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Recruitment CRM should be the FIRST system used to drive sales, source candidates, convert leads... but often, it's a dumb system, a data dump, "just another bit of recruitment kit" preventing phone and face time. Our clients agree with our mantra "CRMFirst" and want to ensure that their recruitment software is implemented to deliver the 4Cs - candidates, client, colleagues, and cash.
Recruitment CRM - AKA the Sales-Prevention Software
Maybe you’ve had your Recruitment CRM for longer than you’ve had most of your employees and you’re hearing lots of the same moans and groans:
it’s not working
it’s always crashing
I can’t find any candidates in it
my 1980’s Atari felt more up to date
there is no management info because no one’s using it!
The decision has been made to replace your recruitment CRM. You’ve spent 6 months sourcing a new one, another 6 months implementing it and would you believe it, 6 months later and you’re still hearing the same old moans and groans.
How can you give BAU (business as usual) the best chance of success?
Business as Usual Starts Before BAU
It may sound obvious, but many Recruitment CRM projects struggle at the embedding phase due to inadequate post go live planning. It’s not surprising. There is a HUGE amount to do during implementation and the project team are normally spread thin focusing on getting the new system in a fit state for go live.
There are many strategies to planning and managing BAU (business as usual). My favourite is having a BAU project team involved mid-way through implementation. Their responsibility is to plan, support and manage the embedding of the CRM into business over the next 12 months. Their job is to make sure that your investment returns! (ROI)
“That’s a big investment“, I hear you say. However, what is the cost of a disgruntled workforce being negative or the disruption of losing many people or the lost opportunities of your current and future clients? And with 2/3 of job leavers quitting due to lack of training, and the average 10 person recruiters wasting £100,000 per year on replacing leavers, something has to change.
Investing in the BAU is almost more important that the implementation process itself; underestimate the BAU support requirements at your peril.
Management are THE Key to Success CRM Change
Management don’t need to know how to use the CRM, right? WRONG!
Management / Directors / Team Leaders all need to know exactly how everyone should be using the system so they can support and train their teams at go live and beyond.
All too often, “Super Users” are trained to deliver this message but they tend to be sales administrators, busy consultants or new recruits. They don’t have the status within the business to try to invoke change or persuade the biggest billers why they should change their habits and behaviours!
The adage of “Coming from the Top” really is true when you’re managing CRM Implementation Projects. These are not technology projects, they are Change Management Projects and the only people who can change the business are the leaders and managers of that business.
It’s All About Communicating Expectations
When a recruiter hears the following “We are going to change the CRM”, what they really hear is “Yippee, a new CRM. It’s just like upgrading my car; it will be shiny and faster and way better than what I had, oh and I know how to drive so it will be easy to adapt!”
This can lead to my personal favourite user statement “The previous system was so much better/easier!”. No, the previous system which was built on highly suspect 1980’s technology that continuously failed and you always complained about, was more FAMILIAR. As a project team, you have to prepare users for change and this starts not at Go Live, but much earlier during the implementation phase.
Key Rules when Implementing a New Recruitment CRM
Ensure you tell everyone that CHANGE is coming and everyone needs to get on-board!
The system will not be perfect from day 1, everyone needs to prepare to communicate issues and be ready for CHANGE!
There will be BUGS (potentially a lot and for a lot longer that you’d like!) Live with them whilst the project team sorts them out!
Get SLAs (service level agreements) in place – ensure you respond to EVERY issue and communicate an update or fix to the business (if it warrants it) or the individual on a pre-agreed timeframe.
We work with Recruitment and IT leaders to deliver an ROI and sales-led recruitment technology strategy. Our mantra is “CRMFirst”!
Bullhorn ATS / Analytics / Automation / AI RoI
We are Bullhorn experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses to increase speed and sales.
We help you weaponise your people, data, time, and tech, so you can recruit and sell!
Our Bullhorn Vision and Buddy service helps generate best-in-class processes, adoption, head space, and ROI.
BOOK A FREE BULLHORN ROI CONSULTATION
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Lisa Jones
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Vodcast: Rehumanising Recruitment ~ Recruiters Versus Tech
I recently had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with a true recruitment "myth and legend," Keith Southern.For those who don't know Keith, he was the seventh person to join Progressive - the company that eventually became the global powerhouse S3.With a career spanning back to the early 90s, he has seen it all: the highs, the recessions, and the technological revolutions.Today, Keith leads The Power Hive, a community of over 170 recruitment leaders dedicated to helping agency owners move from just working in their business to working on it.Over a speedy 19minutes, we dove deep into why the "old school" ways, coupled with data, automation, and AI, might actually be the key to every recruitment leaders' future.Beyond ROI: The Power of "Return on Effort"We started by discussing a concept close to both of our hearts: Return on Effort (ROE). In an industry obsessed with the next shiny recruitment tech tool, many recruitment leaders are accidentally building what we called "Frankenstein tech stacks" - collections of expensive tools and data that don't talk to each other and often create "integration debt" and more admin than they solve. (I call this "Admin Tax".)We talked about how many sales floors today are eerily quiet because recruiters are hiding behind CRMs and marketing tech instead of picking up the phone, and Kevin's ideas for:Using recruitment tech to free your consultants up to have more human conversations (and removing the "admin tax").Auditing your tech stack to see if you’re actually using what you’re paying for, or whether you're actually in "integration debt".Turning Old Data into GoldOne of the most striking parts of our conversation was about the "gold nuggets" sitting right under our noses. Your "old to gold" could be data, processes, tech, people...Keith argues that most agencies already have 95% of the data they need in their own CRM, yet they continue to spend a fortune on expensive external job boards and LinkedIn licenses.We discussed "rehumanising" the process by using technology to lift the heavy weights so that recruiters can focus on building resilience and genuine relationships.We chatted about how to:Preventing your recruiters heading straight to LinkedIn / Job Boards to resource instead of looking "back home" at your own database.Training your recruiters to master the fundamental tasks, like a perfect candidate interview prep, before moving to the next part of the process.Are You the Recruiter Your Website Says You Are?We ended with a challenge for the industry. Many agencies claim to be "at the heart of their sector" on their websites, but the reality is often a messy database and a reliance on reactive advertising. Keith’s advice for this year is simple: stop the abdication to technology and start driving your business with strategy again.This vodcast was a masterclass in recruitment leadership. Watch it to hear more about Keith's "war stories" from the S3 days and how to weaponise the data, systems, and people you already have.Ready to put the world to rights with us? Watch the full 19minute vodcast now.Bullhorn ATS / Analytics / Automation / AI RoIWe are Bullhorn experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses to increase speed and sales.We help you weaponise your people, data, time, and tech, so you can recruit and sell!Our Bullhorn Vision and Buddy service helps generate best-in-class processes, adoption, head space, and ROI.BOOK A FREE BULLHORN ROI CONSULTATION
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Lisa Jones
Blog
Are Hairdressers Putting Your Recruitment Business at Risk?
