It’s that time of year again! The applications for the 2020 TalentEgg National Recruitment Excellence Awards & Conference open on January 20th!

The #TEAwards are an egg-cellent opportunity for top employers, career centres and educational institutions to be recognized for their egg-ceptional work, as well as gather valuable feedback from students and recent graduates on their recruitment initiatives. 

We know you’re ready to get cracking on those submissions, but before you do, we wanted to share a few of our top tips and tricks for crafting an award-winning application.

1. Get organized

The first thing you should do is decide which award categories best fit your initiatives – and with 18 awards, you have plenty to choose from. To get started, make a shortlist of the ones you want to apply to and carefully read through the descriptions to ensure your team’s efforts meet the outlined criteria.

Here are the categories for this year’s TalentEgg awards:

EMPLOYER AWARDS

• BEST GRAD PROGRAM
• BEST CAREER WEBSITE
• BEST INTERNSHIP/CO-OP PROGRAM
• CAMPUS RECRUITING PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
• RECRUITING PROGRAM OF THE YEAR FOR A NONPROFIT NEW!
• CAMPUS RECRUITER OF THE YEAR (INDIVIDUAL)
• RECRUITER OF THE YEAR FOR A NONPROFIT (INDIVIDUAL) NEW!
• BEST EMPLOYER BRANDING AND OUTREACH
• BEST SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
• SPECIAL AWARD FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN RECRUITING NEW!
• SPECIAL AWARD FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN RECRUITING
• BEST CONTRIBUTION TO STUDENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT
• BEST USE OF STUDENT COMPETITIONS FOR RECRUITMENT NEW!
• BEST RECRUITMENT BRANDING STRATEGY BY A PROFESSIONAL OR INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION NEW!

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

• SPECIAL AWARD FOR INNOVATION BY A CAREER CENTRE
• BEST DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN BY AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
  
• CAREER COACH OF THE YEAR (INDIVIDUAL)
  
• BEST CONTRIBUTION TO STUDENT CAREER DEVELOPMENT

For more details, head to our website!

2. Gather your materials

Each awards submission is composed of two parts. The first is the mandatory online application. We ask all applicants to fill out a short form and provide a brief overview of the initiative being submitted for review.

Note: The Campus Recruiter of the Year and Career Coach of the Year (Individual) awards application are slightly different. For these awards, we ask for a short description of the nominee’s achievements.

The second component is the supporting documentation. We request all documentation to be presented in PDF format and attached with the application form. Please compile all documentation into ONE file to allow for a seamless judging process. You can embed links to online presentations, websites, or other types of media to support the application and demonstrate the impact of your efforts.

Over the years, we’ve noticed that our judging panel tends to favour applicants who are able to support their achievements with solid evidence. Speaking of which…

3. Know your audience

Your work will be judged by an egg-clusive panel of top students, new grads and early career professionals. In other words, your target audience for your career and recruitment initiatives. Therefore, to help ensure your application is well-received, you need to tailor it for a younger demographic.

Here’s what we recommend:

• • • Use terminology that everyone can understand. Avoid industry jargon words and phrases.
    • Communicate in a Gen Z and Y-friendly voice. Aim for casual and conversational, but still professional.
    • Speak directly to the wants and needs of students and grads (if that’s who your application is targeting). Check out our 2021 Guide to Campus Recruitment to get key insights from students & grads.

4. Show your work

So you think your organization had the best recruiting program of the year? Great – we want proof! Quantitative data like statistics or percentages can help strengthen your claims and create a comprehensive application.

Another factor all winning applications have in common? Visual appeal. To stand out to the judging panel, try:

• • • Using a style and branding that is similar to your other career and recruitment material.
    • Incorporating visual evidence, such as screenshots, logos, videos, etc., to illustrate your application.
    • Including pictures of your student, new grad or early career employees and/or recruiters to help the judges better connect with your organization.

5. Keep it concise

With so many submissions to evaluate, most of the judges will likely only spend a short time evaluating each application. A text-heavy application will not appeal to a Gen Z and Y audience. The key is to provide as much detail as possible, but also keep it concise. 

To do this, include only the most relevant and impressive information and use bulleted lists or graphs to convey your points wherever possible. Also remember that you can provide links to any social networking accounts, online media, and additional information you want to include –  but please, keep everything organized in a single PDF document. 

6. Be creative

Don’t be afraid to flex those creative muscles when crafting your application! The goal is to create a submission that stands out from the competition in a memorable way and the best way to do that is to be innovative.

Think outside the box by leveraging new technology as much as possible. For example, you could create a video for your application instead of a traditional text document. You could also use infographics to represent your data in a modern and visually appealing way.

Just make sure that the end result is accessible and easy-to-navigate. It doesn’t matter how flashy your application is – if the judges can’t understand it, they can’t engage with it.

Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to creating a top-notch #TEAwards application. Good luck!

Interested in sponsoring the event? See the sponsorship opportunities here!