Automation is a fast-growing tool in the staffing industry.
It’s no secret that the adoption of automation platforms such as Sense and Herefish among staffing firms has increased since the start of the pandemic. The need for communication is at an all-time high throughout the entire candidate journey. These platforms allow you to stay in touch with your candidates and clients while ensuring that your processes are followed. You define the trigger, the timing, and the messaging, and the software does the rest. At the end of the day, the goal is impact – improving the experience, becoming a trusted advisor, and increasing ROI.
How do you get started? First: find your gaps.
Before your staffing firm can invest in a platform, you must understand where your gaps lie. They could be in your processes or in your engagement with your candidates and clients. Automation can provide powerful benefits, but without a roadmap of where automation can help you, you’ll be adding another technology to your stack without really understanding where it fits. Wrapping your head around automation opportunities takes time, money, and energy, but the benefits can increase your bottom line.
Automation works behind the scenes to improve three areas:
Engagement
Improve communication with your clients and candidates by creating journeys that check in via text or email. Responses to those automated outreaches can help create a list of active candidates for future placements and plug leaks in the recruiting cycle. Creating touchpoints can keep recruiters and candidates connected…and keep you connected to your employees.
Process
Do you feel like you’re doing too many administrative tasks and not enough selling or recruiting? Improve your team’s productivity by automating repetitive tasks and busywork. Then “spend” the time you save doing productive tasks and make it a double win.
Database
The staffing industry is notorious for bad data. Recruiters come and go—the last reported staffing industry turnover rate was 300%. With so many people making notes in the database, it’s a good idea to have processes in place to ensure your data is clean and current. Garbage in, garbage out, after all. Automation creates a checks and balances system to make sure data quality is the best it can be for a staffing firm.
Still with me? Awesome. Let’s dig a little deeper.
According to Jeff Staats, our Haley Marketing Sense and Herefish wizard, there are several core automations every staffing company should implement right out of the gate.
Here are five “quick win” journeys with easy, measurable ROI.
- Start date reminder. Send a text or an email the day before a candidate begins a new placement. This automation can reduce no-call/no-shows. In fact, it saved one client 42 hours of phone time in one week.
- Re-engagement. Reach out to candidates with matching skill sets when you post a new job. Save money on ads when responses pour in.
- On-assignment. Create an automation asking about a candidate’s first day on the job. Create more touchpoints to keep the conversation going and keep your agency top of mind with candidates.
- Re-deployment. Let an account manager know when a candidate’s job is ending and get them placed in a new one.
- Post applicant. Send a great “thank you for applying” text or email to let a candidate you appreciate them choosing you. Employees who feel valued stick with the company.
If you’re like many of our clients, you’ll want to know if you’re getting value out of your investment.
Measure ROI by documenting how long it takes to do a process, and then multiplying that time by the number of candidates reached by your automation. But don’t stop there. Spend the time saved on productive tasks like selling and recruiting to get the greatest return on your investment.
Don’t have time to do a deep dive into building automations? Simply want to know if you’re “doing it right?” We can help. Our automation optimization experts can audit your platform, build journeys, or provide a second set of eyes.
Want to learn more?
Sign up for our FREE webinar: Sense, Herefish, and Automation, Oh My!
Listen to Haley’s Secrets of Staffing Success podcast: Finding Balance on Social Media with Practical, Useful Automation
Explore Ask Haley: Four Reasons You Should Follow Up with Every Employer and Job Seeker