Recruiting and staffing is a challenging business to run. However, if you have worked in a particular segment of the industry and have developed some expertise and network in it, it is one of the businesses that you can get started with really quickly. It is a challenging business but has great potential to become a large business.
Here are a few tips for you to get started and run a successful recruiting agency business.
Focus on candidates
In the age of the internet, the old model of posting jobs to multiple job boards and processing applicants doesn’t work anymore. You have to go out in the market to hunt and convert passive candidates. Make sure that your recruitment agency software helps you source and engage candidates.
With current economic growth and acute scarcity of talent, your real customer is the candidate. If you have unique candidates that you can source and place, you will build a reputation in the market and get clients.
Automate your workflow
With modern tools, you can automate a large part of your workflow. While identifying the right talent cannot be completely automated, you can automate a large part of your workflow using productivity and automation tools that integrate with each other.
As a recruiter, your biggest asset is your time and you need to be very conscious of what you are spending your time on. Make sure that you are spending your time on high-value tasks like relationship building and closing deals and placements rather than menial administrative tasks like writing mundane updated emails and scheduling back and forth.
Outsource low-value tasks
As your business starts growing, the biggest hurdle to grow even bigger will be your bandwidth. If you are automating a large part of your workflow as mentioned in the previous tip, you will still be spending a large amount of time in administrative tasks and data logging.
There are two ways to deal with this: Use a recruiting agency software that minimizes data entry. The second way is to outsource the admin and data entry. It is not always easy to hire and train a full-time employee, not to mention the expenses related to that. However, one way to work around that is you can outsource admin tasks to virtual assistants and even hire recruitment specialty freelancers on Upwork or Fiverr.
VAs will help you with your data entry and makes sure that you spend your time doing what matters the most – relationships and placements.
Focus on a niche
It is humanly impossible for you to develop expertise in multiple domains and industries. Define a niche in your market and focus on it. You will understand the market better and build a brand around it.
Typically, start with a domain where you already have expertise. Get a few clients and place candidates for them. Make sure you are differentiated from every other recruiting agency out there because of your domain knowledge and network. As you expand in a particular niche and build a brand, it becomes easier to branch out. You can think of branching to an adjacent niche or branching out geographically.
