7 Tips for Improving Staffing Client Retention

When speaking to our customers, conversations around driving operational excellence all come from the same motivational reason – better servicing the clients of a staffing and recruiting agency. The staffing industry is a competitive field for finding and placing qualified talent and for obtaining and keeping new clients. Businesses are always looking for the best option among staffing vendors, which creates a lot of pressure to constantly work toward customer satisfaction. There is an overwhelming amount of information on the subject of client retention, but generally speaking most sources conclude that retention is more profitable than constantly finding new business.

Some staffing managers make the wrong assumption that competitors are at a disadvantage stealing away customers without in-depth knowledge of the client’s unique business needs. However, some clients still choose to try other agencies hoping for better services despite having long-standing relationships with their staffing vendors. To avoid these scenarios, it’s important to incorporate the following seven client retention tips for better profitability and remaining the best option for a staffing agency among competitors—

1. Connect

Salespeople often have plans and strategies in place to connect with prospects, but what about after a sale has been made? Reaching out on a regular basis through birthday and holiday cards, invitations for lunch, or sending an email to simply stay in touch indicates to clients that they are considered more than just dollar signs to a recruiting agency. By constantly focusing on relationship management with clients in addition to delivering quality candidates, your staffing agency will be set up to be the top choice vendor for providing talent. Because businesses select staffing and recruiting firms who respect and remember them, ensure your entire organization knows how to show how much they appreciate the business of clients.

2. Walk the Walk

Success is often measured by delivery of promises made. Staffing sales professionals should avoid setting unrealistic expectations when speaking to prospects, but in doing so must work closely with recruiters to determine reasonable recruiting strategies to pitch to potential clients. Ensuring that sales people are aware of talent pipelines and that recruiters are aware of promised being made to prospects avoids unpleasant conversations to clients about not being able to deliver what they were expecting. A broken promise can easily overshadow excellent service.

3. Listen

It is imperative recruiters have a thorough understanding of the job they are recruiting for that isn’t listed on a job description. By learning the client’s culture and the soft skills needed for job orders, clients will appreciate the effort and commitment made to provide not just needed skills for the job, but also personality traits that fit in well within the organization.

4. Specialize

Know your organization’s recruiting and staffing strengths and help your team further their expertise to become unstoppable in their specialized market sectors. A thorough training program for your recruiting team that guides them to becoming experts in their niche will strengthen your agency’s reputation as the best staffing vendor for your specialized recruitment efforts. Avoid diving head first into markets your team lacks experience in. Without the needed strategy and right resources, it may cause operational hiccups that your current clients ultimately suffer the most from. Calculate your risks when looking to grow and diversify your staffing business. If the risk that you could alienate existing clients is high then consider alternative strategies.

5. Ensure Clients are Given What They Ask For

Sending a stream of weak candidate submittals for a difficult job order can be tempting for some recruiters who hope that something is better than nothing. However, submitting weak or unqualified candidates will cause more harm than good for client relationships. Touch base with your recruiters and ask them which job order is going to be their toughest to fill to see how you can assist. Unless you ask where recruitment challenges are, you may not know that a recruiter’s misinterpretation of the opportunity could potentially damage the reputation of your staffing firm.  

6. Extensive Training

Training new sales reps can be time consuming and expensive, but avoid letting them learn by their mistakes at the clients’ expense. Providing extensive training, mentoring and backup support prevents internal staff turnover and helps inspire enthusiasm as they grow into their position confidently to help improve and maintain client relationships.

7. Automate

Powerful recruiting software like Adapt help staffing sales team close deals efficiently and allows for recruiters to fill jobs faster and more effectively. Your clients won’t really know that automation is the difference between your team and your competitors, but they’ll feel the difference.

While it’s important to be growing your company through onboarding new clients, remember how easy and cost effective it is to retain existing clients. Invest in retention. Make sure your clients know they are important, appreciated, and are utilizing a staffing agency with the best operational practices.

Graduate Recruitment – Ways to Minimise Reneged Offers

Graduate RecruitmentMore than half of employers seeking graduates in the UK couldn’t fill their vacancies last year, according to a recent survey. This underlines how recruiters are facing an uphill task in finding graduates with the skills and potential to achieve a good fit. Making full use of web based recruitment software is key, not only to attracting graduate candidates of the right calibre, but also to keeping reneged offers to a minimum.

