The world of work is continuously evolving and arising new trends and challenges put hiring managers and recruiters under pressure. The COVID-19 crisis was likely the most disruptive change due to exacerbating existing difficulties and creating new ones.
In 2020, recruitment agencies had to be more agile than ever and adapt to an altered reality where hiring is predominantly remote. Besides shifting to online strategies, recruiting managers also must answer the increasing expectations of their clients.
According to Manpower Group, nearly seven in ten companies have reported talent shortages and difficulty hiring – a 15-year high. Many employers face a lack of qualified candidates in the post-pandemic era, which could imperil their revenues and performance.
Hence, recruitment agencies could have more work than ever, striving to meet the needs of their clients and identify high-quality job applicants in a limited talent pool. The scope of responsibilities might surpass their resources and find them unprepared.
What does that mean for recruitment agencies and their efficiency?
Post-Pandemic Challenges that Could Imperil Efficiency of Recruitment Agencies
Recruitment agencies continuously deal with various difficulties that can stall the hiring process and outrun their resources and efforts. But the pandemic created an additional set of hardships that require strategies that allow recruiters to increase their efficiency.
However, that might be a strenuous undertaking if they lack understanding of the complexity and scope of potential challenges. Hence, the first step recruiters should take towards boosting their performance is identifying what could imperil their initiatives.
Here are the top five difficulties recruitment agencies may face in the post-COVID era.
1. The Great Resignation
Recruiters are dealing with one of the worst talent shortages in the last few decades and with the Great Resignation. People are increasingly quitting their jobs post-pandemic, leaving employers with an urgent need for replacement employees.
That means that recruitment agencies could encounter an influx of companies interested in hiring them, which could be stressful for recruiters.
Moreover, many recruitment agencies will receive proposals from companies with poor conditions for their employees, resulting in resignations. That represents a challenge as recruiters might struggle to find enough interested and qualified candidates.
On the other hand, these companies could have many expectations and requirements to avoid employee turnover. Recruitment agencies that fail to meet these standards risk delivering poor results or losing a customer.
The hiring process itself might not be the only issue. Considering that more companies and businesses might look for recruitment agencies to fill vacant positions, it might be hard to track their contact information.
As a result, recruitment agencies that struggle with client management could find it even harder to navigate their leads in the era of the Great Resignation. Because of that, agencies need efficient collaborative tools and platforms that can help them track clients and keep in touch with them.
2. Lack of Team Collaboration
Communication is crucial in every business. Headhunting agencies are not an exception. Despite typically being small, they must establish a transparent and swift collaboration across all functions.
Although the responsibility for a particular aspect of bringing the vision of a client to life or sourcing candidates depends on hierarchy, everyone should work for the same goal. Hence, recruiters must communicate every step of the process and align activities with the overall objective.
But the pandemic has caused a strain on communication between C-suite, recruiting managers, and recruiters due to shifting work to a remote setting. Hence, if the account manager forgets to share information with the hiring manager, they might not meet the needs of their clients.
Because of that, recruitment agencies should ensure that remote work and hiring don’t disrupt their communication. Everyone should be on the same page and share updates, documents, and data.
Tight-knit collaboration is essential for efficiency as it enables quick procedures and a data-driven approach. However, every recruitment agency should leverage tools that foster transparent communication and teamwork across the organizational structure.
3. Inadequate Tech Tools
Digital transformation and hybrid forms of work require a potent tech infrastructure that increases the efficiency of a recruitment agency. Relevant tech tools can help recruitment agencies navigate the ever-evolving world and communicate internally and externally with more ease.
Without an all-encompassing software, recruiters could find it challenging to delegate tasks and track what each of them is doing. They should continuously be in the loop with the assignments and activities of their team members to keep clients engaged.
That is a challenging task as recruitment agencies might be handling multiple clients with multiple open vacancies in the post-pandemic period. Because of that, headhunting agencies should leverage a centralized platform that gives equal access to everyone involved.
Those that fail to adapt to tech requirements of the future of work and, instead, maintain manual processes could struggle to detect qualified candidates for their clients. Recruitment agencies must have sufficient technological capacities that drive their efficiency and back-up every step of the recruitment process.
4. Insufficient Software Training
Although not every recruitment agency had the adequate equipment for the shift to remote hiring, many already had top-notch tools and platforms to speed up their processes. Yet, having recruitment software might not be enough if recruiters and hiring managers do not know how to use it.
