Hire Creative and Account Talent Without Slowing Down the Studio
Agency hiring happens in a small, well-connected market where candidates compare notes and good people take other offers within days. We help you run a process that is quick, fair and consistent: a clear brief for each role, portfolio and work review against stated criteria, proportionate test tasks, structured interviews and an offer that is followed up until the person has joined. Your team makes the hiring decisions; we make the process run.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsThe starting point
Is Your Hiring Process Costing You the Candidates You Want?
In a market where everybody knows everybody, the way you treat candidates becomes part of your reputation. A slow process, an unpaid test brief with no feedback or an inconsistent interview does not just lose one hire, it is repeated at the next agency that candidate has a coffee with.
We help you build a hiring routine that candidates remember for the right reasons.
You may be experiencing:
- Hiring triggered by an account win, with no time to find the right person before the work starts.
- Portfolio assessed by impression, so two creative directors reach different views of the same candidate.
- Test briefs that run for days of unpaid effort and are never answered with feedback.
- Interviews that test craft but not how the person handles a difficult client or a scope dispute.
- Senior candidates who accept a counter-offer from their current agency during notice.
- Freelancers who would make good hires but are never approached.
- Referrals from staff that depend on who happens to hear about the vacancy.
What we can help with
Our Recruitment and Talent Acquisition Services for Agencies
Role Brief and Requisition
Define what the role does on which accounts, the discipline and level, the working pattern and the compensation range, and agree who approves the vacancy before sourcing starts.
Portfolio and Work Assessment
Agree how craft is judged for each discipline: the portfolio elements that matter, what a case study must show about the candidate's own contribution and how reviewers record their view, so that assessment is comparable.
Proportionate Test Briefs
Design short, relevant tasks, set a time limit, state whether the work is paid for substantial exercises, and commit to written feedback. Speculative work on live client briefs is avoided.
Sourcing Beyond Job Boards
Use referrals, your freelancer pool, past applicants, alumni and discipline communities alongside platforms, and keep a running list of strong people for roles you hire often.
Structured Interviews and Scorecards
Build interview stages covering craft, thinking, client handling, working style and commercial awareness, with a shared scorecard so that panels compare candidates on the same points.
Verification and References
Plan reference and background checks that are suited to agency roles, including conflicts with existing clients and confirmation of the work a candidate claims, where you choose to include them.
Offer and Notice-period Management
Prepare offers, keep in touch through notice, anticipate counter-offers and agree in advance what you will do if one arrives. Follow up until the person has actually joined.
Multi-role and Leadership Search
Coordinate hiring for several roles after a win, or run a focused search for a creative director, head of strategy or account director, with a longer horizon and tighter confidentiality.
Working together
Ways We Can Support Your Hiring
Single-role Recruitment
Support for one important vacancy, from brief to joining.
Hiring Sprint After a Win
A coordinated effort across several roles when a new account needs a team.
Process Design
A recruitment process, scorecards and test brief standards that your own team then runs.
Leadership and Specialist Search
Targeted sourcing for senior creative, strategy and account roles.
The scope, responsibilities and commercial terms are agreed before the engagement begins.
The deliverables
What You Can Expect
Depending on the agreed scope, your engagement can include:
- A role brief and requisition route for each vacancy.
- Portfolio review criteria by discipline and level.
- Test brief standards, with time limits and feedback commitments.
- A sourcing plan that includes referrals, freelancers and past applicants.
- Interview structures and scorecards.
- Screened candidate profiles with assessment notes.
- Offer, notice and joining follow-up.
- A handover to your onboarding team.
Step by step
How We Work
Settle What the Role Is For
We sit with the hiring lead to agree the accounts, the level, the craft needed and the working pattern, and what the person will own in the first months.
Agree How You Will Judge
We fix the criteria and the scorecard before any candidate is seen, so that the standard does not move to suit the person in front of you.
Find and Screen
We source across channels, review portfolios against the agreed criteria and speak to candidates about their interest, notice and expectations.
Run the Interviews
We schedule panels, issue the test brief where one is used, collect the scorecards and bring the panel to a decision quickly.
Carry the Offer to Joining
We stay in touch through the notice period and handle counter-offers as agreed. Before work starts we note where you stand, such as how long roles stay open, and we report against it.
The difference
Make Hiring Faster, Fairer and Easier to Repeat
A defined agency hiring process helps you to:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering time to hire, offers declined and how many joiners come from referrals and freelancers, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Judge portfolios against the same criteria across panels.
- Treat candidates in a way that protects your reputation in a small market.
- Decide quickly while good candidates are still available.
- Turn freelancers and referrals into a real pipeline.
- Reduce offers lost during notice.
- Build a process that the next hire can follow without starting again.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Agencies That Have Just Won an Account
Staff a new team against a kick-off date without pulling people off other clients.
Studios Without an HR Team
Get a proper process when hiring is handled by a founder alongside client work.
Agencies Replacing a Senior Creative or Account Lead
Run a careful, confidential search for a role that matters to clients.