There is now a worrying trend among graduates which sees many initially accept offers, but then renege on them, in some cases at the last minute. Recent figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) found that 7.1% of graduate offers were reneged in 2016, with especially high rates of reneges in the competitive fields of banking and accountancy.

Large numbers of graduates are entering the jobs marketplace each year, many of whom have skills which are in demand in the current climate. However, the question is not only how to compete for the best of this talent, but also how to nurture it after offers are accepted; and throughout the onboarding process.

Scale of the Problem

The trend for reneged offers has developed over recent years and is related to the level of unfilled graduate vacancies. This talent gap often means that graduates with the right qualities and high grades can find themselves in demand even in a generally competitive marketplace. This increases the risk that, even after accepting a post, they may change their mind if what they perceive as a better offer comes along.

When a new recruit backs-out at this stage, it can cause a number of problems for employers. They are left with a gap on their books, causing difficulties with workload and with the arrangements for the new employee’s initial training. Because reneges often happen at short notice, there is increased pressure to find a replacement quickly, but the company might well have lost their second choice to a competitor in the meantime. This means they have to spend more time and money recruiting again, and there is a risk they may not find someone of the same calibre as the candidate they have lost.

As well as being bad news for in-house recruiters, reneged offers can also cause difficulties for recruitment agencies. If your agency sourced the graduate candidate who has let a client down, then, however unfairly, the behaviour could potentially be seen as a reflection of your service and reliability.

Ways to Combat Reneges

The longer and more complex the journey from application to employment, the greater the danger is that a candidate will drop out.  Streamlining the candidate experience is therefore essential. Web based recruitment software has a key role to play here, by enabling candidates to quickly apply online, or via mobile channels, and get all the information they need.  

An efficient application process will help to create a positive impression of the job and employer, making candidates feel more enthusiastic from the outset. Choosing the right candidate in the first place, by using sophisticated cloud recruitment software which flags up the different attributes you are looking for, also helps to ensure a good fit; which again can lessen the risk of a renege.

We have looked in detail at how to understand Generation Z. This is very relevant to today’s young graduates, who have grown up in a digital world and expect to be able to communicate via a number of devices, mobile phones and email, as a matter of course.

Recruiters need to use the whole range of available channels to communicate effectively with this generation. This involves using multiple job boards and social media recruitment, but it is equally important to provide information and reply to queries quickly, without unnecessary delays. 

Communication and Onboarding

As a recruiter, you need to stay in touch with candidates after the offer and before they start, since there can be a risk of dropout at any time during this period. Easy lines of communication are essential. It can help to assign a mentor who will keep in touch with the individual and provide a point of contact if they have queries in the run-up to starting work.

It is also often helpful to invite graduates to events at the company and arrange events where they can meet-up with other new graduates and existing employees. This will make them feel like part of the team before they start, which is likely to increase their commitment.

Once the new recruit starts work, the onboarding process is also vital, ensuring they are smoothly integrated into the existing workforce.  Monitoring candidate experience and getting feedback can help to pinpoint if there are any areas you could improve, both during initial recruitment and onboarding, which will again help to improve candidate retention going forward.

Using Adapt candidate management software can help to identify graduates with the right potential and streamline the selection and onboarding process, which will help to minimise reneged offers. To arrange a demo of Adapt, please get in touch.

The Challenges in Recruiting Staff to Work for Small Businesses

A high proportion of job openings in the US every year are with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but it can be hard for them to find new staff. Many small businesses turn to recruitment agencies to source staff who are the right fit and have the right skills.

But how can recruitment agencies best put forward the advantages of working for a small, lesser-known company? Also, how can the right recruitment agency software make it simpler to find quality candidates for a smaller business?

Small and medium businesses in the US

According to the US government, 30 million SMEs make up two-thirds of private sector jobs. However, SMEs are being hit by the skills shortage, in the technology field in particular, and there is fierce competition to recruit candidates with the knowledge and experience needed.

If you are competing with recruiters working on behalf of larger companies, the problem can be that, because these organizations are better-known, candidates are more likely to choose them first. Perceived advantages include prestige, greater brand awareness and opportunities for career progression.

In fact, there are also major advantages to working for smaller companies, but many SMEs find it hard to get across the message of all they have to offer. This is one reason why they often turn to recruitment agencies to find a new employee. But then recruiters in turn have the job of finding people with the right skills and selling the company to the right candidate. Here are our key pointers for agencies recruiting for SMEs.

