An Introduction to Recruitment Advertising Agencies

Recruitment Advertising Agencies are often used by employers to look after recruitment advertising. But what exactly do they do and how useful are they in online recruitment?

If you have just one or two straightforward jobs to advertise and you are confident in your ability to choose the right job board or media to advertise on, then you will have little need for a Recruitment Advertising Agency.

However, if you have a more complex role, multiple roles to hire, a high volume campaign, or you are in need of more extensive recruitment advertising expertise, then using a Recruitment Advertising Agency might very well make sense for you. To get an idea of how they might help, let’s look at what Recruitment Advertising Agencies do for their clients.

Creating the job specification

Typically, and like all recruitment processes, Recruitment Advertising Agencies will start with the creation of a job specification. Pinning down the job specification is the single most important part of the entire recruitment process. It’s very hard to hire for a job if you don’t know what job your hiring for. The advertising agency will liaise with you in defining and creating an effective job specification.

Creating the ad copy and design

Once the job specification has been created, the Recruitment Advertising Agency will set about creating your ad and designing copy. Bear in mind that Recruitment Advertising Agencies will not limit themselves just to job boards for your recruitment solution and all of the different media channels they select will require different advertising materials. The Recruitment Advertising Agencies will create the copy/design collateral that works for each selected media.

On a more practical level, they will also look after sending the ad copy to the publisher, checking that everything is all right, and making sure that all deadlines are met. And, of course, you usually receive a final copy of the advert for approval before it goes out.

Selecting and booking the media

Of course, while we at whatjobsite will always yabber on about job sites and job boards, there are many more advertising options for recruiting: newspapers, trade journals, magazines, brochures, posters, flyers, direct mail, event displays, career websites, microsites, intranets and extranets, Ecards, Email campaigns, animated graphic ads, video, virtual career events, podcasts and blogs —to name quite a few. And let’s not forget Search Engine Marketing, Adwords, SEO, social media recruitment, viral marketing and so on.

With such a wealth of choice it can be hard to make a decision as to what is the right recruitment channel for you. Again, this is where the Recruitment Advertising Agency can come into its own. The Recruitment Advertising Agency has the expertise to be able to choose the right media for your recruitment campaign and, as we said above, to create effective ads for that media.

Response management

Sorting and sifting through a mountain of candidate application response can be a tiresome exercise. Many Recruitment Advertising Agencies also provide a response ranagement service. Typically, this means that the Recruitment Advertising Agencies will filter your applications and forward you only the best.

However, response management can also encompass more extensive services such as looking after candidate invitation and rejection letters, manning dedicated lines for telephone screening, arranging interviews for and even conducting interviews with candidates.

Employer Branding

Employer Branding isn’t just about your job ads or company logo. It’s about what kind of company you are seen to be by the outside world. It’s about how people view your company as a place to work; how your staff treat each other; how you work as a team.

What Recruitment Advertising Agencies can help with is defining your recruitment brand and then using that brand in your recruitment advertising strategy so that you attract the best staff for your company. Identifying your recruitment brand is a complex area and would, we believe, require the services of a Recruitment Advertising Agency.

Clearly, the work of Recruitment Advertising Agencies is broad and whether you choose to retain one will depend on the recruitment needs.

Next steps? Check out these other guides and articles:

• An introduction to Applicant Tracking Systems
• What is Job Posting Software?
• An Introduction to CV Databases
• Active and Passive Candidates
• An Introduction to Online Recruitment