3 Critical Mistakes That Recruiting Agencies Make

We believe that it’s an incredibly exciting time to be in the recruiting industry. After all, according to Staffing Industry Analysts, global staffing is predicted to grow 3% in the remaining months of 2017 (with continued 5% growth in 2018).

Although the need for businesses to utilize recruiting services continues to grow, there’s also a major talent shortage with a 4.3% unemployment rate. Recruiters must therefore use more creative sourcing strategies to find passive candidates instead of relying on job seekers to apply to online job postings.

With a limited supply of active job seekers and a lot of competition for quality talent, recruiting agencies must incorporate processes and strategies that maximize their ability to attract candidates and increase profitability. To ensure business operations are optimized for continued success and growth, there are a few key mistakes we often see in our 40+ years of experience that prevent recruiting agencies from thriving. Here’s three critical mistakes that recruiting agencies make that your business can avoid in order to gain competitive advantage.

1. Limited tracking of operational metrics

No matter what industry you are in, tracking metrics is vital for monitoring success and achievements, as well as determining areas of improvement for future growth. Not all recruiting agencies use reporting and analytics to gain visibility into operational processes. By only monitoring metrics to examine financial profits and losses, their ability to make decisions is limited based on high-level data that might not tell the story of what contributed to profitability and what hindered growth. There are other metrics that recruiting agencies should track that provide insight into what operational workflows should be reevaluated for improved productivity.

A key staffing and recruitment metric to monitor agency performance is the number of job orders filled versus those lost to help analyze placement trends, candidate attraction methods and strength of client relationships. Ultimately by examining the data you will be able to assess sectors and industries for you to invest in more heavily, and those potentially not worth pursuing.

Depending on the industry your staffing and recruitment organization serves, it could be important to track employee retention for backfills on temporary assignments. This is of course less applicable to direct hire and professional staffing recruiters. However, if retention is monitored by your agency, make sure that it also includes voluntary and involuntary ended assignments to determine employee turnover and total costs spent on new hires.

As part of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), you should also look at the number of calls your sales staff are making, the conversion rates of prospects to clients, vacancies registered and penetration of key accounts. Your CRM should be the powerhouse of sales activity with clear visibility of the entire sales cycle. Focussing your attention on different elements will help you analyze where the strengths of your staff lie, and in turn where they require further training and coaching. Reporting is key to prevent subjective decision-making.

Be sure your staffing software is able to provide a wide variety of standard reports and custom reporting services to meet your unique business needs.

2. Sticking with outdated ATS, CRM and staffing technology

The right staffing software should provide robust reporting and analytics to monitor performance, but most importantly it should help recruiting and sales teams save time and increase productivity.

Transitioning to a new technology solution can be a daunting experience for the whole company, especially tenured staff who have used the same workflows for a significant amount of time. It’s often what stops agencies upgrading to the best of breed software on the market.However, recruiting agencies that invest in technology solutions to enhance operational processes are better able to proactively address the ever-changing hiring and workforce management trends, while simultaneously maintaining compliance and decreasing the risk of incurring expensive fines.

The latest SaaS ATS, recruiting CRMs and staffing software not only help business growth by saving internal staff time through simplified processes, but it also increases profitability by streamlining revenue-generating activities to find quality talent and quickly place them. For many recruiting agencies, upgrading technology can also reduce administrative associated costs. For example, there are a lot of documents involved in the recruiting process, but by utilizing electronic documents with compliant e-signature technology, money can be saved on paper, printer ink, postage, and document management – plus the time and resource in handling them.

Depending on your agency’s business model, leaving legacy staffing products behind and adopting newer technology solutions can provide your company with competitive advantages for continuous growth in this rapidly changing industry. In fact as you look to attract and hire new workers within the Millennial or Gen Z generations, having the latest technology can be a huge selling point.

3. Lack of in-person engagement with candidates and prospects

It’s important to ensure your staffing software utilizes a technology solution that streamlines workflows for operational excellence, but face-to-face interactions for building relationships will never go out of style. With the fast-paced environment that comes with working in a recruiting agency, it’s easy for recruiters to become so task-oriented that interactions tend to only occur between computer screens.

If your staffing software eliminates enough administrative tasks, recruiting professionals should be encouraged to leave their desks and seek opportunities outside the office to meet job seekers and prospects. Incorporating networking as part of the “day job” helps foster more personable relationships for enhanced candidate experiences and improved client retention.

Recruiters can source for candidates in person at a variety of events by attending job fairs, engaging with individuals at community events and constantly maintaining a networking mindset while out and about the local area that your recruiting agency services. Visiting prospects at their place of business or meeting for coffee can be an effective way to build trust and establish business relationships. Participating in networking events can also be a good opportunity for both lead generation and finding quality talent for job orders. No matter what outlet a recruiter uses to meet with candidates and prospects outside of the office, interacting face-to-face comes back to what the staffing and recruiting industry is all about – connecting people with people!

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