Blog Content
Recruitment Leaders - are you looking to engage with tech to help you drive productivity? Are you needing significant RoI from your tech stack? Be careful you don't fall into the pit of "tech before process".
In the 2 decades we've been working in recruitment, a persistent, cyclical problem is starting over again — and it's being amplified by the advent of new technology like AI.
😔History Repeating Itself: Tech Before Process
My team has watched a trend unfold: the belief that simply "buying data and tech and throwing it at a problem" will magically fix it.
Unfortunately, it rarely does, and I fear we are seeing this pattern play out again with Artificial Intelligence.
The core issue is that the recruitment industry often engages with technology without truly engaging with the process the technology is supposed to fix.
We get why. A LOT has happened in and to the recruitment sector in the last 2 decades - it's a big ask for leaders to stand back from the coal face and really invest time in the problem when it's been so disruptive...
But, we've seen this cycle before:
The CRM wave: A sophisticated recruitment system is bought, added to the recruitment business, and recruiters are told to use it, often without a fundamental change to the underlying workflow.
The Automation trend: Tools are purchased to automate tasks, but the initial problem (unproductive activities) remains because the why and how of the automation weren't properly addressed.
Now, AI: In the rush to purchase the latest AI tools, many recruitment firms are overlooking the essential step of asking: "What problem are we trying to solve, and how will this technology specifically help me do that?"
🤔Purchase V Problem
I recently said to a client who was trying to get buy-in from his recruiters for the AI tools he's bought:
Are you processing the AI, or AI-ing the process?
One way is wrong, the other right. Food for thought...
This focus on the purchase over the problem means we miss the fundamental goal:
Fixing recruitment productivity.
Empowering recruiters to do the right things at the right time.
🙋 WIIFM? What’s In It For Me? The Missing Link
A healthy skepticism - or outright fear - exists among many average recruitment consultants about what AI and automation are really there to do for them.
If you're an innovation leader, your mind is likely 20 steps ahead, focused on the competitive edge, efficiency metrics, future-proofing, and adding value to your business. But when introducing new technology, you must take it back to basics and think with the recruitment consultant / resourcer / manager in mind.
You need to answer the crucial question for them: "What’s in it for me (the consultant)?" - WIIFM?
Stop talking about backend efficiencies and start talking about the individual's tangible benefits:
"This will help you make more money."
"This will enable you to take a longer lunch break."
"This will free you up to see your kids' school plays."
Ultimately, this tech is meant to enable recruiters to spend less time on low-value, time-consuming tasks (often up to 80% of their day) and more time on high-impact, revenue-generating activities.
Because right now, the stats clearly show they are incredibly busy... potentially doing the wrong stuff.
If you want technology to succeed, you have to connect it directly to the recruiter’s personal and professional drivers.
What are your thoughts?
What is the biggest barrier to getting your recruiters to use new technology effectively?
And how will you ensure that you get true value from your tech, data, and people in the next year, and beyond?
Automation Buddy / Bullhorn RoI
We are Automation Buddies set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.
We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!
Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.
READ MORE ABOUT OUR BULLHORN VISION SERVICE
READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICE
BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
Extra Content
Blog Image
Extra Content 2
Recruitment Blogs / Tips / Webinars
Read more-
Lisa Jones
Blog
Vodcast: Is AI Recruitment's Superpower, Or Its Blind Spot?
Is Recruitment AI the Superpower Everyone's Raving About? Or Are You Missing Something Obvious?I recently caught up with George Whalley from Bullhorn for the latest in my recruitment leaders' vodcast series. AI, automation, cost reduction, compassionate recruitment, manual work, and dogs, were the topics.George's day job is bringing net new clients onto Bullhorn and then, unusually, staying on as their account manager afterwards. So unlike a lot of people selling you tech, he actually has to live with the consequences of what he sells you. That makes him worth listening to.We had 22 minutes to talk about the reality of AI in recruitment and what recruitment leaders need to factor into growing their businesses with this vital tech.💰 Your data is your superpower, so stop buying more of itI started by by asking George, a very pertinent question:How is AI (and automation) actually impacting recruitment right now?George's answer was basically - not as much as it should be. Why? Because recruiters are only using it for the boring bit (generating text) and ignoring it to help them monetise the data goldmine already sat in their own Bullhorn.Anyone can scrape LinkedIn.Anyone can buy the same 100,000 candidates as their competitor.That's cold data.Anyone can use AI to find and clean data - but don't get blindsided. It's what you do with it that counts!What George calls your actual superpower is the stuff already living in your notes and conversations that never made it into a proper field, that you can use AI to "power up" your pipeline.Recruiters are "crawling over warm data on their Bullhorn to get to cold data outside of Bullhorn". Sounds mad when you say it like that, doesn't it? But that's most agencies right now.What's the fix? (Watch the video to find out!)👇🧠 What can humans actually do that AI can't?This was George's favourite question and I can see why.His answer was blunt - AI can do a LOT to save time and costs, and drive process, but AI can't put a suit on and sit in a room with a client.It can't understand the stuff that actually matters more than the business on paper. We chatted about why 40% of consultants have left the industry in the last 18 months.Not because they were bad at their jobs.Because recruitment stopped needing what they were good at, and started needing something they'd never had to be good at before. Then George said something that's been rattling round my head all week - is AI really dehumanising recruitment, or is it de-manualising it?Humans = manual. Really? Is that as good as it gets?Watch the video 👇for more insights on how to de-manualise your recruitment process and do what only humans can do!