Get to Know the Business

Every small business has its own culture and it’s important to find candidates who will fit in and be part of the team. A way to do this is to really get a feel of the business you are recruiting for, as then you are more likely to find candidates who are right for them.

Often small businesses are looking for staff members who are not only highly skilled in their own field, but are also all-rounders and willing to turn their hand to other tasks when necessary. A big advantage for SMEs is that as an agency you can save them time and avoid them having to weed-out candidates who aren’t suitable for them.

Spread the Word Widely

Technology helps small companies to be on more of a level playing field with the larger ones, by making it easier for candidates to get a feel of what a company is like and apply for jobs.  In addition to job boards, it can help to reach a wider range of candidates if you advertise on social media, using recruitment agency software which makes it as easy to apply via these channels as possible.

Looking at the whole age range can also help you to avoid missing out on potential candidates. This includes Generation Z, people born in the late 1990s and early 2000’s, who are now playing an increasingly important role in the workplace, as well as the slightly older Generation Y/Millennials and all the other age groups in the workforce. People in their 40s, 50s and 60s can sometimes be overlooked by recruiters, but they have much to offer, including experience and loyalty. You need to find the sites which these varied age groups regularly visit.  

Present SME’s Opportunities Clearly

The advantages of working for larger companies are well-known, but as a recruiter you also need to be able to get across to candidates what the advantages of working for a small company are. Candidates may not be clear about what a smaller company has to offer, so this needs to be put across both in the initial marketing and placing of job ads and at the interview stage. 

Attractions of working for a small business include greater flexibility, the opportunity to take on more responsibility early on, and the fact that often a role can be more tailored to a staff member’s individual strengths. They are also likely to have more access to senior management and a chance to put forward ideas, without going through the layers of admin which tend to be present in larger organizations.   

Think Flexibly

If, despite all your efforts, you cannot source an ideal candidate with the full skill set required for the job, it can be helpful to think flexibly and to look again at the strongest applicants who have come forward. The company may be prepared either to recast the job’s requirements, possibly by shifting someone internally, or to change the hours and look at flexible working. Finding two part-timers can often work just as well for a small company as one full-timer.

Our software is ideal for recruitment agencies working with SMEs. It enables applications via a wide range of routes, including job boards and social media as well as a mobile phone app. Adapt quickly captures all the information supplied by candidates and saves it in an easily searchable form. To find out more about how Adapt can work for you, contact us today to schedule a demo. 

The Challenges in Recruiting Staff to Work for Small Businesses

Recruiting Staff for Smaller BusinessesA high proportion of vacancies in the UK every year are with small businesses, but it can be hard for them to find new staff. Many SMEs turn to recruitment agencies to source staff who are the right fit and have the right skills.

But how can agencies best put forward the advantages of working for a small, lesser-known company? Also, how can the right recruitment agency software make it simpler to find quality candidates for a smaller business?

Small and medium businesses in the UK

According to a recent House of Commons briefing paper, 99% of businesses in the UK are SMEs, making up a total of more than 5.4 million companies. Within this, there are over 5.3 million micro-businesses with fewer than 10 people, employing 36% of the UK workforce.

This shows just how important small businesses are and why this steadily growing sector is seen as the engine of the British economy. However, SMEs are being hit by the skills shortage, in the technology field in particular, and there is fierce competition to recruit candidates with the knowledge and experience needed.

If you are competing with recruiters working on behalf of larger companies, the problem can be that, because these organisations are better-known, candidates are more likely to choose them first. Perceived advantages include prestige, greater brand awareness and opportunities for career progression.

In fact, there are also major advantages to working for smaller companies, but many SMEs find it hard to get across the message of all they have to offer. This is one reason why they often turn to recruitment agencies to find a new employee. But then recruiters in turn have the job of finding people with the right skills and selling the company to the right candidate. Here are our key pointers for agencies recruiting for SMEs.

Get to Know the Business

Every small business has its own culture and it’s important to find candidates who will fit in and be part of the team. A way to do this is to really get a feel of the business you are recruiting for, as then you are more likely to find candidates who are right for them.

Often small businesses are looking for staff members who are not only highly skilled in their own field, but are also all-rounders and willing to turn their hand to other tasks when necessary. A big advantage for SMEs is that as an agency you can save them time and avoid them having to weed-out candidates who aren’t suitable for them.

