Guide to buying recruitment software: what to consider
Investing in recruitment software is a long-term decision that requires careful consideration.
Get it right, and you will benefit from streamlined operations, lower operating costs and enhanced efficiencies, all of which will boost placements and the overall effectiveness of your company.
The earlier you invest in recruitment technology, the quicker you can scale your agency with automation and processes that grow with you.
What is recruitment software?
Recruitment software is designed to help recruitment agencies manage and automate their processes so they can efficiently place permanent and temporary workers with their clients.
Recruitment software automates admin and workflows to improve productivity so recruitment consultants can concentrate on dedicating time to their candidates and clients.
Today, progressive agencies are looking for systems that provide them a competitive advantage and help improve recruiter productivity.
In a recruitment agency, this will include:
- Recruitment website – essential in today’s digital world to help you attract candidates, clients and consultants
- Recruitment CRM with video interview capabilities – the backbone of your business where all candidate and client relationships are managed
- Background Checking Software - for full compliance management
- Pay and bill software – so you can pay your workers and invoice your clients for cashflow management
Integrating your front office CRM functions with back-office administration helps drive productivity that leads to growth.
What are the benefits of using recruitment software?
Future-proof your agency with recruitment technology
- In today’s data-driven, automated world, you’ll want your recruitment agency to be as productive and efficient as possible. That’s where recruitment technology can provide a competitive advantage. This permits tasks to be completed quicker than any human can achieve the same.
- As a mirror to our personal lives, in our professional lives, we are surrounded by tech. In every walk of life, we need to select the tech that is going to be of most benefit. Speed is everything in recruitment.
- Recruitment agencies – of all sizes – are competing for candidates whilst also managing client expectations and demands. Through the power of progress and evolution, technology is now able to do more and provide recruiters the key to unlocking their potential.
Minimises repetitive, admin-heavy tasks
- With the advantages listed above, recruitment technology accelerates the process and becomes automated, thereby enabling your talent to focus on building relationships with candidates and hiring managers.
- Monotony becomes a thing of the past. What’s more, recruitment technology can also integrate with third-party job boards so when you have written your fantastic advert, you can post immediately and receive responses directly against the campaign you have launched in your CRM.
Consistent forms of data collation
- Like many industries, data collation and analysis means agencies can identify trends, growth and training opportunities. With so much power at your fingertips, understanding of performance is realised more easily.
- With so much power at your fingertips, understanding of performance is realised more easily.
Central place for candidate data makes it easier to find suitable candidates
- Having a CRM encourages consultants to find suitable candidates which help with quicker placements. As an example, searches can be undertaken to find candidates close to the job spec requirements and thereby pleasing your client and delighting your head of business because you are performing an aimless search issuing an ad on a job board which takes a lot of time to harvest results.
- Using a recruitment CRM to search can be highly targeted around requirements of the job description – time is therefore the friend of consultant rather than wait for an ad to reap any results.
Your CRM and recruitment technology is always on
- With automation now able to manage many activities previously mastered by human counterparts, this work can take place 24/7.
- When consultants log off at the end of the working day, your recruitment website, CRM, and other technology will always be working on the automated processes you have assigned. Then you’ll be ready for another working day engaging with clients and attracting candidates.
Watch our video to see how our product portfolio will help Attract. Manage. Pay.
How to choose the right recruitment software for your agency?
Identifying the right technology for agency relies on a number of factors. This includes (but is not exclusive to) you knowing your market sector, whether you are temp or perm focused (for screening requirements), your strategy and growth plan and budget, which naturally needs to be considered.
Start-ups are the perfect example of adopting technology at the earliest opportunity so they can scale up with technology that can grow with them. Choose a recruitment agency software provider that can help you with implementation to minimise the disruption to routines.
Any technology you choose from then will then have to integrate with the systems identified so they can help you grow in your sector and match the strategic plan you have carefully designed.
What steps to take when buying recruitment software?
Implementing recruitment technology can be a nerve-wracking decision-making process because once a judgement has been made it could be a costly decision to reverse what’s been the decision.
However, to keep you calm through the process here’s a mini checklist guide to buying your cloud recruitment software.
1. Understand the pain points
Find the pain points from each department and team and understand what they’re struggling with. Empower your teams and colleagues. Understand what processes there are and how technology can help facilitate change and an uplift in productivity. Naturally, what your back-office team need will hugely differ from the sales consultants managing the front office and it’s important that your new recruitment software works for all the business, not just parts of it.
2. Listen and gain buy-in
Draw up a report based on your findings and communicate it back to the teams. Make sure problems won’t arise because communication has been poor. Taking the time to get buy-in early on very much changes the buying process.
3. Implement necessary process improvements
Ask yourself, and your teams, what is critical and what would be nice to have. Clearly separate the two into categories so you understand where you can compromise and what you in fact need to operate. Recruitment software shopping is often full of bells and whistles and shiny objects that very easily catch your attention and draw your eye, leaving you with a fancy product that doesn’t actually do what you need it to.
4. Establish a budget for recruitment technology implementation
Understand what budget you have available and your limitations. Consider other factors like cost savings in other areas too if you are thinking about the longer-term future of your agency. For example, whether you will save on IT or hosting costs and use your staff more wisely as their time will be freed up from manual tasks.
5. Take all stakeholders on a journey
Get sign-off by all members of your board and stakeholders to avoid any nasty surprises or arguments later down the line when you’re halfway through signing your new software provider.
6. Be diligent in your shortlisting of providers
Create shortlists of the providers you initially like and the ones you think might be able to fulfil your needs. Lists, shared docs, collaborative digital spaces and shared folders will be the thing that saves you through this process and keeps everyone on the same page.
7. Seek out and read reviews
Ask peers, ask clients, ask Google and ask around. Recommendations are vital at this point as people have already spent time using the software and understand what works and what doesn’t. They’re already in the trenches with it. Any good recruitment software provider should be able to provide references to speak with or case studies to read.
8. Be thorough with the demonstrations. Ask questions!
Ensure you conduct a thorough demo process and don’t be afraid of being too comprehensive. This is the part you really get to prod and poke and ensure that this piece of technology can work for your business. If needed you can try online demos before launching into full demos and if necessary, ask for a second demo if you’re unsure or want to go through the process again and in more depth. In addition, ensure you bring key individuals from different teams to also test the product as this needs to work across your entire business, not just half of it.
9. Capture feedback, quickly
Get feedback quickly. Try to collect all feedback straight after demos or after meetings so you’re constantly gathering key information. Time moves fast, and consultants get busy, so capturing the right information quickly is key.
10. A 360 process means everyone is on the same side
Talk about everything and discuss it openly with the team. This includes consultants, payroll employees, the finance team and the board. Discussing the opportunities, needs and business requirements with the team dedicated to choosing the software. Picking the right software for recruitment agency is not an insular thing and will require people to get involved and roll up their sleeves. This is a team effort and the more helping hands, the easier it will be.
Remember, the core products you need are a recruitment CRM, a recruitment website, and pay and bill software (like FastTrack360). Additions to this package are nice to haves, depending on what process your business needs to focus on.