Running a staffing firm that is successful is one thing, but managing things when they arent going well is entirely different. It is difficult to see all of the issues from the inside, and sometimes an objective, third-party opinion is necessary to efficiently figure out the real issues plaguing your organization.
Having a clear-cut strategy is key to establishing a competitive advantage over your competition. It can make the difference between a staffing firms success and failure.
Recruiting Factors has been assisting underperforming staffing firms with business process re-engineering since its inception. Based on our work we have developed a list of a few key areas that affect the firms performance.
1. Evaluate your people and restructure as necessary.
If the staff at your firm are not making an impact, it is time to let them go. Keeping employees around who are costing you money is bad business. You essentially are burning money on individuals who are not making your firm any money.
2. Assess your technology and replace time-wasters with moneymakers.
Increasing efficient use of your applicant tracking system can make all the difference in how your recruiters and your agency as a whole perform. Professional experience has shown us that often times one of the biggest issues plaguing different staffing firms is the use of outdated or inefficient technology. When this is the case, employees are forced to create work arounds to how the system is supposed to work.
3. Reassess your processes and eliminate the unnecessary.
Do you have processes in place that your recruiters and sales people follow during the day-to-day operations at your firm? If not, you need to implement them. If so, are they being adhered to or is the process broken? Identify the issues in your processes, fix whats broken and replace what isnt working at all. Sometimes something as simple as a little extra training is the difference between firms that succeed and those that underperform.
4. Analyze your performance expectations and adjust accordingly.
Have you set performance expectations for your staff and are they meeting them? People are 41% more likely to accomplish goals that have been written down. So make your performance expectations clear and keep them visible. Integrating these expectations into the system you are already using makes them easy to track and pushes your team towards achieving them. Measure and monitor what really matters and determine realistic performance expectations. For instance, if a recruiter is great at search, they dont necessarily need to be making 75+ calls daily.
An experienced staffing firm advisor will do everything from developing new processes to hiring and firing employees. If you are looking to bring one in, be prepared to make some major, sometimes uncomfortable changes. The process can be painful, but the end result is a staffing agency that returns to profitability.
If you are interested in learning more about how we can help your staffing firm perform more efficiently, we invite you to set up a free consultation using the button below.