Agencies Hiring in Volume
Bring consistency to many hires across production, content or performance roles.
How it usually shows up in marketing, advertising and creative
Agency recruitment is usually driven by a win or a resignation, and it starts from the founder's network. Portfolios are reviewed by whoever has time and the decision rests on taste, which varies from one creative director to another. Test tasks are set freely, sometimes for real client work, and candidates may spend days on them with no feedback. Servicing candidates are judged on charm in the interview, with little check on how they handle a difficult client or control scope. Freelancers are the best source of hires, but the record of who is good is held in a few heads. Offers are negotiated in a hurry against counter-offers from the current employer. Rejected candidates seldom hear back, though the market is small enough that they remember.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in marketing, advertising and creative
Taste decides
Portfolio review depends on whichever creative director is free, so similar candidates get different results.
Test tasks are unmanaged
Long unpaid briefs, sometimes on live client work, put good candidates off and invite complaint.
Servicing hires are judged on charm
Interviews seldom test scope control, client pushback or handling a late brief.
The freelancer pool is untapped
Strong freelancers are known to a few people, and nobody follows up for permanent roles.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Define what good looks like
For each role, a short list of what the portfolio or experience must show, so reviewers score the same things. The recruitment process sets the scorecard.
- 02
Keep test tasks proportionate
A short, fictional brief with a stated time limit. Substantial work is paid, and live client briefs are never used.
- 03
Assess client handling
For servicing roles, ask candidates to walk through a scope dispute and a missed deadline from their own work.
- 04
Tap the freelancer pool
Keep a register of freelancers with quality notes, and offer permanent roles to those who fit.
- 05
Close the loop
Give every candidate who reached a test or interview a reply and a short reason.
What to check this week
- Look at the last creative hire and see what the portfolio score was based on.
- Check the length and purpose of the current test task.
- Ask a servicing manager what questions test scope control.
- List freelancers rated well in the past six months.
- Find how many rejected candidates received any reply.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies depends on your establishment, your state and your sector, and it changes. This page describes a practice; it does not state a legal position.
What this looks like in marketing, advertising and creative
The parts of recruitment and talent acquisition that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Hiring Creative and Account Talent
A small market where everyone knows everyone.
What this coversHide
Hiring Creative and Account Talent
A small market where everyone knows everyone.
What this coversHideAgency recruitment happens in a small, well-connected market. Reputation travels, candidates compare notes, and the hiring process itself is part of the employer brand.
- Portfolio and work assessment defined rather than impressionistic
- Briefs and test tasks kept proportionate and paid where substantial
- Realistic preview of utilisation and working pattern
- Culture and client-handling assessed alongside craft
- Freelancer relationships as a talent pipeline
- Referral from current staff as a primary channel
- Feedback given to unsuccessful candidates, since the market is small
- Time to decision kept short, because good people move quickly
Unpaid speculative work is the practice that most damages agency employer brand. In a market this connected, a candidate's experience of the process reaches the people you want to hire next.
Questions on this, in marketing, advertising and creative
We agree criteria with your creative leads for each discipline, such as concept, craft, range and the candidate's own role in each case study, and record each reviewer's view on the same scorecard. The final judgement stays with your team.
Sometimes. A short, relevant task with a time limit can help, but long unpaid work on real client briefs damages your standing in a connected market. We help you decide when a task is justified and how to respond to every candidate.
We can help you plan for it before it happens: what you will offer, what you will not, and how you stay in touch through notice. We cannot stop a person from accepting a counter-offer, but we can reduce surprise.
We can support the sourcing and vetting of freelancers and the process of converting a regular freelancer into a permanent hire. Engagement terms and the nature of the relationship should be confirmed with a qualified professional.
It depends on the level, the market and your process. Senior creative and strategy roles usually take longer than account or production roles, and notice periods add to it. We give you a working timeline early and update it as the search moves.
Yes. We can take over selected stages or coordinate the whole process with your team, and we agree in writing who owns each step so that candidates hear from one voice.
Against a written list of what the role needs, such as concept, craft, range and fit with the agency's clients, scored by two reviewers independently. Then compare notes.
Small, time-limited exercises on a fictional brief are generally fine unpaid. Anything substantial or close to real work should be paid, and real client briefs should not be used.
Test how they handle scope creep, an angry client and a missed deadline, using their own past examples. Check references with former colleagues, not only the names supplied.
Often yes. You have seen the work, the turnaround and the way they take feedback. Keep a quality record and offer permanent roles to the best.
Hire the People Your Agency Needs Next
Tell us which roles you are hiring for and when the work starts. We will suggest how to run the process so that you are seeing the right people quickly.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Discuss Your Hiring Requirements
Share the roles you need to fill and your preferred hiring timeline.
The general method — what recruitment and talent acquisition covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the workforce and recruitment process page. What is above is the part that differs for marketing, advertising and creative.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see recruitment management.
Other HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for marketing, advertising and creative, or another industry.