How technology can improve Recruiter workflow.

I once wrote a training manual for a piece of Recruitment software. Not for the company, but for internal use as theirs wasn’t helpful to us. It came about because we constantly had consultants complaining about the program and it being “clunky”. I was astounded as I loved it and thought it made workflow simple. It became apparent that if it wasn’t being used properly it was in fact an incredibly clunky product.

We set about creating a recruitment workflow, covered a room with post-its looking at everything and anything that could occur from the time a job came in to the time an invoice was paid, and this became the framework for the manual.

This was a long time ago and things are very different now, CRM’s are designed with exactly this premise in mind and every step of the way there’s likely to be a “?” or something similar, to access real time or community support.

But I still think the same issues apply in terms of the end user. Recruiters are busy people. Any given day is spent juggling multiple roles, multiple candidates and always on the hunt for the next piece of business. I believe there are still plenty of consultants out there not utilising the software available to them effectively.

Furthermore, the tech landscape is changing every day. There is a man on the moon style race for workflow automation with all the major players vying to deliver the most effective, online, mobile, automated service. Platforms also realised long ago that they didn’t need to provide an everything to every man solution. With a strong core product and the ability for seamless integration, other technologies could prop up their systems shortcomings.

Email, calendar, job board and social network integrations and CV parsing are just a few of the basic tools that are simply expected. But not all these things are an included given. Some platforms use external technology for all these aspects and with each add-on comes an additional cost. So whilst the cloud based pay-per-user products made recruitment software a much more convenient and economical product that the enterprise style alternatives, the costs can still add up. In other words, it pays to shop around and investigate the offerings out there.

So what is the next “big thing” in recruitment technology? Well it isn’t new, but it is certainly proliferating, and that is “onboarding tools”. The rise in the “gig-economy” mentality, and the ever-increasing use of contingent workforce is driving an urgent need for robust on boarding and workforce management solutions. There are many currently in circulation, some address only certain requirements, others are more broader solutions covering everything from onboarding to rostering but at the end of the day the greatest value will come from the ones that can integrate with your existing CRM as this will save time and we all know time = money!

That being said (this may seem like a counterintuitive suggestion after saying your time=money, but a day of your time to plan will save you plenty of time down the track!), I suggest you set aside a day to look at your business plan for this year. Are you going to be working on perm only solutions or will your clients need assistance with their contingent workforce also? Look at what tools you use, be that email, social media, job boards etc. Make a list and use this to review your technology needs and use this as a basis for your CRM selection. Remember, the technology you land on doesn’t need to be able to do it ALL, but it does need to be able to integrate with other systems to cover off all your requirements.

One final thought… I know there are still many out there who think their inbox and address book is all they need. I urge you to consider otherwise. There is so much technology available these days that can truly improve workflow. Technology isn’t likely to take your job, but a competitor using it effectively might beat you to a placement.