As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the technologies poised to impact the staffing industry are coming, fast and furious. This is particularly true for verticalized SaaS offerings in the staffing industry.
As your staffing firm clamors for an opportunity to gain a competitive edge and capitalize on game-changing technologies, like texting and other forms of candidate engagement, it can be tempting to jump on the latest solution as soon as its released. If it can help your staffing firm in any way, it makes sense to add another vendor or solution to your toolbox, right?
While much of the new technology being targeted toward the staffing industry today has inherent value, jumping at the latest solutions, and balancing multiple platforms and vendors can have a detrimental effect on your firm.
You’re absolutely on the right track when you are contemplating technological innovations to increase ROI for your staffing firm. Drip campaigns, event outreach, NPS surveys and other innovations can significantly impact the success of your staffing firm. But, rather than focusing on multiple solutions and vendors, it makes much more sense to consolidate point solutions in staffing. Here are two major reasons why:
There’s a thought process behind technology for many businesses today. “If I add one solution, I am better off. So if I add another technology and provider, I will be ahead of the game, right?”
I’m afraid that in this instance, 1+1 does not equal three. That’s because in most instances, your individual platforms and solutions are just that...individual. They are working with different backend technology, independently of each other to deliver on a highly specific function.
Turn to the next solution, and you have another independent platform working on a singular function.
In some cases, these individual solutions sell prospective clients on the promise of integrations with some of your other platforms and technological investments, like individual texting solutions, standalone automation or engagement tools, individual job boards and more. While these may seem promising initially, the reality is that the integrations are clunky and mediocre at best.
When platforms are built completely independent of one another, integrations are far from seamless. Your data does not sync seamlessly, and you spent countless hours on hold with bold providers’ customer service teams, begging for a solution so you can get to work.
Many of these integrations are the equivalent of a daisy chain of bandaids or paper rings, connecting two towers that are far, far apart. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we took a different approach with our own platform. When we designed and built Sense, we worked closely with our ATS partners so that Sense would work seamlessly with them, making for an exceptional user experience and creating highly optimized interactions for our customers.
Rather than working together to truly raise the deliverables exponentially, a piecemeal approach can actually work against you, and lower the efficacy of each solution independently.
Ultimately, the main driver for every business is money. We examined some elements that impact ROI above. Now let’s look at literal costs.
When you look carefully at individual SaaS providers and platforms and add up their costs (both at startup and for monthly retainers), your monthly investment is often significantly higher for multiple solutions and vendors than if you were to consolidate point solutions and invest in one robust platform.
Sense, for example, can perform the tasks of eight (8!) platforms combined. We’re talking a difference of thousands to tens of thousands of dollars a year!
Plus, there is arduous work, research and time spent vetting each potential platform. Endless phone calls, emails, and demos, plus meetings with your staff to review their thoughts...it can take weeks or even months just to make a decision on a single platform that produces one result. There is a lot of red tape in many organizations before making a major purchasing decision for technology. The thought of going through that process multiple times (often at different times, so the cycle -- and the loss of productivity -- can seem endless!)
When you start factoring in the hours and effort spent on multiple platforms or solutions, the amount of lost productivity is staggering. An integrated solution (like Sense!) gives you the benefit of economies of scale (with data, storage, etcetera all shared among its capabilities), making life easier and leading to drastic savings in your budget.
Here at Sense, we have committed to creating a robust platform that empowers staffing firms to make happy talent their competitive advantage. We integrate with major ATS software to create a complete system for the front office of your staffing firm. Think of your ATS as your “system of record,” and Sense as your “system of engagement.” Together, they work together to simplify your operations and ultimately, to grow your business.
By automating and optimizing each stage of the candidate journey, we free up time for your recruiters to spend on actual human interaction with candidates. We allow you to build and nurture strong relationships with your talent, powerfully increasing your retention, redeployment and referral rates.
Our team is comprised of staffing industry experts. We understand how our platform and its tools can integrate into and ultimately elevate results for your staffing firm. We want to transform results for your firm. To learn more and see firsthand how Sense can work for your staffing firm, schedule a demo today.