Spread the Word Widely

Technology helps small companies to be on more of a level playing field with the larger ones, by making it easier for candidates to get a feel of what a company is like and apply for jobs.  In addition to job boards, it can help to reach a wider range of candidates if you advertise on social media, using recruitment agency software which makes it as easy to apply via these channels as possible.

Looking at the whole age range can also help you to avoid missing out on potential candidates. This includes Generation Z, people born in the late 1990s and early 2000’s, who are now playing an increasingly important role in the workplace, as well as the slightly older Generation Y/Millennials and all the other age groups in the workforce. People in their 40s, 50s and 60s can sometimes be overlooked by recruiters, but they have much to offer, including experience and loyalty. You need to find the sites which these varied age groups regularly visit.

Present SME’s USPs Clearly

The advantages of working for larger companies are well-known, but as a recruiter you also need to be able to get across to candidates what the advantages of working for a small company are. Candidates may not be clear about what a smaller company has to offer, so this needs to be put across both in the initial marketing and placing of job ads and at the interview stage. 

Attractions of working for a small business include greater flexibility, the opportunity to take on more responsibility early on, and the fact that often a role can be more tailored to a staff member’s individual strengths. They are also likely to have more access to senior management and a chance to put forward ideas, without going through the layers of admin which tend to be present in larger organisations.   

Think Flexibly

If, despite all your efforts, you cannot source an ideal candidate with the full skill set required for the job, it can be helpful to think flexibly and to look again at the strongest applicants who have come forward. The company may be prepared either to recast the job’s requirements, possibly by shifting someone internally, or to change the hours and look at flexible working. Finding two part-timers can often work just as well for a small company as one full-timer.

Adapt software is ideal for recruitment agencies working with SMEs. It enables applications via a wide range of routes, including job boards and social media as well as a mobile phone app. Adapt quickly captures all the information supplied by candidates and saves it in an easily searchable form. To find out more about how Adapt can work for you, please get in touch.

SEO Tips for Recruitment Agencies

SEO Tips for RecruitersOne of the biggest problems for recruiters is standing out from the competition online and ensuring that job advertisements attract the best talent.

In today’s digital-first world, Google is often the first point in a job search. “Jobs in Birmingham”, “Entry level jobs in Bristol”, “part-time jobs in Edinburgh” are all examples of what a candidate might type into Google’s search bar.

So, shouldn’t recruiters start there – with the Google search?

Think about it – as most job searches start with a query typed into Google’s search bar, understanding what keyword terms are being used by candidates and then optimising your job advertisements, content and webpages for those terms would be the most effective way to attract candidates, right?

Of course, pumping money into a Pay-Per-Click programme is one way to achieve the results you desire, but prime Google real estate is competitive and costly. Instead, building a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy, including specific keywords, is an affordable way to drive traffic to your website and job advertisements.

In this blog, we will discuss the importance of having an ongoing SEO strategy, as well as share some simple and effective SEO tips for recruitment agencies.

Building a keyword strategy

As mentioned previously, you need to consider how people are finding your job advertisements and/or website. What keyword terms are they typing in to arrive there? Are they specific long tail keyword terms or short, but relevant, keyword terms?

Once you have this information, you can build a comprehensive keyword strategy around those terms. Remember, try to be specific, but relevant. Over-specific terms are highly unlikely to be searched for, while generic terms are harder to rank for.

Clearly, there needs to be a balance. When it comes to SEO, build your keyword strategy based around both short and long tail keyword terms and then refine it as you go.

Establish benchmarks

Before you execute your keyword strategy and optimise your content, job advertisements and web pages, you need to set a benchmark for your current SEO performance as this will enable you to continually monitor the performance of your keywords and how much new activity your website is generating.

Managing Onsite SEO

Once you’ve established your keyword strategy and set a benchmark to compare it against, you need to manage your onsite SEO. A comprehensive SEO strategy will consider on-page website elements, such as meta titles and meta descriptions, and optimise content for search. Meta titles for example, should be based on keyword terms and relevant to the copy on the web page in question. Meta descriptions on the other hand, are used on search engine results pages to display a snippet of a particular web page – and should be concise and intriguing, as this will help to improve the click through rate to the page.

Refining your keyword strategy

We’ve covered the basic elements: keywords, meta titles and meta descriptions, identifying new keyword opportunities is the next part of the process.

