How to Build a Recruitment Agency
The 6th Annual Staffing & Recruiting Trends Report (North America) by Bullhorn has thrown some interesting numbers our way. In this article, we will learn how to build a recruitment agency.
hTake for instance the two stats below –
1 – 71% of the recruiting firms saw a profitable year in 2015
2 – 91% of the firms expected to see a more robust growth (of at least 10 percent) in 2016
These are interesting stats for anyone following the recruitment industry. But what is enabling this healthy growth? One key underlying growth driver is the efforts taken by the firms to build a strong brand value proposition. Having a proper branding done for a recruitment agency helps it land more companies as clients and get more candidates looking for a job.
What goes into building a great online recruitment brand?
Some of the key components that go into the making of a strong recruitment agency brand include the company’s values, its personality, and a distinct voice. Along with individual branding elements, these components help build the framework for a brand that leaves an indelible impression on the minds of candidates and employers alike. Let’s look at some key characteristics that define a great online recruitment brand to help you stay distinct and different from the rest:
- Values
- Logo
- Brand Style
- Voice and Personality
- Branded communications
Let’s look at these pointers in detail now –
1. Values
For a good online recruitment organization, the brand is shown by its values. It is essential to associate genuine and meaningful values to your recruitment agency. That’s how your work will be noticed by the audience, and it will show growth in your online recruitment business.
Rather than adding generic values to build your agency’s brand, you can spend time and give a thought, how different is your way from the scores of others operating in the same niche? Is there any ‘Aha!’ difference that makes you stand apart from your competitors? This will help you to discover and articulate values that solely belong to your brand. This in turn, will help your recruitment agency achieve its distinctive purpose.
A smart way is to ask yourself a question about your recruitment brand as a definition. See how you define it; is it in sentences or what instantly comes to your mind? If you’re getting good points, then you can shape them and make it consistent to keep your brand going ahead full steam. Candidates and clients will find it easy to see your brand and connect with it; that too, in such a competitive platform, where everyone is running their own rat race and promoting their brands.
2. Logo
The logo is a symbol for your brand. It will represent your foundation, and your identity through a visual representation. That’s how your work would be recognized through your logo. So, having an appropriate logo is the must for your brand, which itself defines your work and you. A logo can be of many variants. The color, shade, shape, and design depends on how you want to portray your brand; professional, friendly, indirect etc.
If your company gives out a cheerful vibe (for instance if you cater to the fashion and entertainment industry), you can make your logo identifiable that way. That will tell how your work is delivered in a friendly way and adds a dash of fresh perspective to the online recruitment process. As you would be identified across all other brands, you have to keep a measure with that. Your logo should be paired up with your agency’s values and your understanding for your audience.
3. Brand Style
Brand styling is as essential as an individual’s self-image. The way you portray the image, is always noticed. The logo is just an initial stage. Styling is how your website will look – the color combination, types of images, and every aspect of your agency’s branding. The outer look will be a pillar and will create an identity for your company. It will not be wrong to say that styling and logo are the two wheels that make the train of your online recruitment agency brand run on the right track.
Here are few ways to create a consistent style for your brand.
- Fonts
The font is the icebreaker, it should be eye-catching. The candidates and the clients will be revisiting only if they are having a delightful experience.
For example: if your business is in corporate space, don’t choose fonts such as courier new or consolas. You should rather choose a simple, professional-looking font with standard size.
- Color combination
This can be trickier, but you have to be wise while picking the appropriate ones. The colors will promote your brand, and every color has its own set of values. So, referring color psychology and choosing the right one can define your brand. Now, you may know how to build a recruitment agency.
- Image picking
The image itself tells a story, without even play/pause button. Picking the right one can power up the game. This is basically, very simple, you know you’re not promoting kindergarten: doesn’t make sense using cartoon images. The color combination of your fonts and styles should also be considered while choosing your images. For example: If you have colorful fonts and logo, then black and white image will bright off your website. As we said, your image is worth a thousand words.
4. Voice and Personality
Now when you are ready with your logo, brand style etc, next comes your voice and personality i.e. your brand promotion, job ads, web content, blogs, FAQs by your clients and candidates and social media. Basically it is any written format which communicates verbally with your audience. Now, you may know how to build a recruitment agency.
The way you write will be your voice and personality. There has to be a certain tone of professionalism, convincing attitude, as suitable with different requirements.
For example: if it’s a marketing job, then they love the exciting tone.
But in legal sectors, they would want to maintain discipline in businesses. Hence the communication needs to be direct and to the point.
5. Branded Communications
Brand communications are considered based on what channels you want to invest in. Even the social media you use has a lot to say about your brand, but still, let’s find out the most preferred in the industry and do one at a time:
- Website
Website designing is an important part of your recruitment brand. It will describe the work you are delivering to your audience, with the user experience provided. Getting your website designed by an experienced UX designer can be a smart choice. A user-friendly website will help your clients and candidates communicate better.
The Email communications should be standard and relevant to your brand. For example, if you choose to use a free email service for your recruitment brand, you’re losing on brand image and potential customers. Keep your emails simple yet classy. You can find great resources to learn more about recruitment email campaigns online.
- Blog
Blogs can be highly beneficial to your brand. Also, it will pass the knowledge, the work, and build the trust between you and your audience. For your recruitment agency, it is a verbal communication with your potential customers and an opportunity to impress them.
- Social Media
Choose your social media platform to do your direct marketing, whether it is twitter banners or facebook posts, etc. They are all the mediators for your brand. By choosing the right social media platforms, you can build a strong network for your recruitment brand online. Now, you may know how to build a recruitment agency.
How to Build a Recruitment Agency – Leveraging Job Data for Business Intelligence
When it comes to growing your recruitment brand, business intelligence and data are crucial components. Every business be it retail, travel recruitment or manufacturing are now gathering more and more data from relevant fields to level up their game. Companies in the recruitment industry have a wide array of data available on the web to gather and analyze. Job postings are a great indicative data point for recruitment agencies, as it reflects the current trends in the labor market which would help them devise growth strategies. JobsPikr can be a great tool for recruitment agencies looking to extract job postings data from the web.
It is evident that a great brand is a hallmark of portraying industry authority and building a measure of trust on the recruitment agency. In an overcrowded market of service providers, this can prove to be a great differentiator in causing trust among candidates and loyalty among the client companies.