The recovering recruiter – discover why our MD James started re:find and how you can recruit for top talent.
How to lose friends and alienate people…
We are in the 21st Century and candidates SHOULD be at the centre of what we do. Let’s be real for a moment. Candidates are key to our success – they are the one thing that stands between success and failure as a recruiter.
But I would be bold and say 40% of recruiters treat their candidates like shit. Treating a candidate badly can destroy the reputation of you/your business. Any press isn’t always good press and trust me candidates talk. And they talk even more when they have had a bad experience.
So, here’s what not to do:
1. Sell them the dream…
I get it…recruitment marketing is a hot topic right now, everyone is getting training on how to write engaging job adverts, how to be witty and get candidates attention etc. That doesn’t mean you have a to be a billy bullshitter. Don’t sell the candidate the dream – unless of course, the job is Chief wine taster at an exclusive hotel in the Bahamas – because who would turn that down?
Anyway, my point is, be honest with a candidate when talking about a role. Yes, tell them all the good things about the role, but tell them all the bad things too! Talk them through the client’s challenges and shortcomings.
Jobs aren’t all about flexible working and table tennis tournaments, sometimes companies are in a bad situation, don’t have the best brand etc. and that’s ok, in fact, some people like that about a job!
2. Force a candidate into a role they aren’t sure on
Picture this. After hours of searching on LinkedIn and your job boards, you come across the holy grail of candidates. Your purple squirrel, glittery unicorn, whatever you want to call them. They are the perfect candidate for your role.
You pick up the phone, excited to tell your candidate about their dream job. But to your shock, they aren’t keen.
Newsflash. Just because they are perfect for the role, doesn’t mean the role is perfect for them. Respect their decision.
Don’t try and push them into going for an interview. Don’t even push them to apply if they aren’t keen. You look desperate and pushy.
You risk them being offered the job and turning it down, or worse, you risk them leaving in that elusive rebate period. You also risk them thinking you are a bit of an idiot and that you only care about your fee.
3. Drag your candidate into an ownership war with another agency
It is the most frustrating thing in the world when you spend time qualifying, meeting and briefing a candidate on a role, send them over to your client…only to get the dreaded email response.
‘ We have already received this CV from Cowboy Recruitment, sorry’.
The candidate has not been spoken to by Cowboy Recruitment about the role (they claim!) so doesn’t know how her CV is already in the process.
There are two ways of dealing with this:
– Politely step away from the situation and allow the candidate decide how they wish to proceed in the process.
– Demand that the candidate calls the other recruiter immediately and tell them how terrible they are, whilst simultaneously emailing you to confirm that you have the right to represent them on the role.
I advise the first. Step away and allow the candidate to decide how they process. Naturally, there is some subtle influence you can have on this, but doing the second option makes you look like a petulant teenager.
Candidates also don’t need the reminder that they are simply just a fee to you – it makes you look greedy. Show them you are supportive and have their best interest at heart.
4. Call your candidate in the morning on the day they are due to start their new job and then every day for the next 3 months
Your candidate isn’t an 18-year-old teenager who may or may not turn up to work, depending on how pissed they were the night before (apologies to any sober, reliable 18-year-olds).
You don’t need to ring them the day they start their job. A simple call the afternoon before, to check they have everything they need or the following day will suffice.
Candidates are intuitive, they will sense that the fact you are calling them every day means they are a flight risk. Also, their first few weeks are really full on. Give them some space and allow them to settle in, then check in with them.
5. If your candidate doesn’t get offered the job….ignore them
In my opinion, this is the worst possible thing you could do to a candidate and it is the most damaging thing for your reputation.
Nobody really likes to tell a candidate they didn’t get the job…but it is not acceptable to ghost them. Other unacceptable ways of delivering feedback include emailing, leaving a voicemail, or getting your resourcer to give the feedback instead.
Don’t be a terrible human being. Your candidate has worked hard for you, they have understood the brief, done their research, spent 2-3 hours of their time with your client to represent you to the best of their ability. The least they deserve is some honest feedback.
