It’s the awards season!
Posted by Mitch on 16th November 2015
I’m not a big fan of recruitment awards, despite knowing and liking a couple of people who run very popular annual recruitment award functions.
Guys, if you’re reading this, nothing personal.
First off, they’re not real awards because the recruitment agencies self-nominate. Real awards are bestowed, not asked for.
Plus, if any recruitment agency were that good wouldn’t their merit be self-evident?
The Internet would be full of creative, well-written job adverts and employer branding pieces, thought-provoking content marketing and lots of client testimonials.
But, as we all know, they’re not.
Then, once the lucky few (or those with the most aggressive lobbying tactics) have been declared winners, they then proclaim “how honoured” they are and plaster the award icon all over social media and their website in an attempt to elevate themselves above all the other agencies who either didn’t win, or couldn’t give a shit by applying in the first place.
Then there’s the job ads; “Work for an award winning agency!!”
Fuck off. Seriously.
If I was ever asked to be a judge for a recruitment awards function, no one would win.
I’d open the evening with something like;
“Nobody has won any prizes because basically, you were all a bit shit. But enjoy your evening anyway. The bar is running a 2 for 1 offer on tequila shots.”
I think the only people who should ever be allowed to judge recruiter awards are clients.
What do you think?
Do recruitment awards work as a marketing tool anymore? Or are they just an excuse to get dressed-up and pissed-up?
Comments
By nick taglione on Wednesday, 18 November 2015I very use this word but I think it deserves a LOL. That was fucking hilarious
By David on Thursday, 19 November 2015
A very accurate article Mitch.
Two weeks ago I received an unsolicited email from an agency that I have never worked with that commenced “Good afternoon David, Appreciated this is an unsolicited email and that LinkedIn is for networking in the main, however we have been shortlisted for a regional award on our 10th Anniversary and we are keen to take home the prize!”
It appears to me that the agency which is the most unprofessional in soliciting votes often wins and then promotes themselves as a credible “award-winning” agency.
Personally I judge myself, and other recruiters, by the number of hires that don’t pass probation.
By Mitch on Thursday, 19 November 2015
Accurate and funny!
Hell, I’m on a roll…
By Joseph Brown on Friday, 20 November 2015
I’ll go one further: I especially love the firms that come up with their 3rd party sanctions and bestow the awards on themselves.
To the uninitiated mind-perception IS reality
JK Brown
By Samantha Maxwell-Reed on Monday, 23 November 2015
At last someone has called it out! thanks Mitch.
Being a key customer of the organiser usually guarantees a gong too.
When will the rest of the world work out what a great money spinner awards are & how little value they have?
By Shaun Windram on Friday, 27 November 2015
I made enquiries in to proposing our company for a major awards night (not exclusively for recruitment but for business in general) and I was told this:
“It would be unusual for anyone to win on your first application my best advice is to hire a PR company and keep applying every year, that way your application will be taken more seriously”
This was as far as our application went.
By Ken Ward on Tuesday, 08 March 2016
I was a judge a couple of years back on an in house recruitment awards process. Contrary to self evident truths, the process was actually very detailed - there were two judges on each award, and when the judges had come to their decision we met with all the other judges and had to justify our decision to them. Due to illness of one of my fellow judges, I was left to judge one award, for Best Contract Recruitment Strategy solo. In front of the other judges at the meet up, I said that we should not make an award this year as it didn’t appear that any of the entrants actually had anything approaching a strategy and I didn’t want my name associated with it - I didn’t get asked back this year * sad face *
By Darren Revell on Friday, 02 December 2016
Recruitment awards kind of remind me of that joke when one guy says to the other “what are you getting your wife for Christmas”?
“I am giving her a divorce,” says the other guy. To which the first guy says “I had no planned on spending that much money”!
By Robert Woodford on Thursday, 08 December 2016
Ha. But I won £10 on playing the “how many awards will Goodman Masson win” game. It’s a real revenue generator.
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