Preliminary Notes: You can call it (ATS) or (CRM), or (HR) Software, or (CMS), but if you have simply “good staffing software”, you will have them all, plus a Payroll system, Billing System, Bulk messaging System and more. And, you will have them all in a single, fully integrated software program that is critical to the efficient, professional, and profitable management of your staffing company.
That argument was made in a previous Blog article which you can read at any time.
Staffing software has been built exclusively for the 22,000 staffing companies in the US over the last 40 years. It was created, feature by feature in direct consultation with staffing companies to serve their growing needs in a highly competitive industry.
More recently, software built for other industries yet having direct and extremely useful applications for the staffing industry, have been “partnered in” and seamlessly integrated into existing staffing software. These integrations were made possible by a very sophisticated API technology. This development has made staffing software even more comprehensive and useful.
Staffing software today is, therefore, a more complete “Content Management System” for staffing companies. “Content” that includes all the necessary and/or useful data, is then “systematized” via cloud-based software engineering. That engineering enables the instant access and retrieval of data in the multitude of combinations that are required by modern staffing companies, their clients, and regulatory agencies.
So, what do we have besides a remarkably good staffing software or, if you prefer, a complete “Content Management System” for staffing companies?
The Problem: In talking with staffing management software developers and support people, they tell me that most of their clients utilize less than 50% of the software’s capability. This is not good.
If it is claimed that the initial 50% of the software program, that a company does use, is well worth the cost of the entire package, why stop there? Even if your company is writing 15,000 checks a week or mailing 60,000 W2’s annually, and the applicant/employee tracking and payroll modules more than pay for the software, and “then some”, the question still remains; “why stop there?”
When you consider that most all staffing software features were initially developed at the request of staffing companies to make them more efficient and profitable, to ignore 50% of those features is most likely, a huge loss. Why not do better? Why not use what you have paid for? Employee rebellion? OK, maybe a good reason, but that does not need to happen.
The Solution: So, I looked for solutions and I think I found a good one. It was simple, direct, and eminently workable. A September 2017 blog article might seem outdated, but the ideas it contains are “evergreen”. It appeared in a company blog of an IT service company “Techspert Services”. The title of the article is “5 Tips for Working with a New Technology Learning Curve” Bingo! Now the problem has a name and most likely the correct one, i.e. “.. . . a New Technology Learning Curve”
A “learning curve”, is not necessarily the problem but add “a new technology” to it and, in many offices, it can become so.
When you look at the entire software product, either in today’s comprehensive staffing software or Microsoft’s 365, it can be intimidating or otherwise simply challenging. But the solution, the author of the above article suggests, is not to look at the “whole”, but to take it on piece by piece, “incrementally.” That is the first of his 5 tips and is really the key to all of them.
In the situation of a staffing company using only 50% of their software’s features, the task is even easier. You are already working successfully with half and just need to add, “incrementally”, many more features and utilities. Each one will add to your company’s ability to reach its goals. Efficiency and profitability are also achieved “incrementally”.
The other 4 “tips” in McNicholas’s article have to do with actual implementation, like setting goals, having a set of procedures, making training sessions “short and sweet” rather than “long and boring”, and the time-tested idea of having a go-to person on your own staff.
So, adapting the advice of the author, I would suggest a weekly training session that would cover 1-3 software features. If a training session already exists for other company matters, a 15-minute segment could be devoted to staffing software. This segment need not add to whatever time limit is already scheduled.
Plan and assign that segment to your in-house, go-to person. Topics could be scheduled for an entire year or 6 months, in advance, with repetitions and changes as needed. That procedure would then cover 50 to 150 staffing software topics every year and your company’s efficiency and productivity will increase accordingly.
I guarantee it! Stay Safe.