However, it’s important to appreciate that SEO is by no means a ‘set it and forget it’ strategy. It needs routine maintenance and monitoring to get the best results.

Analytics platforms such as Google Analytics provide you with detailed website analytics, allowing you to determine the search terms people are using to find your website. Then, armed with this information, you can optimise your existing web pages and content to incorporate those terms, as well as create new website pages to target new terms.

Creating new, high-quality content

Even with the above in place, you need to maximise your chances of being found online – and a great way to do this is by creating relevant, high-quality educational content.

Google loves fresh content and will reward those websites that post new, high-quality content. It’s also a great way to drive traffic to your website and encourage candidates and clients to sign up for future content updates, improving your brand’s authority and credibility online.

Ultimately, optimising your website, content and job advertisements for search is advantageous to the success of your recruitment agency online, and should always be a main element in your online strategy. However, SEO is a constant practice; you should monitor your keyword performance on a regular basis and identify new keyword opportunities as this will allow you to get the most out of your content and job advertisements and attract new candidates.

Attracting Passive Candidates – How Can Recruitment Software Help?

Attracting Passive Candidates With evidence that the UK skills shortage is deepening, recruiters need to cast the net for new talent as widely as possible. Increasingly this means finding passive candidates, as well as those who are actively looking for a new job. Choosing sophisticated recruitment software which streamlines the candidate experience as much as possible is key to attracting these candidates.

There are high numbers of passive candidates among UK staff. According to the 2017 employee sentiment survey by Investors in People, 59% of staff in the UK are considering moving job this year. However, despite this high level of dissatisfaction with their current roles and a willingness to consider a move, only 25% said they were actively job seeking.

At a time of historically low unemployment, it’s likely that many of the individuals who would fit vacancies on your books are already in a job – so the task for recruiters is to find these people and encourage them to apply.

Making it Easy to Apply

Candidates who are already in a job will not have a lot of time to spend looking for a new one. This means that filling out over-complicated forms or jumping through too many hoops is likely to put them off. On the plus side, this very lack of time can make passive candidates keen to use a recruiter rather than applying direct to individual employers. But they will need to be assured that the recruiter will save them time and effort.

There are a number of ways in which recruitment software can help streamline the process of applying for a new post. For instance, web portals can make it far simpler for candidates to upload their details. Making it possible for candidates to search your vacancies and log in from multiple devices while on the move will also encourage a wider range of applicants.

Sourcing Passive Candidates

Approaching passive candidates can be difficult, but social media, especially LinkedIn, is increasingly important for this. Joining groups and giving information as an authority can build relationships and awareness. This will mean that, even if someone is not looking for a new job now, they are more likely to bear you in mind when the time is right for a move.

When you contact candidates, you need to make a good impression. This means being friendly without being pushy, and not spamming them with a lot of irrelevant jobs or opportunities in the wrong geographical areas. They need to feel that they can rely on you to alert them only to positions which could genuinely be right for them.

Today’s advanced recruitment software can be integrated with social media and record the information you need, for instance enabling people to apply by using their existing LinkedIn profile.

Your existing database will also contain valuable details of possible passive candidates; the people who have contacted you in the recent past. A good recruitment CRM makes it easy to search for candidates with the skills needed to find the best matches for a specific vacancy.

Monitoring Candidate Experience

It’s important for all recruiters to keep monitoring the candidate experience, and ensure candidates are happy with your services and their interaction with you. This includes not only the types of job you may approach them with and the channels available for applying, but also how quickly you respond to requests for information.

Having details instantly accessible, for instance via mobile software, can impress applicants and save them time. The quality of feedback you provide after applications and interviews is another key element here.

Providing a quality recruitment service is of course essential for all applicants, but even more so for passive candidates. These individuals don’t have the same urgency about searching for a new job because they are already employed, so they can easily be put off at any stage of the application process.

The danger is also that applicants who are dissatisfied will spread the word to others and so lose you more passive candidates in the future. This is one of the reasons why it is essential to get honest feedback from candidates who have used your service, so that you can make any changes needed to improve the application experience and attract both passive and active candidates to your agency.

Adapt recruitment software enables all the functionality needed for recruiters to source passive candidates and give them a good candidate experience. For example, vacancies can be posted on multiple job boards and social media platforms at once, and candidates can be enabled to respond via diverse devices, including mobile phones and tablets.

Podcast – The Future Of Recruitment CRM

Just press ‘Play’ or download and listen on your favourite device.

