A Guide to Staffing Automation

Why is staffing automation crucial to streamlining my staffing business? Will it help me to replace my recruiters? What tasks can be automated? How much does this automation process cost?

In the era of automation, these are the common questions that pop into every staffing agency owner’s mind. 

Are you also one of them?

Read on!

Effective recruiting is all about connecting the dots between the requirements of clients who are looking for the best candidate for their job, and candidates who are looking for the best job for their skills. 

Sounds easy, right? But, unfortunately, it is not. Filtering resumes, applicant tracking, and candidate nurturing along with managing the clients & their needs is tricky.

In fact, this is one of the biggest recruitment challenges that staffing agencies are facing. 

But what if there was a better way to manage processes and keep both clients and candidates happy and engaged? 

That’s where staffing automation comes in.

With modern staffing automation, recruiters can refine their processes, eliminate inefficiencies, mitigate biases, and engage with top talent at the optimal time.

Still not sure what’s in it for you?

Let’s look at the nuances of staffing automation and how it can help enhance your recruiting ops-

What is staffing automation?

Staffing automation refers to technology that enables recruiting and staffing firms to create automated processes.

Whether it’s automatically sending messages, updating information, or evaluating post-hire experiences, staffing automation has you covered. As a result, less time is spent on mundane work and more time is dedicated to improving relationships and driving growth.

Benefits of staffing automation

The benefits of staffing automation are manifold.  Here’s what staffing automation does for you!

1. Saves time

Time savings is perhaps one of the most obvious benefits of implementing staffing automation. A recruiter on average spends 40% on admins’ tasks.

By automating the admin process, recruiters can better spend that time on tasks that require that human touch like engaging with candidates, interviewing applicants, etc. 

2. Provides rich candidate experience

In a candidate-driven world, delivering a stellar candidate experience is table stakes. A subpar candidate experience can cost you placements – in a survey done in 2021, 58% of the candidates said that they rejected an offer because of bad candidate experience. 

Delivering a stellar candidate experience is hard. It means that your team is spending more time doing admin work. That’s where automation comes in! With automation, you can deliver a great candidate experience without overloading your team with administrative burdens.

3. Helps in quick follow-up

A quick follow-up to every outreach message or email you send to potential candidates or clients is imperative. Many times candidates forget to respond to your email. A follow-up with a simple reminder asking if they received your previous email goes a long way in getting the conversation started.

Check out this webinar on the Fundamentals of email sequences for recruiters 

Busting some myths about staffing automation

Automation is controversial for most recruiters. There is a right way to do automation and there is a wrong way. We bust some myths about staffing and recruiting automation here!

Myth 1: Staffing Automation will take away the human aspect of the business

Contrary to this belief, automation will save your teams from unproductive parts of the hiring process so that you can make your hiring process more human-centric. As a rule of thumb, automate everything that doesn’t take human discernment!

Automation doesn’t necessarily mean a technological apocalypse. It means using technology to do your job efficiently without getting burned out.

Myth 2: Automation will affect the candidate’s experience negatively

Quite the contrary! Automation has enhanced the candidate experience with personalized communication and faster hiring.

As a Forbes article suggests, the longer the hiring process, the more the chances that the candidates will accept a job offer elsewhere. Staffing automation helps you significantly reduce the time to hire and deliver a better candidate experience at the same time. 

Myth 3: Automation tools are complicated to use

Although AI recruitment tools may require some time and effort to familiarize yourself and your teams with their features, they are not difficult to use. Once you are familiar with the software, you can extend your talent pool and reduce time spent on talent acquisition, allowing you to focus more on applicant onboarding. Many user-friendly recruiting tools already incorporate AI, such as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) commonly used by recruiting task forces. AI is a tool that can be easily utilized with the assistance of service providers to meet your recruitment goals.

Myth 4: Recruiting Automation is meant only for large agencies and companies

While larger firms may benefit the most from AI in mass hiring, AI recruiting software can also benefit both large and small businesses beyond just speeding up the recruiting process. Ad placement software can optimize job board advertisements, reducing cost-per-hire and increasing the likelihood of finding the right applicant without wasting time and resources. Even small organizations with lean operations can leverage AI technology to source candidates, allowing recruiters to focus on in-person interviews and contract negotiations.

