Reasons why your agency should be using tech to win RPO business..
Why?
It’s a simple formula. When your recruitment agency is more forward thinking, more sophisticated and more tech advanced, you stand a better chance of hooking in the most lucrative clients. You will also have much more control, visibility and transparency over recruitment which results in far better engagement all round for both your clients and candidates applying for roles.
You can also justify your fees, add greater value and in doing so charge more for your services.
When your recruitment business is using technology that can offer improved outcomes, it’s reasonable to quote prices that are higher than a recruitment firm that provides a simpler, less in-depth service.
But the real difference comes in the form of the contract…
More Retained Business = More Profits
When you can offer a more advanced recruitment service that includes tech, It becomes that much easier to convince prospects to hire you on a retained basis, secure longer term/more secure contracts, which will ultimately increase your agencies' profits and exit value.
This is a crucial step in understanding why technology is the key to improving your overall profits.
When you’re working on a contingency basis, you might be able to engage with more clients overall, but this is offset by the fact that you don’t get paid for all of your work.
Most contingency-based recruiters only successfully fill 10-30% of the roles they work on. But even if you’re the outlier and can push that up to 40%, or even 50%, you’re still only getting paid half a day for a full day’s work.
By contrast, when your recruitment business works with a client on a retained basis your typical fill rate is going to be closer to 100%.
This means that retained recruiters can work on half as many roles as the average contingency recruiter,?but actually earn more fees overall.
Fees that are also higher than the industry average.
There is a caveat to all of this though: You need to be able to show your prospects that the recruitment tech is going to produce a MEASURABLE improvement in the eventual outcome.
Use of recruitment tech is becoming increasingly common and you can no longer impress employers simply by showing them the bare minimum.
You need to show them the tech you’re using, and then convince them that it’s essential to getting the result they need.
Tech can help to close more retained business on higher than average terms.
Better client engagement, securing exclusivity & maximizing revenue.
Aside from the above, a few key benefits that tech can offer...
Hiring Manager review & GDPR:?All the information compiled on the shortlisted candidates can be centralized in the one place and presented to the client in an easily-digestible, easily-accessible online format. Emailing a collection of disparate CVs to the employer is massively inconvenient in comparison, so this should be a minimum level of tech for every recruitment business.
Candidate experience:?The candidate can easily apply via their mobile. 80% of all job applications are made via a mobile so if your career's page and on application process isn't mobile friendly, then you are missing out on a trick.
Employer brand:?Fully branded client communication, branded advert templates that can be role specific. Personalized application questions that are relevant to the role and that will help speed up the shortlisting process no end!
Put an end to hiring bias: Creating uniformity around the talent acquisition process helps prevent hiring bias. By having the right tech in place ensures that everyone is going through the same steps, which?protects candidates (and employers) from the risk of unconscious bias. Eliminating unconscious bias in the hiring process also provides the opportunities that come with selecting from a larger pool of talent.
Reach a wider and more diverse target audience of both PASSIVE & ACTIVE job seekers: Integrate with job boards?and social media platforms of your choice. Reduce the time investment of finding, visiting, and posting job openings on sites across the internet. Build your own talent pool and let the tech do the work for you by sending out tailored roles to relevant candidates.
Reporting: If you can't measure it you can't manage it. How do you know what's working and what isn't? Tech can do this for you which will not only advise you going forwards but also during the recruitment campaign, which is key! It also demonstrates to your client that this isn't guess work, we are using data to make informed decisions as we have your best interests at heart.
Why should recruiters use recruitment tech?
Firstly, there is no recruitment pitch that can’t be improved by demonstrating to the prospect the technology that you use. The more transparent you are about your recruitment processes, the more your prospect will come to trust you.
Secondly, and more importantly, if you’re using the right recruitment tech in the right way, it can measurably improve your outcomes and your clients’ experience.
Recruitment tech can be shown to…
Being able to show a prospect that the recruitment tech you’re using can improve the overall outcomes increases the likelihood of the pitch being successful.
How do you pitch recruitment tech to a prospect?
As mentioned earlier, it’s important to show your prospect how your recruitment tech is going to improve their lives.
Ultimately, this boils down to how you can save them time and money.
This is a powerful hook that is responsible for many retained recruitment wins.
Take the time to train your prospect (or use a recruitment tech provider that includes training) on how to use the tech.
You’ll have more success in this area if you can demonstrate to your prospect and recruiters how using the tech will ultimately improve their outcomes and their fees. Otherwise, they’ll eventually stop using the tech and go back to the old way of doing things.
Additionally, everyone loves to hear that you can make their lives easier. Demonstrate how your recruitment tech will reduce their downtime, reduce time spent on decision-making and reduce the number of interviews they’ll need to conduct before making a hire.
The window of opportunity is closing…
We’ve been in this game long enough to remember when using email instead of a fax machine was a big deal.
Things move fast, the recruitment industry has come a long way since then.
Recruitment tech is no longer in the testing phase. It’s here, it’s widely available and it’s proven to improve outcomes for the recruiter, the candidates and the employers.
In short, if you don’t already have at least one piece of recruitment tech operating in your business, you’re going to look like you’re out of touch. We’re almost at the point where employers EXPECT you to be using some kind of technology, it's a given.
The most effective way you can use recruitment tech, right now, is to choose something that makes it easier to win RETAINED contracts, and that is proven to generate more profits for the recruiters that use it.
It will also give your agency a more interesting story to tell and help you stand out from the crowd!
hireful RPS is working with independent recruiters to build out a new service offering that sees you providing a retained service that includes your recruitment services and our tried & tested applicant tracking system. This allows smaller providers to sell an RPO service.
Sound interesting? - If so then please register on our series of 3 expert-led webinars over 3 weeks, each lasting 40 mins.
According to #staffingindustry experts we will see a double-digit demand for RPO services over the next 12 months so there couldn't be a better time to build and launch an RPO service. With this in mind, we are working in partnership with 2 industry experts who will be sharing their insights, secrets & experience of building, selling and implementing RPO solutions to the SME market and touching on how tech can help you do this.
To book your place on our free 3 part webinar series please follow this link Hireful RPS
If you’d like more information or wish to arrange a free demonstration of our tech that can help your agency win more retained business,?then simply email [email protected] or feel free to drop me a line on 07968 338 170.