If you’re like everyone in our business you’ve experienced deals that fall through. Customer, employee and or deal “fallout” happens to all of us.
While finding more candidates and engaging additional clients will help, let's face it — even the most seemingly engaged prospect or client stops answering calls or responding to emails. However, for staffing firms experiencing constant client “ghosting,” something bigger is often at play. We’d all like to blame the constantly changing job market, competition and shifting recruiting landscape — and while they make occasional client fallout inevitable, operational adjustments are usually a simpler solution to a possibly recurring event.
FOCUS ON WHAT YOU KNOW
Give Your Clients the Attention Needed to Keep Them Reviewing Your Candidates and Not Your Competitors
Owner/Operators understand that the best way to land clients is by placing top-performing candidates. Consistently sourcing hard-to-find candidates with the desired core competencies wins. The best agencies know that submitting elite talent doesn’t have to come at the time or expense of other parts of the business.
One of the biggest reasons staffing companies fall out of favor with clients is because they aren’t able to set aside enough time to focus on their clients’ needs and (as much as we hate to admit it) their clients know and feel it. Your focus keeps clients engaged. The data doesn't lie. Hiring Managers can pull performance reports to see where you rank. They can quickly feel when their recruiting teams aren’t focused, can recognize a rush job (lots of resumes, no good ones) and when your team is not improving submission quality or delivering a better overall experience than your competitors.
BE GREAT AT EVERYTHING (according to your Clients)
Take a Closer Look at Your Operations to Determine Why You Keep Losing Clients
The Headcount Management team has seen firsthand that staffing firms able to focus one hundred percent of their efforts on sourcing experience yield the very best results. Outsourcing tasks and responsibilities (beyond sourcing candidates) increases your firm’s access to top-performing talent. However, more importantly, staying focused on recruiting gives you an unparalleled opportunity to better understand your clients and have better relationships with your employees — which ultimately leads to landing and retaining customers.
In any business, the quickest way to optimize results is to focus on what you’re best at doing. We always tell our customers that if you’re great at payroll, back office organization, and tax compliance, by all means, you should do it. But if you’re not, leave it to the professionals (that’s us) to ensure your agency gets the attention it deserves while you focus completely on your client list to eliminate losing business.
If you're experiencing consistent customer turnover, it may be time to take a more critical look at other areas of your recruiting business, beyond candidates, that may be causing the disruptions. Some of the biggest distractions that lead to lost clients include:
Payroll Issues
Many recruiting agency owners assume that missing payroll only causes candidate dissatisfaction. Not true. Payroll inefficiencies can have an indirect, yet still significant, impact on hiring organizations. Keeping your candidates satisfied can play an integral role in these hires completing their contract. Consistently late payments, an inefficient payroll process, or not having the working capital to cover payroll can prompt contract turnover, ultimately causing your clients to find a staffing firm that can keep their workers happy throughout the entire duration of the hire.
Lack of Back Office Infrastructure
Back office infrastructure eliminates workflow and process gaps with each placement. Your back office resources also support your clients, answering questions, offering expertise, and managing a wide range of necessary administrative tasks, including job orders, onboarding, tax documentation, and invoicing. Smaller staffing agencies find it challenging to coordinate all of these tasks internally. Likewise, larger recruiting enterprises may have more internal resources. However, these bigger corporate teams also increase the opportunity for mistakes and performance lapses. Lack of proper back-office support can quickly derail a recruiting firm's momentum and customer trust.
Insurance and Tax Compliance Issues
Owning a staffing firm means navigating through a multitude of insurance and tax compliance requirements. Many entrepreneurs find that, while they have mastered recruiting, they don't have the experience, resources, and motivation to manage insurance and tax compliance needs. Not having the proper certificate of insurance or a workflow that prioritizes compliance can send your clients to the nearest competitor with the capabilities to coordinate these mandated hiring components.
Outsource Payroll, Compliance, and Back Office Support Needs to an Employer of Record
Working with an Employer of Record (EOR) is one of the most effective ways to protect your staffing and recruiting business. No matter your operations' size, a competent, experienced EOR equips your team to outsource critical hiring factors, such as payroll, insurance, administrative, onboarding, tax, and compliance, to support your customers and grow your headcount. The right EOR will automate workflow, optimize compliance, and eliminate risk for your company, ensuring the highest levels of client support and service excellence throughout every placement.
Contact Headcount Management today to learn more about our customized EOR solutions. Be sure to download our Gross Profit Margin Calculator to develop pricing strategies that maximize your operations profits.