In this recruitment leaders’ podcast from Barclay Jones, Lisa Jones and Wayne Barclay speak with James Payne from Bond International Software and Rod Smyth from TempBuddy. Bond and TempBuddy recently joined forces under the Symphony Technology Group, leveraging each other’s strengths of world-class staffing software and award-winning technological innovation.

As providers of world-class recruitment technology, James and Rod are in a great place to talk about the new #CRMFirst mantra at Barclay Jones.

Who is this Recruitment Leaders Podcast for?

If you are a recruitment leader, IT leader or marketing leader in recruitment, and you want to make your CRM “FIRST” (ie. First port of call), then this is will be a key listen.

What did Lisa, Wayne, James and Rod discuss?

  • Why the content of your CRM can massively impact whether your recruiters use it
  • How to improve the content of your CRM?
  • How can you get managers and directors engaged with Recruitment CRM?
  • What things do they advise recruiters to stop doing?

5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Automated Onboarding

As the economic winds continue to move in a positive direction, what does this mean for the recruitment industry moving forward? The candidate experience remains a top need for recruiting agencies to attract and retain candidates in a tight labor market. Implementing an onboarding system that will quickly and efficiently transition new hires onto the assignment saves staff time and provides candidates a positive user experience. Those in the industry who have cracked the code for reduced time-to-fill ratios all share a similar weapon when it comes to bringing in new hires – automated onboarding. Whether they’re used for transactional onboarding, dealing with the forms and processes involved in onboarding an employee or guiding a new hire to effectiveness more quickly, automation of these systems is a proven time and money saver. As with other recruiting software that is steering the hiring industry in a new and more efficient direction, automation is changing the face of onboarding at big and small companies alike, and here are 5 reasons why…

Cost Savings

The first benefit any company looks for is obviously the effect on the bottom line of the business. While it seems intuitive that automation in onboarding processes would naturally save money when cutting out extra administrative time on behalf of both new employees and internal team members, the savings reach beyond the obvious. The elimination of needless paperwork is proving to be a cost-saving center that more hiring companies are recognizing. According to the Recruiting Edge Newsletter:

“The average company has 15 corporate policies, procedures, and forms that are required for the new hire to read, review, and sign prior to their first day of work. That does not include the US federal and state forms that are required, such as the Form I-9, W4, state tax withholding forms, and the optional 8850 WOTC form. These forms and policies, along with your required corporate forms, often total more than 40 pieces of paper, which staff copies, distributes and then collects – or hunts down – from each new hire.”

However, automation stops that wasteful process, especially when combined with electronic signature capabilities, eradicating needless paperwork and associated administrative time.

Improved Data Collection

Oftentimes, the challenges of data collection reach beyond those regular client-specific forms. Government agencies and contractors, for example, must also obtain legally-mandated background checks, drug screening and medical/fitness exams, verifications and licensure certifications – all under the umbrella of overall confidentiality. With the addition of each new piece of data comes the possibility of mishandling. Any mistakes in the onboarding process can come back to haunt HR departments when auditors visit. But with automated onboarding, both collection and management of the data can be maintained virtually problem-free.

Reduction in Errors

By integrating all the relevant systems incorporated with onboarding, automation can significantly reduce the chance for errors. No longer must new employees wade through mounds of paperwork, potentially entering incorrect information or missing essential details altogether. And internal staff shouldn’t have to worry about having to check for errors. Automation ensures that all forms are correctly completed. The benefits of errorless data are far reaching. From avoiding the added hours of payroll backtracking from incorrectly filed forms to managing WOTC (Work Opportunity Tax Credit) programs more effectively, companies can save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.

Heightened Security

One of the hottest topics around onboarding practices is the safety of employee data. Hiring companies must protect the integrity of data collection, transmission, storage and backup of personal employee information. Automated onboarding solves these issues by providing data security through web-based cloud storage available through Software as a Service (SaaS). Data taken in through automated processes is stored in the cloud and secured more effectively than information that is stored in on-site systems thanks to encryption and access control. Such web-based protections provide multiple layers of security measures, both virtual and physical, to ensure that data is protected from breaches. Ultimately, the securely stored data resting in the cloud eliminates the need to hold onto countless file boxes of information for years on end.

