5 HR Tools Staffing Agencies Can Use to Attract and Retain More Business

Necessity is the mother of invention. With so many teams moving from centralized brick and mortar offices to a work-from-anywhere distributed workforce due to the pandemic, so emerged a whole new set of corporate and HR tools designed to foster communication, engagement, and collaboration.

Staffing agencies can use these same (human resources) HR tools to attract and engage both active and passive candidates, and to attract and retain corporate clients as well. For recruiters, this is the ideal time to add engagement tools like these. Why? Current trends point to a mass exodus, or rather migration, in the workforce.

How The Great Resignation Will Affect Staffing Agencies

This trend even has a name: The Great Resignation. For a myriad of reasons, American workers are reassessing their professional lives and making changes. As many as 59% of middle-income (household income of $50-75K per year) US workers may be planning to change professions, companies, or both.

According to a Harris Poll conducted for Fast Company, this year:

• 52% of all US workers are considering changing jobs
• 48% of 6-figure salaried employees are planning to change jobs; 66% are more confident in this decision now than they were 6 months prior
• 21% feel there are better opportunities at other companies
• Nearly 7 out of 10 of currently-employed people value remote work and work-from-home
• 43% of women say a remote work situation is very important to them (vs 33% of men)
• 18% want more flexible hours in a new job

This is a tremendous opportunity for staffing agencies. What’s more, with so much upheaval anticipated in the workforce, this opportunity may be a boon to staffing agencies for many months, or even years.

HR tools for communication, team-building, recognition, and collaboration aren’t just effective for use with employees. Many have features that make them ideal for staffing agencies and recruiters who want to fill their pipeline of talented candidates to set them apart from competitors in the staffing industry. And most can be used at a low cost (or even no cost).

Staffing agencies can use 5 HR tools to attract and engage candidates and corporate clients

Build your talent pool using these five human resources so you can become the go-to resource for hiring professionals.

Slack

Emails get buried. Communicating with active and passive candidates via slack means your conversations stay fresh and easily findable. Plus, push notifications let candidates know when you have an opportunity to speak with them about or when they need to take action to move to the next step in a process.

Slack could be an especially effective tool for communicating with passive candidates who are considering, but may not be ready to make a move yet. It could also be useful with temporary employees who you regularly place on short assignments for one or more companies.

Need a candidate to submit an I9 form, copy of identification documents, or complete an online application or skills assessment? Want them to check out a new listing? Want to send them links to online videos or training so they can brush up on some particular skills? A quick note to your candidate in slack and they are notified, can quickly access the resources you sent, complete the items you need them to submit, and let you know it was done.

Price: You can get started on slack at no cost, and their pro pricing starts at less than $10/month.

GoTalent – Job Personality Test

Many organizations use personality tests not only to assess candidates during the hiring process, but to aid in team building, internal communications, professional development, and so on. GoTalent is a Job Personality Test app available from both the Google Play and Apple App Stores.

Once you download the app to your mobile device, you can invite people to take the test via email. Plans range from $9.99 for one test to $299.99 for 40 / enterprise. You can invite up to 3 people at no cost to test the app (we love free trials!)

Reviewing personality tests can help you identify individuals who might be more or less appropriately placed in different types of roles. From the app:

“Evaluate personality strengths and weaknesses of candidates, team members or even yourself in under 12 minutes. Highly accurate and scientifically validated, GoTalent is the ideal app for recruiters, hiring managers, talent managers, entrepreneurs, and CEO’s.

With GoTalent, you can get a full overview of a candidate’s job personality traits and character. Building your career? GoTalent helps you discover your key career personality traits.

Created by psychologists, GoTalent helps you see the personality behind the CV, which means you can significantly accelerate the hiring process, preselecting candidates that you really want to see at the interview stage.”

Water Cooler Trivia

Marketed toward corporate team-building, Water Cooler Trivia could be used to encourage participation and engagement by nearly any type of group. And it’s FUN. It sends a weekly trivia challenge out to a group of people (defined by you) including topics which can also be customized for your audience.

