Getting started in recruitment
June 24th, 2020 | Industry News
Recruit So Simple has been observing the recent changes in the UK economy with interest. One thing that seems to be happening is a small upsurge in the opening of new recruitment agencies. Why? Several reasons:
A depressed economy brings opportunities for new start-ups
While many of us might be hesitant about leaving a good job to start our own business, the effect of COVID-19 has been to cause people to look around and ask themselves if they couldn’t be doing better. The slowing down of the recruitment industry means that we’ve moved from a candidate driven to an employer driven market. This means that good recruitment CRM software can now power through the steps of converting the recruitment process from an applicant tracking system, UK or even worldwide, to a client-led ‘search and onboard’ process. A nimble start up agency can make a great start by focusing on this new paradigm and working closely with a small client base that is just starting to hire again.
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COVID-19 and recruitment – the story continues
June 12th, 2020 | Industry News
Today Recruit So Simple is focusing on the national stage – how is COVID-19 affecting the UK recruitment industry as a whole, and what challenges is recruiting software going to face in the weeks ahead?
The Coronavirus Job Retention scheme has been an interesting development for recruiters – whilst it has underpinned existing positions and given companies a chance to continue recruitment programmes for existing jobs, it has acted as something of a brake both on the creation of new jobs and on the movement of potential candidates who have felt the certainty of an existing position to be much more attractive than the lure of an unknown (and untested) one.
Record numbers of people have used online recruitment resources in the past few months, evidence of the way that web based recruitment software is likely to lead the way in future recruitment initiatives.
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COVID Secure working – what does it mean for the recruitment industry?
May 26th, 2020 | Industry News
Recently, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that “anyone who can’t work from home… should be actively encouraged to go to work”. However, several recruitment bodies have criticised the lack of clarity in the statement. Recruitment software was never designed to cope with current circumstances and yet it will be vital to restoring the UK to a fully-functioning economy.
The needs of workers, including temporary staff, need to be built into any reopening plan, bearing in mind that no business can guarantee a COVID-19 free workplace, and no online recruitment software can deliver certainty about roles, responsibilities and daily tasks in a period of such upheaval.
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Coronavirus – recruiting and retention
May 13th, 2020 | Industry News
So much is up in the air for businesses in the UK, and few businesses have been as impacted as the recruiting industry. Even the best recruiting software cannot answer some of the questions being posed by, and to, the recruitment sector. Such as those about the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). This scheme, which looked like a solution for much of the temporary employment sector, is still confusing many recruiters. Promised by the government, it cannot come soon enough for the UK’s temporary worker sector. It’s not clear whether holiday pay can be included in that 80% salary sum that can be claimed back from the government pot. This means that many recruiters are expecting to cover that payroll cost (12.7%) themselves. Others believe that they can include holiday pay in the 80% and that they will be refunded by HMRC. The confusion comes because furlough allows employers to ask their employees to vary holiday entitlement, but as there is a statutory 5.6 weeks paid leave, this must presumably be covered – whether by the employer or HMRC.
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Digital recruitment – a Recruit So Simple guide
April 28th, 2020 | Industry News
The COVID-19 lockdown has disrupted every aspect of our lives: home, work, social, romance – everything… but when it comes to keeping businesses running, or at least ticking over, there’s quite a lot of help around. Government grants and loans, business support seminars, banks offering payment holidays etc.
We have our contribution to make too. While many businesses are mothballed, others are working against the clock: research teams seeking vaccines, builders refurbishing premises to become hospitals, and frontline staff in many sectors. How can recruitment software help?
Well, digital recruitment has to be open and transparent, as well as cost effective and precise.
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Coronavirus and recruitment – the current impacts
April 16th, 2020 | Industry News
Even the most basic recruitment database software reveals that COVID-19 has had immense impacts on the UK job market. From a record employment high of 33 million in January, recruiting in many sectors has slowed, hiring freezes are commonplace and job losses are certain to follow. Volatility in the market is commonplace – much recruiting software has been scrambling to keep up with the need to find applicants for a range of sectors, whilst handling the need to put other forms of recruitment on hold for the period of the lockdown.
