Counting coppers: how much to spend on your recruitment software
We’d love to give you one single amount that you need to set aside, but even you know that no fix is that quick. Every recruitment agency is different, recruits across different industries and has a million different needs. All of these factors will affect how much money needs to come out of your budget, and while we can’t set your mind at ease with a single figure, we can tell you what you should be thinking about to get you closer to that number.
Why do you need it?
What has got you to this point in the first place? Why have you started considering recruitment software, or a change in software? What has stopped working with your other methods? Answering these questions will shine a light on your business requirements, which will help you understand what kind of CRM you actually need.
What’s important?
Sit down with an array of people across your business and determine the priorities. Don’t make the mistake of having this conversation with the senior management team behind closed doors, it’s the worst thing you could do. When talking about recruitment software you need to involve every single corner of your business from the consultants in the trenches to the payroll staff, to the legal team and the marketing gurus. The more the merrier. Everyone has different priorities and your recruitment software needs to work across your entire business, not just for one corner of it.
What do people want?
Give the people what they want. Well maybe not everything they want, but you need to start having conversations with your consultants about what they need and expect from a recruitment CRM. This stage is overlooked entirely (and surprisingly) far too much. Find out what every department needs and what they, in an ideal world, want. Once you have all the answers, split it out into essential and non-essential features. This will help when you’re shopping around later.
But how much should I spend?
It always comes back to this question, and before you start working it out, determine how much you spend now on all your recruitment efforts. That’s everything from paid job adverts to job boards to any agency fees you may pay. All this adds up to your current recruiting fees and will give you the right starting point. With the right recruitment software, you will be able to reduce some of these costs.
Answering those questions will get you to the right point and you can start shopping around for the perfect recruitment CRM for your agency. It can get daunting and when it does, just remember how much the cost of bad hires cost your agency every year.
If you’re still holding your head in your hands and not sure where to start, just give us a call and we’ll have a chat.