Happier New Hires

What connection does automated onboarding have with the emotional well- being of new employees? More than you might think. When automated onboarding is part of a hiring process, the time spent on administrative paperwork is eliminated, giving internal staff more time to focus on revenue-generating activities. In addition, the user experience of automated onboarding reaches across generations when it comes to employee use. Technology-challenged associates will appreciate the simplified process. The hours saved through automated onboarding makes the solution a difficult tool to ignore for your agency’s recruitment software system. Staffing agencies and recruiting firms charged with the complicated challenges of onboarding can see impactful changes in a short amount of time when they move to automated processes.

Contact us today

As hiring continues to ramp up this year and beyond, automated onboarding within a recruiting software system is a game-changer when it comes to success in the hiring marketplace. Learn how our recruiting software can help you achieve your placement goals by contacting us today.

Maximizing the Value of Recruitment Software Search Technology

Our customers frequently identify search functionality as one of the most important technology tools for better operations. Businesses utilizing recruitment software technology with advanced search capabilities tend to stay ahead of competition. That’s because the many benefits of these innovative solutions enable recruiters to both find talent and locate key opportunities to market top candidates to sales prospects. However, searching and sourcing for candidates is frequently the biggest operational challenge in the recruitment industry. The quality of the search experience is critical for productivity, candidate experience and client relationships. Moreover, the three most important elements of top-notch search technology are speed to outperform competitors, quality results that are relevant to inputted search queries, and search capability for business development for better relationship management to ultimately increase sales opportunities.

With new tools that allow recruiting professionals to pull in candidate details from all manner of sources, the depth of information available is, in many cases, overwhelming. Results can often be confusing and inconsistent, and many staff members do not know how to effectively search in all these areas. There is growing frustration that the increasing data volume is resulting in an apparent decrease in data quality. Rather than just searching the internal database, consultants are searching social media and multiple expensive job boards to quickly find talent for job orders. Below are four ways to maximize the value of recruitment software search technology to prevent recruiters from utilizing expensive external resources.

1. Use consistent skill codes for better search results

Structured data searching requires time to carefully extract the candidates’ relevant profile data and populate the relevant fields in the database. Structured searching can be very powerful, but requires a lot of manual input and administrative work to be fully effective. Whether undertaking a manual search or using resume parsing technology, the quality of the results depend upon the consistency of the data coding model. Records need to be consistently labeled to improve the efficiency and speed of the search process. For example, without consistent data coding, recruiters searching for candidates who have previously worked at Microsoft are equally likely to find candidates with Word and Excel skills. Without context – or setting up a skills code – a recruiter is faced with an array of resumes that are completely irrelevant to the job specification.

2. Ensure that staff are well trained on performing Boolean searches

Free Text Keyword (Boolean) Searches that are done well can also be very powerful. This type of search is less time consuming, but will often return matches to keywords without context and therefore can present the user with a search result that is large and unqualified. Quite often, consultants haven’t honed their skills to effectively use free text searches and find the process extremely frustrating as a result. Utilizing Boolean search strings is most effective when users are comfortable and confident in their ability to perform free text keyword searches. Make sure entry-level team members are given every resource necessary to become Boolean search experts to better utilize the wealth of information already within the internal database.

3. Ensure data is regularly updated for accuracy

When a recruitment company’s team members lose confidence in the quality of the internal database, the implications are significant. Ineffective use of business development CRM data can result in missed or lost revenue and inefficient business development direction. This also becomes costly for recruitment agencies when staff begin turning external data sources, such as job boards, before searching for internal data, often resulting in additional costs. If recruiters are solely relying upon external sources, they are not offering more than their competition because the competition – and the client – also has access to the same talent pool. Duplicate data also clutters up recruitment companies’ internal databases when recruiters download resumes – at a cost – from external sources without checking whether the contact already exists in the system. The result is multiple expensive downloads of the same resume. By failing to correctly store information and relying increasingly on expensive external data sources, the company is incrementally reducing its value. A competitive staffing agency with a more sophisticated approach to data collection will discover and place the best candidates far more quickly and increase profitability.

4. Utilize a technology solution that offers contextual search capabilities

The market has developed a number of new search tools in response to the changing data environment, but contextual search is a far more intelligent form of searching within the recruitment industry. Contextual searching tools can search on unstructured or raw data, as well as structured data, and base results on understanding what is contained within the text (rather than the filename or associated fields). These benefits enhance productivity through speed and improved accuracy of match results through more links between candidate and job specification to identify more relevant candidates. Furthermore, candidate records do not need to be accurately skill-coded (or coded at all) to be returned in search results. And since this system creates such a streamlined process for users, recruiters do not require advanced Boolean searching skills, effectively shortening the learning curve during training.

