Improve Your Profits in an Uncertain Economy

We could be heading into a tough time for staffing agencies. Because of COVID-19, there may be fewer jobs to fill and more candidates chasing them. But this doesn’t mean you should plan for a difficult future. With the right strategy and program implementation, you can buck the trend and increase profits in the coming months.

Here are six implementable strategies to put into action today to boost your profits tomorrow.

1.    Review Your Costs

At its simplest level, profitability is your revenue less your costs. When was the last time you reviewed your costs? Are there any costs that you can reduce or eliminate? For example:

• Could you use technology more effectively to reduce your back office costs by streamlining workflows?
• Is it possible to renegotiate advertising spend?
• What tasks are your people undertaking that have no benefit to your production?

A strategic review of your processes and procedures, incorporating a close look at your technology and systems will often provide surprising results and enable you to deliver a more efficient service to your clients at a lower cost to you.

2.    Evaluate Your Clients and Cull the Non-Profitable Ones

A client review requires your team to examine each client profile honestly. You’ll need to review how much each client generates in revenue, and then assess how much work is required to generate that revenue. You should cull the non-profitable clients. This will allow your recruiters to focus on the clients who are most revenue-generative, developing a more effective sales pipeline.

3.    Widen Your Margin

Reducing your costs will help to widen margins, but there is more you can and should be doing. For example, is your pricing structure correct? It may be time to consider increasing charge to lower-value clients instead of racing to the bottom. Highlight your strengths and the good results they have had thanks to your expertise, and nudge your charges up.

You might also consider ways in which you can offer value-added services to enhance revenue from your clients. Such services may also help to attract new and more profitable clients.

4.    Connect with Candidates with a Content Strategy

The conundrum for staffing agencies has always been how to attract the most talented candidates for their clients. A by-product of COVID-19 is that the passive candidate market is likely to increase in importance as people start to reassess their careers, their employers, and their lives. While referrals have always been a critical strategy to attract passive candidates, 73% of candidates are considered passive, and top candidates are only available for 10 days before they get hired. Your challenge is to encourage passive candidates to you before they go to your competition.

Connecting with these candidates can be challenging, but the best candidates all have one thing in common: they are thirsty for knowledge. Providing thought-provoking content that educates and informs – and providing it on the digital media where passive candidates are to be found – is an effective and low-cost strategy to improve your candidate talent pool.

5.    Showcase Your Expertise on Social Media and Beyond

Get involved on social media. Task your recruiters to post interesting and informative articles and comment on relevant groups. Share your blog content and offer help to those who ask questions to which you have the answers. Invite clients and candidates to webinars and in-person (socially distanced, of course) presentations. Develop a culture of thought leadership, and you will become the go-to resource in your specialty.

6.    Always Follow Up with Clients

Ensure that your recruiters are following up with clients by requesting feedback after each candidate interview. This is critical to ensure that the candidates you are sending are the right quality and that any changes in requirements are considered by your recruiters.

Reach out to clients you haven’t connected with recently. Be the regular contact in staffing they will turn to first.

Be the Competitive Advantage Your Clients Need

Recessions are never considered good for the recruiting industry, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t improve your profits even through difficult times.

Examining what you do, how you do it, and being honest about your costs and clients is essential. Then, identifying your strengths and weaknesses, you can strategize to offer value-added services that make a difference to clients and attract the most talented candidates.

Contact Enabled Force to learn how our consultancy services can help you create the strategy to boost your profits despite the economic uncertainties that are challenging staffing agencies today.