We’ve all had that same feeling coming out of a Quarterly Review Meeting when placements are seeming to stagnate and the same old reasons arise such as:
“It’s such a candidate driven market at the moment”
“Maybe it’s Brexit worries”
“It’s just that time of year”
But is that really the answer? Granted, recruitment does happen in cycles and these reasons might be part of the problem but, sooner or later, you may begin to question whether the technology you have is up to the challenge of a competitive market. But how to tell?
Here’s 6 signs for identifying whether you need new recruitment software.
1. Your consultants complain about how much time they waste on admin tasks
As a recruiter, time is precious. So it’s no surprise that they want to spend the majority of it as efficiently as possible, whether it’s meeting prospective clients or preparing candidates for an upcoming interview. For this to happen, you need an easy-to-use recruitment software that can streamline administrative processes and support consultants’ daily activities. Ask your recruiters how much time in a week they devote to recruitment and administration respectively and record the average.
2. You keep getting caught out on compliance
The consequences of not effectively ensure all your temporary workers compliance is completed can be catastrophic. For example, temporary recruitment for nurses requires an extensive amount of documents and candidates must be 100% compliant before they begin any employment, for obvious reasons. Once your recruitment software is configured correctly, it will provide you with a better tool to ensure your temporary candidates get compliant and remain compliant, taking the responsibility away from manual tracking and reducing the risk of mistakes or candidates working and not being fully compliant.
3. Recruitment consultants are using Excel to recruit
Excel is a fantastic resource in its own right for myriad reasons but, by recording data outside of your recruitment CRM, your recruitment consultants can, in effect, render the searching, reporting and analysis functions of your software ineffective. The most common reasons why this happens are:
- Consultants haven’t had adequate training to use the software
- Consultants don’t recognise the importance of storing all of your data in one system
- Your recruitment software isn’t configured correctly
Two of these reasons are relatively simple to fix. However, if your software isn’t configured correctly, recruiters will always find a way to speed up their daily processes in an effort to hit their targets, even if that means bypassing the software. If this is happening with more than one recruitment consultant, its time to review your software’s configuration / functionality.
4. The majority of your placements are “reactive recruitment”
By relying on recruitment software solely as a database, you cannot effectively track and nurture passive candidates – making your primary source of recruitment activity reactive. This usually equates to a desperate rush on job boards and LinkedIn to see how quickly new candidates can be found, registered and presented to the client. With effective recruitment software, you should be able to search your existing talent pools and use your recruitment CRM as the first port of call for any new vacancy. These candidates are already registered and trust your agency to be proactive with discussing roles with them. This not only has the advantage of being quicker but also allows you to provide a slicker candidate experience.
5. Your CRM is a dusty library rather than a bustling resource
As well as aiding your consultants with speed-of-hire, your recruitment CRM should contribute as a valuable resource for tracking, monitoring and nurturing client relationships. If your recruitment consultants only use the software as a digital filing cabinet for storing information, either your team isn’t maximising its functionality or it is time to review whether your current solution is right for you.
6.You don’t have a clear picture of how your team is performing
If your data isn’t clean or your recruitment software isn’t being used correctly, the searching and reporting tools will also be fruitless. If you can’t see how your team is performing, it is impossible to identify trends within your agency and trends within your sector. If you cannot benefit from your recruitment software, you either need to change your processes or recognise whether your current solution is the right fit for your business model.
Thinking about investing in new recruitment software? Download our complete guide and feel prepared to make the right decision.