🐕 Are you using tech to do what your website says you do?(And what has that got to do with your dog's God complex?)We chatted about the open secret in recruitment: what recruiters say they do - and what they really do - often poles apart. Too much data, and too little process makes for a lack of productivity and ultimately profit.It also makes for a very expensive tech stack, which leaves the average recruitment leader wondering why they need to spend so much money on tech just to stand still.What did George suggest you need to do to manage the threat and opportunity? Watch the video to find out...👇My recruitment leaders' vodcast with George is a cute 22minutes long. Grab a coffee and get watching!Bullhorn ATS / Analytics / Automation / AI ROIWe are Bullhorn experts obsessed with how recruiters can increase sales, reduce costs, speed up sourcing, and improve productivity.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
-
Wayne Barclay
Blog
The One Bullhorn Habit That's Silently Bleeding You of Fees and Sales
While you've moved on from that lost job, your competitor hasn't and it's costing you £$€thousands.Here's the Bullhorn follow-up BD process most recruitment leaders are missing...In a recent Bullhorn 4 BD webinar Lisa said that this is what she often sees in happening on recruitment desks across the industry:Lost a job, hung up the phone, and thought "right, next." Never gave it another thought. I see this too:Lost that job?Placed somewhere else?Move on.Exit stage right, never to speak to that client again. It's the most natural reaction in the world. Nobody wants to dwell on a loss. But if you're leading a recruitment business, this reflex is likely costing you money you don't even know you're missing.Are your recruiters tenacious enough to be in the wings for an inevitable rekindling of that sale? 🤔The recruitment stat that stopped me in my tracks One in five candidates are unhappy in their new role within a few months of starting. Think about your own rebate numbers. What's the average in your business?Now think about how many of those unhappy candidates you're still talking to when that unhappiness kicks in. For most recruitment businesses I work with, the answer is "not enough". Somewhere in your Bullhorn database right now, there are candidates who took a job through a competitor, or through the client going direct, and they're already regretting it.The consultant who lost that job has probably moved on too. There's a door sitting wide open. Nobody's walking through it. 🤨 Leaving the sales process to the candidate and client isn't a great strategy Here's the bit people miss. When you lose a job, it doesn't just go to another candidate. Sometimes the client hires through a competitor. Sometimes they go direct. Either way, that placement can go wrong too. So the follow-up process shouldn't stop at the candidate.Building in a reason to check back with the client as well could be a simple trick to re-engaging the lead!Did the hire work out?How's it going?Are they still happy they went that route?(So satisfying when you can think "I told you so!) You're not gloating.You're just staying visible, staying warm, and staying front of mind - that's sales!Because if it hasn't worked out, you want to be the first call they make, not the fifth. Be ready to let them fall straight back into your arms. 🫡This is a leadership problem, not a recruitment consultant problem Here's the bit that matters if you're the one running the business. You can't fix this by hoping your team remembers.You fix it by building a process, and making it part of how your business operates: Close jobs properly. Status set correctly, every time. It's one field, and it's the one that gets left by the wayside. Everything downstream depends on it. Set the cadence, both sides. Know when the successful candidate started, then touch base with the candidate *and* the client at one, three, six and twelve months. Assign ownership. Is this account management or BD? Decide, and make someone accountable. If it belongs to everyone, it belongs to no one. That's a strategy decision. It's not something you leave a busy consultant to remember off the back of a good night's sleep.Hope is not a strategy (or a process!) 💪Bullhorn already has what you need Bullhorn wasn't built to be an admin system. It was built to be a relationship management system, and this is a perfect example of it doing its job properly. Automation can nudge and notify your team the moment a lost job hits a follow-up milestone. Nobody has to remember anything. Analytics can report on lost jobs across the whole business. How many, which clients, whether contact was actually made. What do you have set up currently, and:Is it fit for purpose?Is it actually being used?Do you have full visibility over what it's reporting on and whether or not your team are actually adopting this process and delivering on it? Ask yourself: how watertight is this sales process for your business. Is it delivering results?😇 The relationship didn't end - the job did That's the mindset shift for anyone leading a recruitment team.Losing a job isn't the end of a relationship. It's a trigger telling you exactly when to check back in. Get this nailed at a leadership level, build it into the process rather than hoping it happens, and Bullhorn will quietly hand you rebates and repeat business you'd otherwise never see. --- More BD Tips?This was one of five tips from our Bullhorn Power Series webinar on using your ATS, automation and analytics to drive business development.Catch the other four, and watch the full sessionWATCH THE BULLHORN FOR BD TIPS WEBINARBullhorn ATS / Analytics / Automation / AI ROIWe are Bullhorn experts obsessed with how recruiters can increase sales, reduce costs, speed up sourcing, and improve productivity.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
-
Wayne Barclay
Webinar
Bullhorn Power Series ~ Stop Missing Out on Sales: 5 Tips to Use Your ATS, Automation, and Analytics to Drive BD
-
Wayne Barclay
Webinar
Automation RoI Webinar Series: Unlock Bullhorn Part 6 ~ Data Wealth
-
Lisa Jones
Webinar
Recruiter Productivity Series: Optimise Bullhorn Part 6 ~ Easy Candidate Management
