5 Ways To Optimize Your Staffing Tech To Achieve ROI
Given today’s talent demands, staffing firms must leverage and optimize the latest tech for ROI. Discover how to optimize staffing tech.
Given today’s talent expectations and demands, staffing firms must leverage the latest technology and optimize it for ROI. Firms that don’t identify opportunities to use technology to reach business goals will fall behind, says Chris Johnson, vice president of professional services, Avionté.
Simple, easy, almost omniscient. These are just a few characteristics companies like Uber, Amazon, and Apple have conditioned all of us to expect when engaging with technology platforms. These companies have transformed complex processes into elegant technology experiences that feel natural and intuitive.
The expectation is that these same consumerized experiences will transcend into the business world. Job candidates want an Uber-like feel, and they desire to be in control. Creating this empowered and frictionless experience requires focusing on technology, but it’s not just about the tech. Reaching, engaging, and retaining talent requires the right tech and approach.
Technology investments must be strategic and serve a purpose. The right tech should make it easier for job seekers to do business with you. It should make them want to engage with you repeatedly and ensure the entire end-to-end experience is positive.
Barriers to Technology Investment and Optimization
Despite increased awareness of the importance of improving the talent experience through technology, the staffing industry lags behind many others. The simplest explanation may be the most obvious — follow the money.
It is likely due to the industry’s tendency to focus more on the customers who pay for staffing and recruiting services than on candidate needs and desires. In fact, until recently, candidates were rarely viewed as consumers in the traditional sense because candidates do not pay for job placement.
Cost of investment and implementation
Cost, in and of itself, is a perceived barrier. The initial sticker shock of upfront investment in technology can prevent staffing organizations from leaping. However, those able to effectively deploy technology, even if they spend more, will eliminate barriers to entry, and the return on that technology will rise. So while total cost may not decrease, total ROI will go up.
Reluctance to embrace a passing trend
Going after the latest shiny object or tech advancement is not always in a company’s best interest. Adopting a full suite of AI-enabled technologies isn’t for everyone.
This is where solid up-front analysis and strategy are critical. While embracing every technology upgrade or option isn’t necessary, you should regularly look for ways to optimize your tech stack to support more significant ROI.
Lack of accountability
Another barrier to technology investment is a lack of ownership or accountability. With so many different processes interconnected at some level, it’s sometimes difficult to determine who’s responsible or whose budget the investment comes from. When there is no clear owner, tech optimization is a can that continues to be kicked down the road.
Additionally, if recruiters and other team members aren’t held accountable for adopting the tech, it dilutes its full potential for ROI.
No complete understanding of tech capabilities and how to use them
Some organizations may need help understanding the full capabilities of their tech. Your tech stack may have options and add-ons your team isn’t aware of that could drastically improve performance. Or, recruiters may be using the tech but are unaware of simple tweaks that could reduce friction and speed up processes.
No strategy for implementing and measuring tech effectiveness
Finally, as stated earlier, without a strategy and KPIs to measure success, you’ll never realize the full potential of your investment. Adoption slumps, spend is questioned, ultimately leading to a failure to convert to revenue and loss of trust. Without proof of effectiveness, technology spending is questioned and viewed as a cost versus a business driver.
5 Ways To Make the Most of Your Tech Investment
Those who embrace the right technology, optimize it, and monitor effectiveness can anticipate significant results. It’s the difference between growing your business and falling behind.
A fully optimized tech stack can result in:
- An ability to reach more people
- Faster time to fill
- Increased redeployment
- More significant gross profit per recruiter
- Higher NPS scores
- Increased recruiter retention
Here’s what it takes to reach the optimized state for true ROI.
1. Conduct a solution assessment
Optimizing your tech stack is about more than just adding a piece of software. It requires you to step back and think about your end-to-end workflows. Doing so allows you to uncover areas where there is unnecessary friction for recruiters and, more importantly, for talent.
Start by taking a full assessment of what you currently have, understand the full capabilities, and determine where there are gaps or where you’re not using your technology to the fullest potential.
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2. Increase adoption
This step requires clear and intentional communication across your organization. Recruiters and teams must understand why they are asked to adjust their processes and embrace new technologies. They must be appropriately trained, empowered to ask questions, understand what they’re accountable for, and see how their efforts contribute to business success.
As adoption is tracked and monitored over time, you’ll better understand where there are gaps. Use those insights to determine barriers preventing full adoption and create clear pathways for training and upskilling if needed.
3. Use available capabilities
Now that you’ve conducted a solution assessment and know the full capabilities of the technology you’ve invested in, use it! Those capabilities are available at no extra cost but can pay dividends.
Ensure those who use the technology understand the interconnectedness of the capabilities and how failing to use them can impact data tracking.
4. Embrace process improvement
Technology adoption involves change management that may require operational shifts and process improvement. Your plan should include room to break down silos, open lines of communication, and share data across departments for full transparency and visibility.
All processes that directly and indirectly impact KPIs should be reviewed and optimized. Establish processes for continuous improvement and build a structure that enables a transition to a future state and beyond.
5. Set and monitor KPIs
Capitalize on your newfound ability to track analytics and metrics and use it as an opportunity to reduce efforts and improve outcomes. You can track progress toward goals by determining baseline metrics for your target KPIs.
While progress won’t happen overnight, a brighter picture emerges over time. And teams will serve more talent faster, fill rates will rise, gross profit will increase, and ROI will be realized.
See More: 4 KPIs Every Help Desk Should Track
Tech Optimization = Talent Empowerment
Technology and a consumer-centric mindset can help you reimagine the recruiting process, creating workflows that increase recruiter efficiency, offer an optimal candidate experience, and fuel agency growth.
However, software and technology are only tools to create the experience talent demands. This shift also requires a culture of caring, walking every day in the customers’ shoes, feeling their pain, helping them realize their goals, taking pride in their success, and constantly focusing on delivering outcomes.
Empowering talent and putting them first fundamentally changes how recruiters do their job. It makes it easier and ultimately more rewarding. The consumerization of staffing is here. Make sure you have the tech needed to support it.
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