Contact us today!

Your recruitment agency’s internal database is the hub of all recruitment activity, and companies need to ensure the right processes and tools are in place to enable recruiters to gain maximum benefit from the wealth of information within their own system. Recruitment software search technology delivers superior candidate searches and matches, improves marketing insight and supports better business development. If you would like to know how our staffing software is improving productivity in the recruitment industry through optimized technology solutions, then contact us today!

 

Become the Jedi of Job Postings

Aaron imageIn our Atlanta office, our team members frequently have Star Wars on the brain, and it’s all thanks to Implementation Consultant Aaron Myerson’s desk décor. Friendly faces from a galaxy far, far away, such as Yoda, can be found next to Aaron as he provides online training to new users of our staffing software solution. A functionality topic that frequently comes up among recruiters during training sessions is the ability to publish job postings to job boards when sourcing for high-quality talent. Just like a Jedi uses a lightsaber to fight for justice, recruiters sometimes use job postings to thwart competition for hard-to-find talent.

There’s a lot more to job postings than simply publishing a job description. Now that online job boards and search engines are much more competitive, recruiters must take advantage of several different advertising techniques and digital recruitment strategies to ensure maximum visibility among job seekers. However, recruiters are not born knowing the best practices for job postings. It sometimes takes intense training to master the art of attracting online applicants. In an attempt to educate Jedi in training, Master Yoda often instilled some memorable words of wisdom to Padawans that can be applied to both new recruiters and seasoned talent acquisition professionals needing to brush up on the latest job posting best practices. Here are some tips from the best of Star Wars’ Jedi Masters to help you become a Jedi of job postings and restore balance to job submittal ratios.

“Patience you must have, my young Padawan.” yoda 1

It’s easy to copy and paste the information a hiring manager provided you and then publish to find active job seekers. However, this fast and easy approach tends to be the least effective. Verbiage within a job description from a Human Resources department might not be easy for a potential applicant to understand. Take the time to read the job description with your candidate’s perspective in mind and edit the content for better comprehension. Be sure to consider the recommended formats and content guidelines for job postings to utilize SEO and maximize your visibility on platforms that utilize search engine technology.

“Feel the Force!”

Just like the Force binds everyone and everything together, search engine technology brings together job seekers and employers to help find perfect matches for employment opportunities. Get familiar with keyword strategies used in various locations to feel more comfortable with what kinds of verbiage generate more applicants. Recruiters may also want to experiment with which days of the week tend to drive more traffic to job postings, different options for online job boards and what types of job posting formats perform best. Familiarizing yourself with the technology that candidates use when hunting for jobs will help you develop effective ways to drive them towards your organization. The more comfortable you are with what the job boards are looking for to enhance the job seeker’s experience, the stronger you will be with “the Force.”

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

It’s very stressful for recruiters to invest time and money into job postings for a time-sensitive placement, only to receive an influx of applications that are all unqualified. It’s not uncommon to feel anger toward individuals for failing to read the specifications of the job description and ignore their inquiries for employment opportunities. However, there may come a time when you need those unqualified applicants for job orders that suit them better. To avoid future suffering, be sure to take advantage of connecting with unqualified talent for job orders down the line and avoid the dark side of unfulfilled job orders.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Don’t get too comfortable when you have mastered the art of job posting on various online job boards. Technology and hiring trends are always changing, and best practices that have brought you the results you needed might drastically change tomorrow. Generally speaking, job boards will always choose loyalty to what their users want in order to maintain and grow site traffic, not necessarily the employers who advertise and post job openings through them. Always be open to new ways of doing things to keep up with the rapid changes that can and will occur.

Contact us today

Now that you have the knowledge needed to become a Jedi Master of job postings, be sure to arm yourself with the right “lightsaber” to defend your staffing agency from the dark side of low job order submittals. The right technology can help streamline recruiting processes and make it easier to manage temporary talent while simultaneously enhancing the candidate experience. To learn more about how our staffing solutions can help find high-quality talent efficiently and effectively while staying competitive with online job postings, then contact us to schedule a demo today! You can also reach out to us with questions about staffing software, contract recruitment or anything else you need help with. We’d love to help.