Streamlining Your Recruiting Agency for Improved Productivity

Most recruiters that decide to go out on their own, do so because they believe in their ability and have a history of success. However, even the best at their craft can fail in going into business for themselves. As independent recruiters and business owners we wear many hats. We are marketers/ business developers, sourcers and business operators. Naturally, most of us cannot focus on one area without neglecting the others. Because of this truth, 90% of independent recruiters fail, burn out or quit.

Being a one man or woman band is necessary at first. As we pick up clients and place more candidates it is imperative we systematize our business. As an independent recruiter it is crucial to be efficient with our time in order to best serve our clients and candidates.

One way to achieve this is by systematizing our business, automating where we can and delegating work. This is definitely easier said than done. Many of the recruiters I know are control freaks (myself included). This is the biggest hurdle we have to cross as business owners. So the number 1 thing we must learn is that there is absolutely no way we can control everything and that need for control is holding us back from the success we deserve.

Map It Out

Systematizing our business and actually writing out our entire process is the first step of giving up control.  It is also the most difficult part. Why? Because it forces us to get out of our heads and look at our business analytically. We have to take a good, hard look at what we are doing on a day-to-day basis and document it. There is no task too small when doing this.

This can be an extremely daunting task, but once you have we are on our way to getting out of our own way. I love tools like Mindmeister.com for this step of the process. It's a freemium service that allows you to visualize and map out your entire process from start to finish. Definitely check it out.

Once this is done you can find opportunities in your process that can be automated and/or delegated.

Automate

There are all kinds of ways to systematize and automate your business. Many of us are already doing this in things like candidate outreach and email campaigns. But there are so many other places where we can automate our business.

One way to do this is by automating where you can. For example, you can use technology to help you source great talent and build a pipeline. Additionally, you can use software to help with your business operations.

Other automations could include creating customized client proposals, requesting referrals and/or feedback, and identifying new leads.

Mainly I use Zapier for this. If you are interested in how I've created some cool automations that add value to your service, let me know below.

Delegate

Let’s face it, there are some things in our process that only we can do. However, we can outsource or delegate a lot of the other administrative tasks that bog us down, so that we can focus on what we do best…recruiting!

There are a ton of great virtual assistant services out there. I am currently using Fancy Hands, but have used UpWork in the past as well. You can get someone for just a few dollars an hour to do things like make phone calls, internet research, data entry and social media tasks. Also, don't underestimate the peace of mind in having much of your back office tasks taken care of. Sending out and collecting invoices, managing recruiting partners and crafting up agreements are all tasks that need to be done, but take us away from building your recruiting agency.

Once we have freed up time by automating and delegating, we need to put that extra time back into recruiting by sourcing great talent and building a pipeline. This is also an area where Headrace can truly become a partner. 

At Headrace we offload tasks like invoice management, collections and recruiting partner management all for free. Recruiters on the Headrace platform also get access to vetted leads and a network of other independent recruiters and clients. So if you are having trouble keeping all the recruiting plates spinning, let's set up a call and go over how Headrace can help.