skipping over the instructions to get to the fun stuff is unwise! Create a drilled down profile of what the judges are likely to be looking for. Researching past winners helps with this. Create a list of ‘keywords’ that frame the award category descriptions.
Be succinct and keep to the limit
If your successes are something you’re proud of, it can be easy to get rather poetic and prolific in your prose. When entering awards, you need to focus on exactly what the judges are looking for, not what you want to say! Keep to the word limit and stick to the point. That way the judges can see at a glance that you match their ideal criteria.
Just because these are potential knowledgeable industry insiders, don’t be tempted to throw in lots of jargon and ‘showboating’ comments.
Provide strong evidence
You need to substantiate any claims you make when entering recruitment award schemes. This requires you to add in relevant statistics and relevant supporting documentation. Use case studies, images and any other material that illustrate the relevant ‘selling points’. Of course, any testimonials or third-party assessments of your ability will also carry considerable weight.
Keep it real
Keeping the above in mind, there is still a lot of merit in showing your genuine passion and ability in your field. Demonstrate you truly care about the staff, clients and candidates by using persuasive language in your recruitment award entry. By humanising your entry, you show your genuine empathy which could be exactly what’s needed to help you stand out for the crowd.
Last but *the ultimate* recruitment awards tip
Leave enough time before the submission deadline to check your entry with a clear head – or using the proofreading skills of a colleague.
One of the great spinoffs from all this effort is that your award entry could be tweaked for future opportunities or amended to become content for; websites, social media posts and blogs. So, you are already a winner!
Navado Talent is a Bristol Rec2Rec serving all recruitment markets across the UK and covering both 180 and 360 recruitment jobs right up to leadership roles. Whether you're looking for a Bristol rec2rec to help you recruit for your team or looking for your next recruitment job Navado need's to be your first call.
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