British Sky Broadcasting’s talent attraction manager is advising recruiters to “really know their stuff — their industry sector and who’s out there from a candidate perspective” to give clients the best possible reasons to deal with them.

Speaking exclusively to Recruiter, Emma Mirrington said that BSkyB has just set out new agreements with recruitment agencies on its preferred supplier list. “They’re 12-month rolling contracts,” she said. “Performance will be reviewed on a regular basis throughout, using quantitative and qualitative measures, so it’s not just about X number of applications through X number of interviews through X number of placements.

“Obviously, that’s important, but for us, the candidate experience and the relationship between the supplier and Sky are also incredibly important,” she continued. “The candidate experience is of utmost importance because at the end of the day, our potential candidates are also potential customers, so that’s key to us.”

Market information is of critical interest to BSkyB right now, and Mirrington emphasised that the agencies that can provide insight and knowledge offer particular value. “More often than not, as an agency, you’re closer to the marketplace than your clients sometimes because you’re hearing it [information] first hand from the candidates,” she said.

“I think at the moment everybody’s very hungry for information, and you have pressure from the business as well. You [agencies] need to supply information about what’s happening,” she said. “Knowledge is power.”

BSkyB recently announced it was recruiting for 1,000 new roles for installation engineers and contact centre workers. The broadcaster opened a new 350-seat contact centre in Leeds this month.