Technology has been a critical component of staffing operations for years. From the olden days of fax machines and copiers to the advent of job boards and the ATS, as technology has evolved, the staffing industry has become more streamlined and efficient.
Technological innovation, particularly within the staffing industry, seems to have moved at warp speed over the past several years. New technologies are being developed, tested and successfully implemented at rapid speeds by firms across the globe. While some staffing firms are at the forefront, using (and winning with) technology, firms slower to integrate new technologies are getting left behind.
These progressions in technology have been complemented by the evolution of the workforce. In particular, the rise of the liquid workforce seems to be shaking up how staffing firms operate.
With contractors and candidates demanding more flexibility and communication from recruiters and staffing firms, who are now working with teams located across cities, states and time zones, technical flexibility is a must.
Your staffing firm has likely been utilizing “horizontal” software as a service (SaaS) for years. This includes tools from Google Apps to Salesforce, GoToMeeting to Slack that have transformed how we work across most industries, not just staffing.
In recent years, we have seen a shift towards a new segment called “verticalized” SaaS which has made a major impact on the staffing industry. Many of us use horizontal SaaS tools everyday. Horizontal SaaS focuses on a specific business function, which can relate to many different types of industries. Verticalized SaaS; however, is software developed for a specific industry. And it’s gearing up to continuously transform how our industry operates in the future.
Here at Sense, we are admittedly a bit biased.
Of course, we are a verticalized SaaS provider servicing the staffing industry. Perhaps that’s why we’re so uniquely qualified to talk about this topic. After all, we’ve spent countless hours and resources to determine how and why we can help staffing firms operate more efficiently, place more candidates and ultimately, improve their bottom line.
How verticalized SaaS is transforming the staffing industry
Several examples of horizontal SaaS have changed how we work for the better. Now that sophisticated verticalized SaaS has entered the staffing industry, prepare for these game-changing solutions to revolutionize how you do business:
Customizable solutions.
Do you remember the old days of software? Perhaps you only needed one or two functions of a particular software solution. Your sole option, though, was to purchase the entire, bloated product at a set price.
Multiple licenses were purchased, sometimes the software was installed on the network, then each was individually installed by every employee. Or perhaps an IT person manually installed every piece of software on every computer in the office.
Each department may have used different portions of each product, but installation was typically the same across the board. That’s just how it was.
Today’s verticalized SaaS solutions will work off the shelf, much like that bloated software did in the past (without the installations en masse!). Simply provide your employees with a login and they can begin working within the tool immediately.
With verticalized SaaS solutions for the staffing industry, you get the ultimate flexibility to make and use tools exactly how you need them to maximize your business.
Choose what you need, pay for only what you use, then set it up to work exactly how you want it to -- once for everyone, not once on every machine.
Do some employees need only specific functionality while others need different functionality altogether? Check the right boxes for your employes and they’ll all automatically only have what they need.
No confusion, no need to lose your computer to IT for the day. You just get to work.
That means you get better results, faster.
Improved processes.
Regardless of the state of our economy, there will always be a cry to reduce costs and increase productivity.
It’s a given in business.
While verticalized SaaS is highly tailored to a specific purpose within a specific niche, nearly 100% of the time, the end result is either (or both) saved time and reduced costs.
Let’s look at a pretty standard example of a process found in just about every staffing firm: Checking in on candidates during the interview process.
You are a recruiter who has a dozen candidates at various stages of the interview process right now. Some are preparing for their interviews, while others are heading into interviews today. Still others have completed their initial interviews and are waiting to hear back from the client.
Keeping these candidates engaged means following up to see how candidates are doing, offering advice and help preparing for interviews, sharing any feedback from clients, and more.
First, you spend a few hours trying to call each candidate. You have some notes on your desk (or are they in your ATS?), to ensure you’re talking to the right candidate about the right position.
More than half the candidates don’t answer -- they’re currently in other jobs -- so you leave voicemails. You do have a few conversations, though, and feel good about those candidates.
Lunch time! You take a break before getting back to work.
After lunch, you write individual emails to follow up with the candidates who received voicemails earlier in the day. You let them know that you’re sorry you couldn’t reach them, then share the same information or questions you would have shared over the phone.
Finally, by the time you’ve finished following up with each candidate, you have about an hour or two left in your day to work on other tasks.
Using verticalized SaaS (specifically, Sense!) for the staffing industry would change this day to look more like this:
As you’ve updated candidate records to schedule interviews and add critical details, Sense automatically updates candidates and sends materials to them, helping them prepare for their interviews.
Sense knows which candidates are heading into interviews (plus, when and where), as well as who has interviewed already. It automatically sends updates with the right information to candidates, clients and even recruiters themselves to help you place candidates faster. That means you not only meet your client needs faster and have happier, more engaged candidates, it means you’re placing candidates faster than the competition.
Pretty neat, huh?
Significantly better service.
The application here is two-fold. On one hand, SaaS providers typically have superior customer service compared to “install-it-and-years-later-need-service-but-no-one-is-around-to-service-it software.” With most verticalized Saas vendors you no longer need a full-time IT person around just to deal with software issues.
Instant communication through chat or expedient response through email (or phone) is expected when working with any SaaS provider. That means fewer headaches for you and blips in your day. If something comes up, simply chat with a customer service representative and resolve the problem.
With verticalized SaaS, that service upgrades to white glove. You are assigned a customer success manager who doesn’t just know the product(s), they know your industry. The CSM role within verticalized SaaS is very different than what you may have experienced in the past. That’s because today’s customer success managers are very much strategic partners. They understand the challenges you’re facing, the goals you’re trying to accomplish, and the strategies and tools you already have in place to try and combat or reach them.
Here at Sense, customer success managers provide so much more than tech support. They are here to help you grow your business.
In many cases, they’ve seen similar examples of your challenges with others, and can use that information first hand to assist you. At its most basic, working with a CSM means experiencing a comfortable feeling to know that people you interact with when using a product understand you and your business.
In some cases verticalized SaaS is a game changer because of how it helps YOU provide better service. With Sense, for instance, our robust platform enables you to deliver that same white glove service at scale to your candidates, clients, and internal employees by simultaneously automating, personalizing and optimizing your entire talent lifecycle.
Candidate engagement is important to all staffing firms, but overworked and busy recruiters can find it difficult to nurture every candidate throughout the hiring process. With verticalized SaaS solutions like Sense, candidate engagement is automated but without the “cold, corporate” feeling of many templates.
Because our platform has been designed specifically for staffing firms, we understand that efficiency at the expense of personalization will not help you deliver a better experience to candidates. Instead, we combine the efficiency of automation with the power of AI to personalize messages, giving candidates the right support at the right time. Candidates receive messages that speak to them on their preferred platforms.
Our research shows that a vast majority of a staffing firm’s candidates are only placed once by that firm. Redeployment rates are at a critical level, industry-wide. Contractors value redeployment as much as you do, and verticalized SaaS solutions like Sense help you, once again, automate and efficiently re-engage contractors to increase redeployment rates.
And, because this is software as a service, you can access, edit and create within the Sense platform on any device from any location. Computer crashes? Stinks, but you won’t lose a thing when it comes to Sense. Working from a coffee shop today? You have everything you need at your fingertips.
How can we change the game for your staffing firm?
Tell us about your goals, challenges and frustrations, and we’ll show you how Sense can impact your bottom line.
Reach out here to schedule some time.