Price: You can try it for four weeks at no cost, and plans range from $10/month up to 10 participants to $500/month for an unlimited number of participants.

This tool offers a passive way for you to stay in touch with small or large groups of individuals in an entertaining way. It could be as an enjoyable way for you to network with groups of hiring managers and HR professionals as with groups of candidates.

Job Interview Apps

Even the most talented candidates can be tripped up with an unexpected interview question. Make the interview coaching and training process more interactive and engaging for prospects using apps available at no cost or for as little as $0.99 on Google Play and the Apple Store:

Able Jobs: Job Interview Preparation App – 4.5 out of 5 stars – from the app:

“Able Jobs Interview Preparation app 📜 is a free Interview question and answers app that Prepares you for Sales, Support, Marketing & BPO jobs.

You can use Able jobs Interview Preparation app to:

👨‍🎓 Master HR interview preparation with our HR interview questions and answers
🏫 Practice campus interview preparation
📚 Prepare Sales interview questions and answers to complete your Sales interview preparation.
📢 Go through marketing interview questions and answers and be ready with marketing interview preparation
🖥️ Champion bpo interview preparation with our curated bpo interview questions and answers.
☎️ Telephonic interview preparation and job interview preparation

How do the Able Jobs app works?

– Choose a job that you want to apply
– Start job interview preparation for free
– Prepare for the job interview in 1 day
– Get a job interview to land onto your dream job”

HR Interview Questions Answers by Incognisys Apps – 4.5 out of 5 stars – from the app:

“100+ HR interview Questions with more than 10 answers for each question

Features
• Freshers Questions
• Experienced Questions
• Things to remember before and during interview”

Job Interview Prep Questions – 4.6 out of 5 stars – from the app:

“Do you have a job interview coming up? The best way to get ready for an interview is to take the time to review the most common interview questions you will most likely be asked. Knowing what you’re going to say can eliminate a lot of interview stress.

You don’t need to memorize an answer, but do take the time to consider how you’ll respond. The more you prepare, the more confident you’ll feel during a job interview. When you’re not sure what to expect during an interview, also review this refresher on how job interviews work.

This app gives you a great way to prepare for job interviews. It tells you how to answer lots of questions. Download now for FREE!”

These three apps are highly rated by users (4.3 stars out of 5 and up) who say the app helped them prepare to answer common and not-so-commonly asked interview questions. As a staffing agency recruiter, using apps like these can even help you refine your interviewing skills.

Likewise, you could use the app to inspire your own list of questions and provide them as a tool for your corporate clients. In a highly competitive talent market, hiring managers and interview panels may need to beef up their skills as well!

Client and Candidate Appreciation Gifts

You probably reinvest a significant portion of revenues in client and candidate acquisition, but are you reinvesting in retention?  Showing appreciation with a tailored thank you gift is one of the most effective ways to build repeat business among both business clients and candidates. As the saying goes, “reward behavior you want more of!”

GiftMyClient.com offers a complete corporate gifting solution with gifts starting at $25. You can automate gifting based on your criteria, track, and use this tool to assess its effectiveness as a retention marketing tool. Your program can be further customized with compliance mandates, budgets, and personalization.

You can even use GiftMyClient to send surveys and reviews that measure satisfaction, bring your staffing agency back to top-of-mind, and be used to gain online reviews and important client feedback.

As with some of the other HR tools listed here, this can be used with both corporate clients and candidates.

Snacknation.com is another client appreciation gifting platform with range and flexibility; use it to send a one-time gift to an important client or recently placed candidate, or use it to thank clients and candidates on a scheduled/subscription basis. Pricing of gifts starts under $30.

It’s time for staffing agencies and recruiters to step up their game. Adopting HR tools for use with staffing agency clients and candidates can set your agency apart and make you the preferred vendor and hiring expert.