There’s no doubt that recruitment agencies are sitting on a wealth of important information, even if not all of them realise the full value of it. While recruiters will certainly be drawing on their own knowledge and the data in their CRM to help them source, shortlist, interview and place candidates, agencies will also benefit from sharing their understanding of the hiring landscape more widely. At BlueSky PR, we know that a great way for a business to position itself as an industry expert is by highlighting its unique insights into candidate and client behaviour. Here are our top tips for making the most of the information that you have.
Most recruiters will have read white papers – those useful reports that give detailed insight into particular trends or challenges, such as how to attract, retain and engage emerging talent. Agencies are in a position to produce and share their own, using the information that they already hold or are able to gather by talking to clients, candidates and their own internal team of specialists. For example, a legal recruitment consultancy could create a white paper which reports on the talent needs of its clients in different geographic regions.
If your agency places nurses and you see a news story which looks at talent shortages, you may find that you have some useful information for a journalist, such as the length of time it takes to fill a post or the ratio of positions to applicants. Be alert to opportunities to share your insight, and don’t be afraid to contact a journalist to offer them information. This is what PR teams do on a daily basis and it can often result in opportunities such as interviews or your agency being quoted in a follow-up article.
Don’t keep interesting stats to yourself - share them on social media! For example, if you’re finding that a growing number of candidates are asking about flexible working, can you create an infographic to show how many professionals are now saying that they’d prefer to work this way? Can you conduct quick polls and share the results? Another really easy way to draw attention to a stat is to include it as a footnote at the bottom of emails.
A great way to share news about a particular trend that your agency is seeing – such as a sudden rise in demand for a particular skills set – is through a press release sent to relevant publications. There is a knack to grabbing the attention of a busy journalist, however, so many businesses task press releases to their public relations team. Keep your PR agency aware of the trends you are noticing so that they can craft this into something that will pique the interest of the media.
Want to find out more about what we can do to share your insights and help position you as a thought-leader? Contact us today