Sadly, chief officers and supervisors often expect their employees to use new technology without any support. Besides being stressful for recruiters, this can also be detrimental to earning and retaining new clients.
Hiring managers and recruiters should have comprehensive knowledge of every tool they will use in their day-to-day work to deliver the best results. Adequate technological infrastructure may be essential for the post-pandemic realm, but if the team of recruiters knows little to nothing about the new software, they will likely make mistakes.
Because of that, engaging and informative training is a must. Before introducing new technologies, recruitment agencies should first get a buy-in from the whole team.
The next step is to prepare an in-depth and interactive training that allows your sales team and recruiters to learn software features first-hand. There should be no doubts about the possibilities of new systems to ensure employees get the most out of it.
5. Better Prepared Competition
Many businesses wrongly believe that staying afloat after the pandemic is enough. Even though they must first adapt to the new realm, mistakes and delays could be detrimental to an agency.
Productivity must remain the same as before the COVID crisis or increase. Otherwise, another, more prepared recruitment agency will woo clients and outperform its competitors.
Most people and companies questioned their lives, careers, and decisions during the pandemic. As a result, the majority refuses to settle for the average or anything that could lead to uncertainties.
Hence, every recruitment agency should strive for excellence to attract and retain clients and make sales. That means having transparent communication, efficient strategies, relevant technology, and ease of collaboration.
Prospective clients will quickly identify agencies that aren’t ready for a highly responsible undertaking and look elsewhere. Thus, the Great Resignation will force companies to take no risks and only hire recruitment agencies that source the best talents.
But what’s the safest way to convert leads, run successful recruitment, and boost efficiency? – The goal is to leverage technology that helps recruitment agencies achieve these objectives and navigate the challenging post-pandemic future.
The Tight-Knit Connection Between Recruitment Tools and Efficiency
The time of manual processes is long gone. Although recruitment and customer management will always include tasks and undertakings that depend solely on human capabilities, automation can take care of all the tedious assignments.
Collecting data in spreadsheets, tracking clients’ data in Excel, and traditional background checks take too much time and hinder productivity. Because of that, many businesses and recruitment agencies are turning to tools that can maximize their efforts and speed up activities.
It’s no wonder that 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies use recruitment software. Thus, 68 percent of recruiting professionals say that the best way to improve recruitment performance over the next five years is by investing in new hiring technology.
Inevitably, tech is becoming a regular part of HR, and recruitment agencies should benefit from this shift. Due to automation, customer management, data-driven approach, and efficiency are in a tight-knit relationship with recruitment tools.
Recruitment tools enable hiring managers, recruiters, and sales teams to streamline their processes, be more agile, and boost productivity. These methods are ideal for automating procedures and activities that don’t require human supervision or handling.
Although some may say that’s a shortcut to humans losing jobs to artificial intelligence, tech allows people to focus on other assignments that generate higher value. For instance, recruitment tools can act as a support to recruiters.
They optimize productivity, analyze data, ensure accuracy, and nurture continuous communication. Moreover, recruitment tools help headhunting agencies develop and foster lasting relationships with clients and boost their engagement.
However, various types of tools answer different kinds of needs. For recruitment agencies that aim to improve relations with their customers and enhance recruitment, the best option is a tool called Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
According to a Findstack survey, 74 percent of respondents said that CRM solutions give them better access to customer data, enabling a personalized service. It makes sense that by 2028, CRM technology should be worth around 128.97 billion USD worldwide.
An increasing number of businesses are purchasing a recruitment CRM to improve their hiring process, productivity, and collaboration. Before deciding to invest in this recruitment tool, here’s what you should know about CRM and its benefits.
How Can Recruitment CRM Enhance the Efficiency of Recruitment Agencies?
Recruitment CRM represents a set of software solutions that provide features that allow companies to coordinate communication with prospective leads and clients. Businesses typically use it to boost their revenues, strengthen relationships with customers and stakeholders, and collect and organize data.
CRM differs from candidate relationship management software due to focusing on business leads and developing connections with customers. Here is how integrating a recruitment CRM could help your team be more efficient.
1. Data Accuracy
Spreadsheets are still the principal data storage for many headhunting agencies. Although this isn’t innately wrong, it can result in inaccuracies due to poor data management or insufficient attention.