Who’s hiring through online recruitment software?
Healthcare and supply chain are the obvious sectors that are in a massive recruitment drive. Frontline NHS staff, social care personnel and new key-worker roles supporting those on self-isolation have all become positions it is vital to fill.
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Coronavirus recruitment crises and recruitment industry awards
March 28th, 2020 | Industry News
Whilst companies like Amazon and Ocado are recruiting madly to fulfil orders being placed by panicked consumers, other sectors like travel and hospitality are being hit hard – as are specialist recruitment organisations in those areas. Flybe has already gone out of business, and hotels and cruise lines are predicting the worse crisis for twenty years.
Much recruitment software is also struggling – first to keep pace with the demand for temporary retail and driving staff who are needed to work 24/7 to keep shelves stocked and orders packed and delivered, and second to be the kind of applicant tracking system that UK employers need; able to recognise and track people not just through skills but through travel patterns, so that high risk individuals can be recognised and infection flashpoints can be avoided.
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Communications and immigration both challenge recruiters
March 17th, 2020 | Industry News
In a recent American survey, one of the key problems businesses experience when dealing with recruiters is… poor communication. While it may seem astonishing that clients are still experiencing a lack of feedback, one in four of the companies surveyed said that this was a major reason they ceased working with a recruitment agency.
Recruitment software is a good aid, but it’s not enough… the best recruitment CRM has inbuilt systems that encourage agencies to engage with their client base and even automates many communication processes such as six month follow-ups for placements, which it can be easy to neglect when a recruiter has moved on to the next task. Equally unpopular though, was necessary communication – ‘update calls’ containing no updates and general waffling when the client calls to find out the progress on their recruitment. Creating positive experiences is as vital for agencies as finding the right candidates. An applicant tracking system allows a consultancy to rapidly search all potential candidates and respond quickly to client queries.
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Screening and software – when data is a recruiter’s friend
March 2nd, 2020 | Industry News
One of the most important developments in recruitment has been the effect of digital processes. Smart recruiters use recruitment agency software to identify candidates, streamline recruitment and follow up on placements. Increasingly, recruiters use web based recruitment software as a screening process to identify likely locations for strong candidates and to investigate their backgrounds. Regulatory regimes are tightening up on how recruiters can screen candidates at the same time as employers are demanding deeper and more powerful evaluations of candidates, including social media activity, before interview. SAAS recruitment agencies have a distinct advantage, because they can use real-time data to update and inform their candidate profiles and to share relevant information with employers before decisions are made.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation has recently published a blog post talking about what people need to know before starting a recruitment business. The second heading in this blog is ‘Data is your friend’. For sure! While they go on to plug their reports – and at Recruit So Simple we agree that knowing your industry is vital to success – we’d say that “data is your friend” in a much more fundamental way, when it comes to recruitment. Recruitment software can make or break your business for three reasons:
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Recruitment in focus
February 7th, 2020 | Industry News
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation has recently reported that on any given day in the previous year, the recruitment industry had placed over 1.1 million people in temporary and contract roles. It’s a great success story for the industry, especially as the report goes on to say that 82% of the firms that used recruitment agencies were satisfied with their service. A warning note is sounded by the average operating profit of 3.8%… suggesting that many agencies are not able to convert enough of their gross profit to operating profit. The reasons for this may be:
1. Excessive agency costs
The best online recruitment software helps agencies streamline their back office costs so they can reduce expenditure and create more operating profit.
2. Fire fighting
Recruiters can get stuck in a cycle of working on last minute placements or filling and refilling temporary placements in hard to recruit sectors. Over focusing on this kind of problem recruitment means they miss out on opportunities to expand. Recruitment management software that is sophisticated enough to automate many processes can free up consultants to look past the immediate issue and pursue longer-term strategies to grow their sectors.
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