Many recruitment leaders I work with want their recruitment CRM to generate fees, but often recruiters are all too happy to jump back into spreadsheets, LinkedIn, notebooks and “going by memory” rather than use their CRM system properly. This blog is a quick 3-minute read to create some perspective and give you some ideas for a “CRMFirst” strategy.The above results in a nightmare for recruitment leaders who are looking to grow their business, become “GDPR-proof”, use AI, Analytics, and Automation to be more efficient and productive, and of course become more profitable.It above also results in a problem I call “Hairdresser Syndrome” – a term I’ve used for many years to describe a recruitment business that needs to get a grip on its processes and data to see real growth and ROI.(Note: I originally wrote this blog in 2018. Many years have passed and so much has happened to recruitment, but I've barely needed to update this content...)Do You Have a Recruitment Firm, or an Office Full of Desks For Rent?I have been with my hairdresser for 8 years. He knows my taste in magazines, some of my secrets and all of my roots. A few years ago he was based in a large salon in the city, where he rented a chair.The rest of the salon staff barely knew I was there, and I didn’t really notice them either – zero interaction. Perhaps if I was lucky my hair would be washed by one of the juniors. I’d pay the girl at the till on the way out, but my hairdresser was my only real contact at the salon.One day he very quietly commented that he was opening his own salon, and would I like to move with him? I bit his hand off – why wouldn’t I? I had no relationship with the salon. They kept no details on me, perhaps they didn’t even know I existed. Would they miss my business?For me, he was the salon.Are Your Recruiters Hairdressers?Can you see any similarities between your recruitment consultants and my hair dresser?They have exclusive relationships with the clients. Are you simply the “girl” taking my money at the till?Do they use stuff in your business, such as hair washers, tea makers, reception (IT, HR, Finance, Admin) that their fees contribute to, but that I am totally oblivious to?Are your consultants simply logging data at the point of sale to get the cash in but the juicy stuff which is about me, what I like, how I buy is in his/her head?If they left and took “clients” with them, would you know? And don’t forget you’ll only know what data they’ve taken and who’s migrated with them if they told you about these relationships in the first place.Even if you had the data on the client, would it be enough for you to continue the relationship going forward?Are your clients engaging with your business or the consultant? Are their loyalties to the brand or their perceived face of the brand, the consultant (the hairdresser)?I’m still seeing “30-second recruiters” who enter a candidate in the CRM just to place them and board the invoice. That may work for them in the short term, but they’re missing out on opportunities to be more effective and profitable whilst putting the business at risk.CRMFirst (Bullhorn1st): Hairdresser Prevention for Recruitment LeadersThis year needs to be about CRMFirst ~ Bullhorn1st ~ getting your candidates, clients and consultants addicted to your systems.It needs to be about data hygiene, recruiters building effective, retained relationships and recruitment firms focusing on effectiveness and growth.A CRMFirst (BullhornFirst) culture can create a valuable pool of great data that will put you ahead of your competition and create a hidden asset that your clients (and prospective clients!) want access to.Your recruitment CRM should be a USP – a unique selling point. Your recruitment software can be an addiction for your recruiters, your clients, candidates, and investors. All of which does the one job you bought it for – to make your life easier and make you more money.Swap the Salon Culture for CRMFirst Culture…Instilling a culture of data quality is challenging, but highly rewarding. Define the strategy, instil this into your culture and reduce the risk of bad data impacting the recruitment business.Get your recruitment consultants engaged with your system and train them on best practice so they understand why great recruitment process is profitable for them, as well as your business.📌Stop them from simply renting a desk.Once they can see and feel the benefits of following your processes (improving performance, profit, and ROI for themselves as well as the business) then your CRM can become a business growth tool, rather than an expensive data dump.Bullhorn ATS / Analytics / Automation / AI RoIWe are Bullhorn experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses to increase speed and sales.We help you weaponise your people, data, time, and tech, so you can recruit and sell!Our Bullhorn Vision and Buddy service helps generate best-in-class processes, adoption, head space, and ROI.BOOK A FREE BULLHORN ROI CONSULTATION
