Maximising recruitment agency profitability when COVID-19 is putting margins under pressure

How do you maximise profitability in a market severely distorted and disrupted by coronavirus?

Getting candidates back to work after the coronavirus pandemic

Unless your agency is lucky enough to specialise in one of the areas of the economy that has boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is highly likely that lockdown may have negatively impacted your figures.
For some agencies, it may have been a bit of a dip. However, for others, recruitment freezes and squeezes on the numbers of new candidate placements may have put margins under severe  pressure.
In such circumstances it is vital to ensure that your agency operations are optimised for efficiency. Inefficient business processes only serve to exacerbate the negative effects of reduced volumes of business.

Efficiency optimised technology

Quite simply, in today’s world, achieving optimised business processes is synonymous with the use of technology. The most prominent distinguishing features of tech that enables optimisation through greater efficiency are:

• Automation – the capability for software to perform a specified action, instead of requiring human intervention. This is rules based, i.e. it depends on certain criteria being met to initiate the automated action. An example in recruitment industry software might be for the software to begin automatically processing a timesheet, once a hiring manager has electronically verified and approved the hours worked.

• Integration – the capability for one self-contained software product to plug in to other apps. This might be achieved in a number of ways. The most common is for data to be exchanged between applications. An example is API integration. This lets data from one application be accessed by another. One example here might be when your accounting software receives an update on the turnover figure.

Optimising for the recruitment industry

But optimising for efficiency isn’t the entire story. You also need to consider fine tuning for the processes specific to the recruitment industry. When carried out effectively, this means the software contains specialised functions and features that produce benefits that are perfect for the way that recruitment agencies operate.
ETZ back-office software is developed by people with a deep understanding of the workings of recruitment agencies, and the software leverages automation and integration. This transforms efficiency in every aspect of the back office.
However, you have to remember that there is no silver bullet. The single app that does everything perfectly, from front of office job advertising and applicant tracking, through to payroll and accountancy, just doesn’t exist yet. You need specialised applications to take care of the business processes that sit outside of the back office.
You need to use ETZ alongside a number of other applications. When assembled together, to take care of your businesses functions from end-to-end, this is known as a software stack.

The optimised recruitment business adapted for the ‘new normal’

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the operating environment. One of the evolutionary changes brought about by the ‘new normal’, is to place an emphasis on being able to perform business operations without the reliance of attending an office.
Consequently, remote or home working is now an integral part of the business process, and inevitably plays a big part in any desire to optimise business operations.
When we bring together the different software products required to optimise recruitment agency operations with the capability to work from home, then we arrive at the concept of the ‘work from home’ (WFH) stack.

Put the correct systems in place to maximise profitability with ETZ

The COVID-19 pandemic shows that we can never be complacent about the potential for rapid and catastrophic change. However, recruitment agencies using ETZ are better equipped to meet whatever challenges the operating environment throws at them. Our recently published white paper, ‘Evolutionary Change: A Recruitment Agency’s Guide to Adapting to the Business Impact of COVID-19’, provides some detailed discussion.
To find out more about how ETZ ensures you maximise profitability whatever happens, simply contact us today. Call us on 0800 311 2266 or book a demo.