Myth 5: Automation software is very expensive

Although high-quality AI hiring software may not be free, it can save your company money in the long run. AI-based recruiting software can significantly reduce resource costs and operating time, providing valuable cost savings. In today’s fast-paced business environment, saving time is equivalent to saving money. The financial impact of hiring activities is critical for HR executives, and utilizing AI can allow for cost savings that can be allocated to other departmental operations to bring greater value to prospects or current employees.

Myth 6: Automation creates recruiting biases 

Recruiting biases, whether conscious or unconscious, often creep into the hiring process, resulting in the rejection of deserving candidates. However, AI can help mitigate biases instead of creating them. AI objectively evaluates all data points, reducing preconceptions, mental fatigue, and human prejudices. However, the effectiveness of AI in mitigating biases depends on how it is built, as these systems can still mimic the biases of their human creators. AI is a product of our training, and the question is whether we can improve our teaching to create better AI systems.

Staffing Automation: How to automate your staffing agency?

We encounter a duality around two pivotal aspects when delving into staffing businesses. The first facet revolves around acquiring and placing candidates for clients, while the second aspect entails cultivating and maintaining robust relationships with these clients. Let’s explore both sides and examine how automation can significantly enhance these processes.

Candidate Recruitment and Placement

1. Automate candidate screening

Screening a huge quantity of candidates is a tedious task. With automation, pre-screen your candidates. You can, for example, send them the set of questions you want them to answer. You can also introduce language assessment tests if your job requires language fluency.

You can then watch the pre-recorded interviews at your convenience and easily compare candidates.

2. Automate tracking applicants

Use staffing automation to automatically post job listings to relevant job boards and on social media sites, including LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, etc. Automate tracking the applicants throughout the process of hiring with an ATS (Applicant tracking software)

3. Automate communication

Not being able to communicate timely with the candidates is the main reason behind a subpar candidate experience. For the candidate, a new job hunt is a stressful and taxing process and they expect transparency during the process.
On the other hand, for recruiters, it’s nearly impossible to do that with all the moving parts of a recruiting process. Unless there is a universe where a recruiter has 6 hands and 48 hours in a day!

Instead, you can automate your communication with campaigns and trigger-based emails/texts to reach out to your candidates and keep them updated with their status in the recruiting process.

4. Automate interview scheduling

Use staffing automation to simplify interview scheduling and allow candidates to schedule interviews at their preferred time.

You can offer candidates the available time slots. This will allow candidates to schedule or reschedule interviews at their preferred time slot without interrupting your team’s workflow.

Also, check How to Grow Your Staffing Agency and Stand Out From Competition

On top of that, automation integrated with ATS and CRM will let you foster visibility into your hiring process and monitor every action within one dashboard.

Client Relationship Management

CRM Systems

Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software allows staffing agencies to manage client interactions, track communication history, and forecast future needs. Automation within CRM systems can trigger reminders for follow-ups, ensuring that no crucial client interactions slip through the cracks.

Customized Updates

Automation can generate personalized reports and updates for clients, highlighting the progress of ongoing placements or introducing them to potential candidates matching their specific requirements. This tailored approach demonstrates the agency’s attentiveness and dedication to client success.

Feedback Surveys

Automated feedback surveys can be sent to clients after placements or engagements. This feedback is invaluable in understanding client satisfaction levels and areas for improvement.

Incorporate staffing automation with Recruiterflow

Recruiterflow is one of the most recommended staffing agency software for recruiting and staffing agencies. It is an automation-powered recruiting software that can help you significantly reduce your time to hire. 

Here are a few more tips you can automate with Recruiterflow when you start a business:

• Automate notifications whenever candidates apply. Notify your candidates even in case of disqualification with automated rejection emails.
• With the email and calendar sync feature, you and your team will always know about past conversations you had with the person.
• Keep candidates posted on their status and send automated interview schedules to candidates. At the same time, keep clients notified.
• Automate phone screen scheduling and schedule follow-ups with clients after candidate interviews.
• Get auto reminders whenever a candidate reaches a critical recruiting stage.
• Keep the client abreast of the latest updates on the open position through the client portal.
• Maintain client relationships and keep track of the business pipeline through the CRM

With its automation feature, Recruiterflow will take the pain out of your hiring process and amplify your efficiency as a recruiting agency. It will help you nurture relationships with your candidate pool with just a click!  

Also, check out our recruitment automation playbook, to learn how to automate your recruiting processes with Recruiterflow

Embrace Recruiterflow to automate your hiring process, eliminate variables, and create a consistent hiring process based on data-driven decisions. 

Hire better and faster with Recruiterflow, the best staffing automation software for agencies.

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