Embracing Digital Transformation in your Recruitment Agency

In an earlier blog, we had a chat about the results of some research conducted by Bullhorn – results showed that 55% of recruitment businesses plan to up their tech budgets in 2020, and 86% of respondents stated that they need to embrace digital transformation in order to remain competitive.

But if 86% of agencies are so ready to embrace digital transformation and get ahead of the competition, why are only 55% of us planning on actually investing in new technologies?

We understand that change can be daunting – recruitment remained relatively the same for a very long time, but the effects of technology have caused some serious changes over the past few years. As things have continued to develop, the market has reached a point where you’ll likely struggle to keep up with your competitors if you continue to do things the traditional way. Technology is no longer just a nice-to-have!

The pace of change in the recruitment industry is pretty slow compared to other industries that are embracing digital transformation, which only makes the shift more challenging as more and more technologies for recruiters come to market.

So, to help you overcome the challenges of embracing digital transformation, here are our top tips:

1. Identify your pain points

Technology is implemented to help us in one major way – solve any process issues we have and make that part of the process more efficient. And luckily, there’s a whole load of different tech out there to help us at every stage in the process.

Understanding what problems you want to solve will allow you to begin searching the market for products that solve your specific problems. Knowing this is better than going in blind and implementing what seems to be the ‘next big thing’! Your technology stack will be specific to your agency – it’s unlikely that what work great for one, will work as well for another. So make sure you’re fully aware of your issues so that you can use these to make informed buying decisions.

2. Understand your customers’ needs

Beyond knowing what processes within your agency that you want to make more efficient, have you considered the needs of your clients and candidates too?

Putting your service offering at the forefront will put you in good steed for adding extra value to your candidates and clients – something all agencies are striving to improve. Really understanding your customer needs will allow you to build real partnerships, and allow you to remain super competitive. There are thousands of recruitment consultants out there, so what technology can you equip yours with in order for them to be ‘not like other recruiters’?

3. Align the above points with your business goals

Having identified both your pain points and your customer needs – what solutions can you put in place that serve both these and your business goals? The key here is making sure that you understand exactly how all three of these aspects align, allowing you to search the market for the perfect solution for your agency.

Think about your KPIs and metrics – will your technology help you improve the figures you’re currently seeing?

4. Research, research, research

There are so many different technologies available. Don’t just dive in and make a decision based on limited research! Sit on numerous demos, read loads of reviews. Make sure you’re fully aware of your options.

When you’re relatively new to the world of recruitment tech, it can be difficult to know what questions to ask. That’s where all of your research from the first three points comes in handy. When you’re sitting on demos or having conversations with sales teams at different providers, base your questions around your goals and KPIs – just directly ask about features and support available to help you reach everything you’re aiming to achieve.

5. Create a solid roll-out strategy

The hardest part of any digital transformation is rolling out new technology. Before any technology can be introduced, there needs to be a shared mindset in the business of embracing change. There are many mistakes that can happen at this stage – the wrong technology could be implemented in the right way, so while it’s being embraced, we aren’t seeing good results. You should have that covered, though, if you’ve taken our earlier advice! But what happens if you’ve chose the perfect tech, but the roll-out isn’t well planned out and we still see no results anyway?

That’s why it’s important to get everyone on board and have a solid plan to get everyone using technology to the best of their advantage. Lack of a correct change management programme in place can lead to damanged productivity, efficiency, and morale throughout your agency – and not to mention the loss of investment made. For some top tips on a successful technology roll-out, read our article here.

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Recruitment has always been a people-first business, so the goal here is not to take away interactions. Using technology can allow us to truly humanize the process by reducing the amount of time spent on day-to-day admin tasks, giving us more time to forge real human connections.