Getting The Most Out of
Your
Recruiting Software Investment
By Tim Giehll, CEO.
eEmpact.com
As with any investment, your software
system must be used to the fullest extent possible to get the maximum return on
that investment. Are you getting all that your software has to offer? Many
recruiting organizations use only about 60 percent of the capability of their
software systems, according to an October, 2003 software satisfaction survey of
359 recruiting firms, ranging in size from large nationals to single offices.
Improving that figure, even by a little bit, could make a world of
difference—not only to overall efficiency, but also to the bottom line.
Is it Broke?
The
first step in getting the most out of your software is to review how well your
current system is being used to improve productivity, and then focus on areas in
which it needs to become more effective.
Talk to the people who use the system day in and day out, who are concerned
with how quickly they can get from one screen to the next and how quickly they
can access the information they need to do their jobs. Ask them specifically
what software functions would help them provide quicker responses and how they
would like the system to be customized to streamline their daily communications
with candidates. Employees are attuned—often much more than owners and
managers—to how the system can be used to make the company more
efficient.
Although it may not be practical to involve every employee or
customer in this assessment, a cross-section should be consulted. The important
thing to remember is to always involve your employees, as well as your customers
or hiring managers, in assessing your software systems. Their input is vital in
deciding how to best improve or upgrade those systems in a way that balances the
needs of everyone involved.
A Good Fit Can't Be Forced
If the assessment of your current system
reveals that it is time for new software, don't make the mistake of focusing only
on the new technology. Don't be too concerned about whether a system is
Web-based with Java or Web-enabled through Citrix, for example. Instead, look at
how access to the Internet will specifically enable you and your employees to
better run your operation.
Look carefully at ways to improve your entire
business process. What better time to do this than when you're introducing a new
system? That's the time to look at what you're doing and institute any changes
that can help make your business more efficient. With input from your employees,
develop a list of your top 10 business challenges and then work with your
current or new software partner to address each of them. Too many firms merely
incorporate their new software into their old way of operating—which is a big
reason why they end up using only a portion of their systems. Industry leader
Georgia Pacific had been working with 47 different recruiting partners and would
have continued with that number if they had not combined technology and process
improvements to be able to reduce that number down to just 14.
One example of this is what happened with customer relationship management (CRM) systems in the
1990s. Companies installed them without changing their own processes to take
maximum advantage of the new technology, and as a result they didn't get full
value out of them. As service organizations, you should make sure your CRM
systems are truly helping you make more calls to candidates, provide quicker and
more accurate responses to hiring managers, and spend more time with customers.
Improving your internal processes requires a tough look at exactly what you and
your employees do on a daily basis and then challenging every one of those tasks
to see if it should be eliminated, automated, or left alone.
Bells and Whistles Are Just Noise
In the din of a software system's bells and whistles, it's easy
to be distracted by the technology and lose sight of your company's real needs.
This, of course, misses the whole point of the software, which is to help make
your company more productive—not to dazzle you with features you may not
really need.
Recruiting software providers have been in a kind of "feature
frenzy" for the past decade, adding lots of features, when most customers just
need a good, basic, solid recruiting solution. Bells and whistles are nice, but
it is the core of the product that has the largest impact on your ability
to improve productivity. You need to be able to communicate with your customers,
to match employees' skills with the needs of those customers, to process
accurate candidate matches, and so on.
Revisit your list of top 10 business challenges every 6 months and talk to your software partner about how its
software solution can help you address those problem areas. After such a review,
Corbett Personnel Services was able to use a new remote candidate entry module,
which eliminated paper application forms, streamlined front desk operations and
productivity, and saved 15 minutes of time and $.50 of cost per application.
Because the economy, your employees, and your customers are constantly changing,
you need to demand that your software partner be as much of a productivity
consultant as it is a software supplier.
Tout Your Technology
You can gain a
considerable competitive advantage by giving candidates and customers an
overview of your recruiting system and explaining why your systems will allow
your firm to provide better service. And when your firm invests in new
technology, don't keep it a secret. Differentiate your company from your
competitors by showing customers the system you invested in and how it will
enable you to better serve them year after year.
Shop Before You Buy
Before
selecting a recruiting software system, look carefully at the financial
viability of the supplier by ordering a Dun & Bradstreet report on the
company and looking at its financial stress score. If the financial stress class
score is a 2–5 and not a Low Risk #1, walk the other way. This is especially
important in the current economic climate. There are more than 120 recruiting
software vendors in the marketplace, but that number is sure to dwindle in the
months ahead. When suppliers shut their doors, their customers are going to be
left out in the cold, with no support.
Technology has become more important than
ever before for recruiting organizations as competition intensifies. Reducing
costs through automation is one important way to improve productivity and
profitability. Many organizations downsized in the face of the recession. Now,
as the economy recovers, it is essential that your business is able to grow in
the most efficient way possible. Getting the right recruiting software system in
place today, and using it to maximum advantage, can go a long way toward helping
improve productivity and profits.
The first step in getting the most out of your
software is to review how well your current system is being used to improve
productivity.
Ø Talk to the people who use the system day in and day out.
Ø It is important to pay attention to customer and candidate relationship functions in
addition to those of résumé matching.
Ø Your software solution should be more than just a simple "catch and match" solution.
Ø Look carefully at ways to improve your entire business process.
Ø In the din of a software system's bells and whistles, it is easy to be distracted by the technology and lose sight of
your company's real needs.
Ø When your firm invests in new technology, don't keep
it a secret.
By Tim Giehll, CEO.
eEmpact.com
Tim Giehll brings more than
25 years of experience as a technology visionary
to his post as CEO of eEmpACT Software, a
multimillion-dollar software company focused on providing productivity applications to the U.S. staffing,
recruiting and consulting industry.
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