Recruitment process & workflow optimisation....

We have all heard the saying “Work smarter… not harder” and while this is true, the same applies to the process we follow to complete a task as much as the task itself.

?I have spent 28 years working in the recruitment industry, starting as a 360-degree Recruitment Consultant for contract and permanent recruitment to being a Team Leader, Head of Department and then gained many years' experience working in operational roles on systems, process, technology, training and trend analysis.?This has also allowed me to gain a vast amount of experience in assessing, implementing and managing recruitment process changes to optimise workflow, save time and improve quality.?It has also given me a great insight into the possible challenges faced when introducing new working practices, the reasons for these and what can be done to implement and embed these changes into the new way of working.

There are numerous points to consider when looking at how a task is completed, in which order various stages of workflow are carried out and what other areas of the business may or may not be impacted by a change.

?Example of some questions you need to ask when reviewing your processes: -

• Does this process need to involve as many people to complete it effectively?
• Would this process improve if we utilised different people to complete it?
• Does this process have any legacy work components in it that are no longer required to be carried out?
• Would this process benefit from changing the distribution of work involved to allow more time for sales?
• Does this process need to be done at all?

?While all?changes?do not lead to?improvement, all?improvement?requires?change.?

Another saying I am sure you are all familiar with is: - “If you always do?what?you've always done,?you'll always get?what?you've always got.?

If I go back many years to my manufacturing days for a very simple example: -

Sometimes a product in manufacture would take a rather long, protracted and scenic route around the factory, with many stops to build it the way it had always been assembled.?By just reducing the distance the product travelled around the manufacturing plant, you could save time in the manufacturing process.

?Technically, nothing significant may have changed in the above example, but the time for product to be moved from section to section and worked on again at each stage was reduced. This alone is an improvement to the process and reduces manufacturing time and as such, saves money, thus improving profitability.?

?This in itself is a very simple example of improvement but there are many other considerations to make in completing this type of change to maximise the efficiency of the process.?A few examples are: -

• Is the current process as efficient as it could be or can time be saved in changing it?
• Would some additional or different tools, speed up/improve the process?
• Is the current process able to change to enable more work to carried out in fewer areas of the business to free up beneficial time elsewhere, ie for sales?
• What are the failure points and what can be done to eradicate/reduce these?
• Which procured services/materials could be reviewed to reduce cost?

?The above example can easily be compared to any work process outside of the manufacturing industry too. All of these questions and more are able to be utilised in all workflow processes to challenge the norm and make positive changes to improve efficiency, save time, reduce errors and in turn increase profitability.

?At the end of this type of process review, there can be many changes to introduce and once these become embedded, as the new way of working, a much more robust, stable and efficient process is being followed. This will maximise the output in a more cost-effective way, thus reducing the time to do it, cost and reducing or even eliminating common mistakes previously made with the old process.

If the above type of project is of interest to you or is part of what you need to do in your organisation, please reach out to me to discuss further or maybe even offer me a job as my previous experience will be invaluable to you.