Speed is of the essence for every recruiting business; be it temporary, contract or permanent recruitment sector. Margins matter everywhere irrespective of the high volume of low volume recruitment. How can recruitment and staffing companies deliver efficient qualitative service while generating higher profitability?

To deliver quality services, review, refine and map your processes.

Why must recruitment business owners review processes from time-to-time is critical for every business function?

1. Get insights on the tasks and activities your team are spending time on
2. Review if the time spent on those tasks and activities is helping achieve the objective to both the individual and the company
3. Identify the majority of time spent on processes and is the movement worth time? (Follow Pareto principle, 20% activity results into 80% output), review which 20% they should be spending their 80% time on that can help you achieve the overall business objective, i.e., £s  in profitability
4. Helps define core v/s none core and if your team needs assistance
5. Determine which tasks can be eliminated, i.e., steps that hardly generate any tangible output, but you have been doing them because of legacy processes, and nobody reviewed it for years
6. Easy to lift and shift operations when outsourcing or partnering with an offshore RPO

Defining and implementing process and systems has several benefits that directly impact your bottom line.

1. Increased speed of filling the vacancy: Mapped processes bring clarity across the board, leaving the ambiguity completely out and ensuring speed. Why, because everyone knows what they are supposed to follow and work on.

2. Reduces no shows: When you have mapped realistic scenarios on the reasons for no shows, you try and mitigate those risks by implementing processes that reduce no shows. Everyone across the team follows the process, guess what happens, reduction in the number of back-outs and now shows.

3. Improves the quality of hire and overall recruiting process: When you are mapping every process right from sourcing new business to candidates, compliance, recruiting and payroll, you are improving the quality of your service. It will reflect your overall output ranging from fill rate, % of no shows, happy clients, and candidates.

4. Generate more referrals, both client and candidates

5. Increased fill rate: It is a no brainer; mapped and streamlined processes improve productivity, resulting in an increased fill rate.

6. Improved margins: More effective your processes and systems, better the yield and final output.

7. Drive operating profit: Less wastage leads to better productivity which leads to improved operating profit.

8. Helps as a training manual for new joiners – Less time to get the new hires off the ground

9. Increased new business: It puts you in a positive light when negotiating new business. It is always good to present the HR or the procurement team with the processes and systems you have that will add value to your clients against turning up for a meeting with a pitch of “we will fill your jobs.”

10. Increased client and candidate satisfaction

Map, review and refine the processes:

If you own a large business and have cash and resources at your disposal, recruit experienced business excellence professionals with a six sigma or lean background. These specialists will not just review and refine but also measure the overall output from the grass-root level perspective.

If you can’t recruit a dedicated business excellence professional, don’t worry, you can still work on defining and refining the processes to get you up and running. Don’t know where to start, start here….

One of the best ways that work is mapping the processes. You can make a list of steps for every task, for starters—basic example below.
1. Review job
2. log in to the ATS
3. Match candidates on the ATS
4. Contact candidates (Map the contacting process, i.e. 1st contact via phone, 2nd via text, email using standard templates, etc.)
5. Discuss 1 to 10 questions (Whatever is applicable for your industry)
6. So on…..

What must be included in the process and a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document? Examples below
1. Objective
2. Decision making, i.e., what happens when the candidates don’t answer the call.
3. What to do if the client is not available on the call and want to update them about a particular candidate?
4. What to do if the candidate does not turn up for the job? What is the next step?
5. What happens if the client cancels the job at the last minute?
6. What to do if the references are not in date
7. So on…

You’d say the example process steps and questions mentioned above are straightforward. Everybody working in the temp recruiting sector must know precisely how to manage and respond in every situation.

You can use Microsoft Visio, Lucidchart or a simple word document to prepare a flowchart once you have documented your processes.

In theory, yes. However, several studies are stating how inefficient processes and systems cost companies millions on an average year.

Do not wait; get started! Want free templates defining the Standard Operating Procedures and recruiting function process flows? Email ketan@rpoarena.com using your company email address.