The best PR agencies win people, not just prizes.

Let’s be honest, winning Agency of the Year looks great on a trophy shelf and across your website and socials, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to making your agency a talent magnet. In a recent poll we ran with our LinkedIn network, 40% of PR’s said that awards don’t influence the jobs they apply for.

The good news? Every agency can attract top talent, regardless of awards. We constantly consult with agency leaders and HR teams on how they can revamp, tweak and invest in their recruitment process to improve talent attraction. From our daily conversations with PR jobseekers, we see first hand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to attracting top talent.

With PRmoment kicking off the awards season, we’ve launched our The Ultimate Talent Attraction Guide to provide PR agency leaders and HR teams with magnetic, proven and actionable tactics to attract top talent at every stage of the recruitment process.

Here’s some of my favourite takeaways, featuring insights from PRmoment finalists.

Brand your agency for people, not just clients

A compelling employer brand doesn’t just live on your website, it lives in your benefits documents, social channels and the interaction industry peers have with your team.

Fight or Flight’s head of people, Gemma Ashley, said it best: “People shape an agency. They’re your biggest and most important cheerleaders.”

Showcase benefits that reflect your values. Don’t just say you have a “supportive culture”, prove it with team stories, testimonials, and clear, visual benefit packs that help candidates picture themselves in your world.

Write job ads people actually want to read

Too many job ads read as instruction manuals about what you want the candidate to do, and what experience they must have. That’s okay, but don’t forget to sell your opportunity. Why would someone want to work at your agency?

Your job ad is your first pitch, make it count. Include salary ranges, spotlight the campaigns they’ll actually work on, and be transparent about flexibility.

(Bonus tip: Advertise for free on PRmoment’s jobs board to get your ad in front of the right people!)

In an interview, the candidate is also assessing you

Every interview is a chance to prove your agency walks its talk.

Hope&Glory PR excels at this. As co-founder Jo Carr puts it: “This should feel like an enjoyable conversation, approached with curiosity on both sides.”

Good interviews are prepared, structured, and collaborative. Involve different team members, keep the pace moving, and give candidates time to ask you questions too. It’s important to remember an interview is very different from a client meeting. In one of these scenarios you are paid to consult, challenge and inform. In the other, you are there to assess and be assessed.

The Romans use interviews to look for candidates that have career ambitions they can help nurture and build.

Get your hybrid work policy right

The majority (95%) of PR professionals want to be in the office three days or fewer per week. This is most important for Gen Z who are moving into middle management. They want an outcomes focused culture not one that is focused on presenteeism.

Lem-uhn’s Riannon Palmer makes the case clearly: “Flexibility was built for PR... an industry that needs staff who are willing to occasionally work late but be rewarded and respected.”

The best agencies balance structure with autonomy, and trust their teams to deliver.

DE&I lives in your decisions, not your values page

In the current economic climate, hiring diverse talent is more important than ever. Showing how you are committed to DE&I is more important than saying it. And, stop worrying about getting it right, just start. A great stepping stone to helping you and your team create a more inclusive work culture is by completing diversity training by Other Box. It’ll open up conversations and help you see your blind spots.

Full Fat partners with Brixton Finishing School, pays the Living Wage, and removes unnecessary degree requirements.

Work & Class’s Laura Burch offers a crucial reminder: “Don’t assume employees can front expenses—even for small things like biscuits for a meeting.”

Your DE&I commitment should be visible in three areas - how you hire, how you onboard, and how you support your team every day.

Nail the job offer and onboarding process

So many agencies do the hard part of attracting talent, only to fall at the final hurdle.

Give candidates a few days to consider an offer, don’t rush them. Then, back it up with a brilliant onboarding experience.

Earnies nails this process of making new hires feel welcome. Founder Nikki Collins says: “At Earnies, your line manager will blow up your Whatsapp to say hey and invite you to a team social way before your office tour commences. Next? We plan out an action packed first week. We get a lunch reservation in the diary for day 1 and from day 2, you’ll be eating with everyone at our free in-house kitchen.”

The Flywheelers stretch onboarding over a full month with 12 PR workshops. That’s how you retain new hires and turn them into loyal team members.

What makes an agency talent-attractive in 2025?

Not awards. Not hype. But how you make candidates feel from first impression to first week.

It’s how you talk about your people. How you respect their time. How you communicate what working with you is really like, and showing up throughout the recruitment process in a way that proves it.