Every day the software market grows. Its popularity, inevitably, drives trend forming. In this article, we will be looking at the hottest recruitment software trends that both managers and payroll employees can benefit from. Whether you work in a traditional agency or are a contractor recruiter - you will find this blog useful.
It has long since sunk in that recruitment companies stand no chance against their competitors unless they adopt the software that streamlines their workflows. From shorter time to hire to smoother payroll procedures, efficiency-driving digital tools are a must. However, now that the market is saturated with all kinds of solutions, it can be daunting to navigate.
We always recommend building your tech stack based on your business’ needs. However, it’s also worth looking at the functionality trends within your industry, especially if it’s niche. Most often the said trends emerge because other companies in your sector have recognised their use, and while no trend should be followed blindly, this may be a firm indication there’s something you can utilise too. So, with this in mind, let’s see what are the hottest digital functionality trends for recruitment software.
5 Recruitment Software Trends in 2022
The recruitment sector underwent many changes in the past few years, and thus if you have a solution from as little as 5 years, there are chances it lacks the functionality we are going to list below. This, however, doesn’t mean you need to get rid of a platform that otherwise has and still is serving you well.
Not every recruiter or a payroll employee within the recruitment will benefit from these trends. Ultimately, like always, it depends on your needs and which of these features you require or not. Therefore rather chase your direct requirements as opposed to mimicking what everyone else does. Without much more ado, let’s talk about what is trending.
1. IR35 Compliance Support
One of the biggest changes that occurred in the recruitment industry in 2022 is the end of the adaptation period to the IR35 changes for the agencies. Since the adjustment of the legislation, the recruitment firms were given a year in which non-malicious noncompliance would go unpunished. However, as the ‘soft-touch’ approach time limitation has now expired, they are to face serious financial damages for not following the rules. Although most agencies have worked with the advisors are were fully prepared to modify their processes, naturally, mistakes happen. Unfortunately, even if it’s something as simple as human error, it’s now a punishable offence.
The recruitment agencies weren’t the only ones forced to move and adapt fast. Vendors of recruitment software were also put in a spot where they had to change the way their platform runs. Whether it was tinkering with the existing functions or adding a whole new module, the inclusion of the IR35-supporting feature, understandably, is one of the hottest demands recruitment agencies have for digital tools. It can also serve as a good indicator of whether the software is being updated regularly and how well the provider understands the industry. While some solutions utilised by the hiring firms are not a niche for the sector, the ones advertised as such should raise concerns if they have no IR35-related functionality.
2. Employee Shift Scheduling
Recruitment agencies that supply shift workers are sometimes the ones to also allocate their work times. Given the wide range of responsibilities the agencies already have, the last thing they need is to run another time-consuming and human-error-prone process. And this is why employee shift scheduling is a sought-after feature. A not too long time ago it could only be found as a stand-alone solution, but lately more and more recruitment-specific platforms are adding it to their functionality list.
The reason why it wasn’t as popular before is that it’s not recruitment firms-exclusive software. In fact, it’s predominantly aimed at stand-alone companies that work on a shift basis, helping the managers to allocate the workforce quicker and more effectively. It was picked up by recruitment agencies relatively recently and as its popularity grew within the industry, sector-oriented solutions began including it as a part of the package. Naturally, this feature is only trending with the firms that allocate shift workers themselves as opposed to those who work with contractors or aim to supply permanent salaried workers. This, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to affect its growing demand.
3. Integrations with ATS and CRM
ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and CRM (Candidate Relationship Management) are staple solutions for any recruitment firm. However, they are far from being the ones a firm needs to be successful. The two make a foundation of the digital toolbox as they are responsible for key recruitment functions, and other solutions are meant to direct their effectiveness in a direction unique to every agency. Due to that, it’s important for all the solutions to work together.
Software integrations essentially link different solutions with one another, enabling extended automation functionality, seamless data transfer, more detailed insights and many more. Since additional solutions recruitment firms employ differ depending on the company’s specific needs, integrations with the base ATS and CRM solutions open doors to building unique processes the firm needs. Undeniably, building workflows that cater to your direct needs by utilising software capabilities instead of building workflows around software limitations is a more effective and thus more popular approach.
4. Payroll Automation
Recruitment agencies have to deal with a lot of payroll procedures, especially when they are working with contractors. Given their already hectic days, this is a particularly time-consuming task that, if mishandled, leads to loss of trust and broken relationships with both clients and contractors. Like many of the things we’ve discussed so far, this process is prone to human error and thus the best solution is to exclude the human from it.
Payroll automation is, therefore, a sough-after feature as it both saves time and improves the company’s performance. With the right set of integrations, its functionality can be inclusive of invoice automation, expense management, differentiating rates, overtime and many others. Similarly to how it is with the shift scheduling feature, payroll automation takes into consideration the individual data of each employee and calculates it accordingly. In other words, what would otherwise take the accounting hours, is being sorted out in minutes.
5. Seamless Approval Processes
Approval processes are important in every business: be it timesheets, expenses, deliverables or anything else that needs to be signed off before being processed. Therefore there’s little surprise that the last but not the least trend of recruitment software is the ability to run approval processes as smoothly as possible. Simply put, things get delayed, messy and downright forgotten when ran through outdated premises such as email threads. The risk of something going wrong only increases when it’s a multi-levelled process, involving several approvers. Lag in the approvals stage can lead to declining productivity and frustration.
A feature that turns an approval process, no matter how many stages it involves, into a workflow is a powerful addition to the strategy. It is equally useful for both external and internal procedures - expenses, timesheets, holiday requests, you name it. When the process is set up to be linear, a designated solution makes it easy to track down where it’s stopped and eliminate the issue quickly. Additionally, this prevents the same tasks from being carried out by different individuals, keeps communication channels open and streamlines the progress.
Summary
The modern world is fast-paced and businesses that seek to thrive in it need to move fast too. With daily data overload and competition as high as ever, companies have no other choice but to rely on the software. Recruitment agencies are no exception. However, just as there are many different firms, there are tons of different solutions - that offer even more features. This makes picking what you need and want rather complicated.
While we don’t normally recommend copying the approach of other companies and instead of following the needs of your own, trends are slightly different. They serve as an indicator of what the current industry standards are and what potential functionality helps businesses stay afloat and grow. As you might have gathered, the recruitment software trends we’ve listed cater to different types of firms and would be irrelevant for the others. While the features we’ve listed are currently shaping the industry, don’t rush to adopt them - first, ask yourself if and how your recruitment agency can benefit from them.
And, if you’re at the loss, just give us a shout.
