I’ve been working with recruiting and staffing leaders since 1997, many of whom were serving the industry since the 1980s and I find several things interesting on things they shared about recruiting back then. During my journey my curiosity drove me to understand as deeply as I could, all that made recruiting and staffing work. The people, the process, the technology (or lack thereof), the pains, the heroism and the drive to succeed.

There are many posts I’m interested to write about, so here’s a list

• Why output hasn’t changed

• What we used to know

• What does disruptive technology look like

Are we getting better?

There’s no doubt that staffing has become more complex over the years, whether through legislation or changing demands from clients, but surely with all the extra technology and automation and cellphones things are different, right?

It was when I was in the process of creating TempBuddy (the pioneer in platform staffing technology) that many of the old data points first started to sound very familiar. I recalled one of my good friends and a recruiter since the 1980s describing what a great temp recruiter would do, how they’d structure their day, how they organised their contacts and worked shift assignments with the skill of an orchestra conductor. It made such an impression that the early TempBuddy t-shirts had a “temping maestro” character on them.

What stood out though were the numbers. A good recruiter would handle around 25 candidates, book and fill 70 shifts per week, generating approximately $700,000 per year in revenue. [note: this particular recruiter was handling CDL/truck drivers]. But this was before cellphones, email, and the array of technology we employ today. Back in 2014, the productivity of a temp recruiter was still the same. In this I saw the opportunity – how can we make technology improve the real effectiveness of a recruiter? The answer was in the old school method, you see this recruiter wasn’t trying to find new candidates for the shifts he was filling, he was making sure the candidates had enough good work that they wouldn’t go elsewhere.

He was focused on redeployment rate and loyalty, even if he wasn’t measuring it.

We don’t do that any more, and I believe that is the reason that the productivity, 10 years on, hasn’t increased. Wages have increased so the billing is up over $1m now, but the shifts filled hasn’t. TempBuddy was engineered to change this, and for those that could adopt to a new way of working it did, pushing the redeployment rate up to 70%, largely based off of the old school tactics.

So What?

We all have access to lots of data. We can measure almost anything, but what we choose to measure is critical. I’m reminded of the baffling Candidate NPS score that is measured and published by many. NPS was originally developed to help an organisation turn contacts and customers into advocates since word of mouth is so powerful in society. With NPS the idea is that your candidates will tell you if you’re doing a good job or if you need to improve and this feedback helps you do that. So it’s important to get the point of view of those that are unhappy as well as those that are happy, how else to improve in areas you’re underperforming?

Why then, should so many staffing agencies only measure candidates who have been placed and put to work? The happiest possible cohort most likely. And not forgetting these are the same ones that will be expecting a pay check at the end of the week and continuing work. What do you learn from surveying these instead of the hundreds that applied and didn’t find work (and often didn’t even get a response)

Candidate NPS is an excellent metric to measure, but only if you include those that will tell you where you’re underperforming.

The same is true of other metrics. Measure the things you want to improve, not the things you want to shout about that caress your ego. Let the results of excellence in your service massage your ego into euphoria.

To be clear, this is not just about NPS – try to really understand what makes your business more effective and how to measure that.

I have 5 metrics that matter to share if you want to reach out.