It’s no secret that the global workforce has changed significantly from even just a few years ago. Big data, artificial intelligence, social media and millennials in the workforce have made lasting impacts on today’s industry landscape. In fact, we at SIA coined the term workforce solutions ecosystem to make room for these changes. So, it’s no surprise that in this new age, recruitment metrics are also changing with the times.
Although keeping track of key performance indicators (KPIs) and measuring industry data has always been an essential part of any strategy for staffing firms, staffing agencies have changed with the times and shifted priorities and many of them use different performance and productivity metrics than they did just a few years ago.
While staffing agencies track dozens of metrics, a few of the more common metrics include quality of hire, time to fill, turnover rates, acceptance and client satisfaction, as well as profitability metrics. They are all key to measuring performance for staffing agencies, however as I said before, the landscape is changing and so are metrics and different categories are slowly growing in significance.
Front-office software vendors are taking advantage of the Big Data trend to provide their clients with increasingly insightful analysis. Beyond the quality of the data, the importance of providing recruiters with clear and precise activity dashboards and visually attractive graphics is not being overlooked.
In the case of recruitment delivery metrics, such an example would be customer service. According to Bullhorn’s 2017 UK Recruitment Trends Report, the top three performance metrics for recruitment delivery are customer satisfaction, fill rate and interview-to-hire ratio. Vinda Souza, VP of marketing communications, says customer satisfaction goes hand in hand with the report’s top rated staffing agency priorities of profitability, management of client/candidate relationships, and revenue growth.
“Profitability and revenue growth are both entirely contingent upon customers and the vast majority of revenue that these agencies are seeing is from repeat customers,” Souza said. “Recruitment agencies are realizing customer relationship management is a major priority in order to ensure that continual revenue stream in the face of an uncertain international landscape.”
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It’s not only performance and productivity metrics that are changing but the technology behind measuring the data. The metrics behind productivity and performance are now becoming more specific.
Other vendors such as job boards and applicant tracking systems can tap into huge databases and provide staffing firms with added insights into market trends. And there are a number of third parties that offer to consolidate your data in order to provide productivity benchmarks so you can compare your performance with your competitors.
An example of recruitment software using cutting-edge technology would be Bond Recruitment’s AdaptUX Recruitment Software which delivers real-time views of the value of recruitment and staffing agencies’ pipeline placements and temp workforce. It states that it accurately reports, over any date range, on forecasted or generated revenues from placements made. It includes a comprehensive set of tools that display key information such as permanent and temporary/staff activity as well as leads, candidate sources analysis and more.
Akken Cloud’s business intelligence reporting and analytics tool also uses innovative software that reports metrics on data and allows firms to create comprehensive statistical visualization charts and analyze the key data to help recruitment firms make business decisions.
When it comes to recruitment metrics, many firms offer up real-time analysis which shows the most up-to-date data supported by the software. Firms such as Talent Rover, 1Staff, People 2.0, TargetRecruit, Tempworks and others employ real-time reporting in its metrics software as well as interactive dashboards that display the data in an organized manner.
Staffing Industry Analysts provides a detailed half-yearly insight to US staffing firms via its Staffing Industry Benchmarking Consortium (SIBC) comprising 80 participating firms representing $19.8 billion in annualized temporary staffing revenue as well as a monthly Pulse report.
In the UK, the Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB) Index is a well-established member-only service, developed specifically for the recruitment industry. Two-tiers of membership are available, each delivering bespoke, fully confidential monthly reports based on members´ own operational information.
In Australia, Staffing Industry Metrics, previously known as the Recruitment Industry Benchmarking report (RIBreport), is an online business diagnostics tool and real-time business intelligence platform that provides insight into data such as sales, expenditure and profitability. It gives firms the ability to simultaneously log on from any device, access and securely share real-time data.
Showing off its specificity, Staffing Industry Metrics analyzed the market in Australia in the 12 months to February 2017 and found that just under half of staffing and recruitment firms achieved top line sales growth. That data was compiled from 115 firms throughout Australia; according to Staffing Industry Metrics, the more than 50 firms that grew year-on-year sales saw a high median growth. Furthermore, it also found that for a few firms that did achieve sales growth during that period, it’s been at the cost of margin as a percentage of sales reduction.
It’s apparent some recruitment companies are now reaping the efficiency rewards of growing their team and infrastructure, but quite a few others are taking on a lot more sales volume without improving the bottom line significantly,” Staffing Industry Metrics director Nigel Harse said.
The platform is in use by such staffing firms as Gattaca PLC and aims to accurately track relative business performance by giving staffing firms access to real-time data, industry trends and instant peer group comparisons. “The RIBreport has been established in Australia for many years; the deal with Gattaca means that they can supply global metrics for the first time,” said John Nurthen, SIA’s executive director of global research.
As the global workforce changes further in the future, expect more firsts. The world of recruitment metrics will continue to evolve. What new trends have you noted in this world? Tell us what tools you are using to benchmark your firm.
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