However, a small mistake can cause severe failures as you risk working with incorrect information. If you misunderstand the details of available vacancies, the recruitment timeline, or the client’s goals, you could enter an endless loop of errors.
It’s no surprise that many headhunting agencies only understand where they went wrong after delivering their results to the client. Getting your agency in this situation means you could lose resources, time, and a customer.
In the post-pandemic era, where companies might have higher expectations due to facing the Great Resignation, making these kinds of mistakes could damage your reputation.
Moreover, submitting inaccurate results could make you come off as unprofessional. As a result, you could find it challenging to convert leads in the future and retain your long-time customers.
Hence, you should avoid potentially unfavorable online reviews and negative customer experiences at all costs. The safest way to achieve that is to incorporate a recruitment CRM and ensure customer retention.
Moreover, this software will ensure every detail is correct, allowing your team to focus on other aspects of building a relationship with the client. With a CRM, data is centralized in one place, and everyone involved can access it with ease.
2. Track and Manage Customers
With an all-encompassing CRM, you’ll be able to input all customer and potential clients details seamlessly. That will make it easier to create an accurate profile of your leads and approach them adequately.
You will no longer have to keep information in spreadsheets or files scattered all around. Instead, names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, key contact individuals, and industries will be in one place that you can access with one click.
As a result, you’ll have the essential information at your disposal, allowing you to keep up with the market and operate on accurate data. Thus, CRM has other benefits that help your headhunting agency increase efficiency.
As software with an uncluttered dashboard, you’ll find it easy to monitor the status of all your clients and potential leads. That means that you’ll track customer profiles and their progress levels simultaneously, without overlooking any detail.
Moreover, a recruitment CRM has a pipeline view, enabling you to organize contacts according to your needs. As soon as you add someone into your customer pool, you’ll get the ability to track their progress throughout the process and drive sales.
3. Swift Customer Data Accessibility Anywhere
Many hiring managers and recruiters are working remotely, making it tempting to perform tasks from their mobile phones when possible. Yet, if all the customer data is in the office or on a company computer they can’t access from home, that can be tricky.
With a top-notch CRM, your team can register and find information from anywhere. Location is not an issue with cloud-based software, such as Manatal’s Customer Relationship Management system.
As a result, you’ll be able to access everything you need, no matter if you’re in the office or using your phone. CRM provides a data entry solution that allows you to establish a database without any trouble and use it as the situation requires.
4. Enhance Strategies for Leads Conversion
Once you integrate a recruitment CRM, you’ll have access to every detail concerning lead conversion progress. That way, you’ll notice if the process is slower than usual, allowing you to identify setbacks and tweak your strategies.
You’ll get the chance to direct your efforts in the right direction and ensure leads are moving up the pipeline, reacting positively to your initiatives. Moreover, CRM enables pipeline customization, making management effortless.
Thanks to that, you can align it with your sales process and determine its structure, simplifying the dashboard and making it more accessible to your team members.
It also allows to assign a particular recruiter to each customer and track whether they’re advancing through the funnel. That also makes conversion more likely because each recruiter can dedicate their time to their prospective customer and instill trust.
Besides, CRM software allows you to set follow-up schedules, decide how often you’ll contact the leads and when you’ll call them.
5. Improved Team Collaboration
With recruitment CRM and auto-sync data tools, all team members can track information and drive business together. However, it’s recommendable to choose software that goes beyond backtracking data.
For example, Manatal’s CRM includes a communication interface that enables hiring managers and recruiters to contact everyone involved in the process right on the platform. As a result, they can send event invites, e-mail messages, or add notes.
Moreover, no one needs to worry that the information will get lost because the system features an autosave option, ensuring that every team member sees data relevant to their assignments. This tool also makes it easy to check data from the previous year or revisit customers and leads.
Conclusion
Maintaining customer relationships and lasting connections is a challenging task that requires support from technology and automation. Tools such as recruitment CRM allow headhunting agencies to improve their strategies and boost efficiency.
However, it’s non-negotiable to choose an all-encompassing recruitment CRM that is reliable and enables you to navigate recruitment in the post-pandemic era with ease. Manatal offers an advanced recruitment CRM that ensures a seamless collaboration and leads conversion.
Try our 14-day free trial and take your customer relationship management to the next level.
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