6. Give vague feedback
Almost as crappy as giving no feedback, is giving vague feedback. If you are giving feedback on your opinion to a candidate, don’t be afraid to tell them the truth.
Think their CV needs some work? Tell them.
Don’t think they interview well? Tell them.
They don’t have the right skills for the role? Tell them.
You get the gist.
A separate challenge is when a client gives vague feedback about a candidate. It is ok to push back on your client and ask for further detail or examples of what the candidate did.
Feedback should be constructive. Tell them what they did well, where they fell down and how they could improve.
Candidates may not always agree with the feedback, but they will be appreciative of the feedback nonetheless.
7. Only communicate by email
If you are afraid to pick up the phone to speak to a candidate, you are in the wrong job. Pick up the phone and speak to them, what is the worst that could happen? It takes as much time and effort to speak to someone on the phone as it does to type out that email.
Contacting people exclusively by email is impersonal, impractical and to be totally honest, just bloody lazy! I don’t care if your candidate isn’t based in the UK and there is a time difference, or if they are travelling, or you are ‘super busy’…pick up the phone!!
Now I’m sure some of you are reading this, thinking it all seems pretty obvious. I’m also sure a lot of you reading this are guilty of doing one of the above things.
We are all guilty of letting standards slip from time to time, but let’s do our best not to become one of the clichés in those recruitment bashing posts we see on Linkedin!
For all things interim management, change & transformation, get in touch with us via the info form below, and if you would like to feature in our ‘Insiders Story’ blog, email me on kate@refind.co.uk.
You can view more about Kate Wass our executive interim specialist here.
Insider Story – Resourcing Transformation at Gowling WLG
For August’s instalment of Insider’s Story, I met up with not only one of my favourite HR professionals, but one of my favourite people in general, to talk about ‘resourcing transformation’.
The wonderful Jo Franklin, Head of Resourcing for Gowling WLG, agreed to sit down with me and have a chat about the huge ‘resourcing transformation’ journey they have been on.
She explains how they have transformed their resourcing strategy and well and truly stepped out of the ‘Wragge & Co shadow’.
Gowling WLG has been on quite a ride over the past few years…
What was once Wragge & Co, then Wragge, Lawrence Graham & Co, (before joining forces with top Canadian law firm Gowlings) and finally Gowling WLG was born.
Jo joined the business post-merger in the early part of 2016. They had gone from being in the Top 25 to overnight becoming a part of a major international law firm. As a result of this, their resourcing and talent strategies needed some serious development and she was in responsible for resourcing transformation.
“ It was a testing period”, Jo admits “as I joined, three of my most experienced team members were going on maternity leave. All of that knowledge and experience leaving at a time of considerable change!”
The Transformation
The vision was clear; to make Gowling WLG a recognised brand in the marketplace, to compete against the top law firms and to secure the best talent across lateral, business services and early talent.
The perception that the resourcing team was very much an administrative support function was something that Jo wanted to change. As around 60% of the team’s time had been spent on recruitment admin, they wanted to adopt a business partnering approach and get more stakeholder facetime.
Jo says, “We wanted to have a position in the market where we could source directly, because of our reputation.”
To put this into perspective in the legal sector, agency hire rates sits at around 60-70%. Jo had set herself a target of direct sourcing at 60%.
In order to achieve this, the team needed to look at a number of things including Employer Brand, EVP and Internal Engagement.
How did you do it?
One of the key pieces to landing any big transformation is to engage with your people and to take them along on the journey. They wanted to focus on their people, rather than the work they do.
Gowling decided to undertake 360-degree feedback to determine their true employer values.
This consisted of 12 workshops with people across the brand, from trainee to partner level. It also involved leadership interviews and market research to understand what made working at Gowling WLG different and unique.
From this developed an employer value proposition (EVP)framework upon which the new careers site would be based.
Headed up by the team members returning from maternity leave, they employed the service of two specialist agencies to convert their EVP into attraction messaging and built their careers site around this.
In order to meet their own challenging direct sourcing targets (60% of all offers), their social media and direct hiring activity needed to be supported by a creative, informative and content-rich careers website.
This is Gowling WLG’s first full careers site. For several years, the firm has had an early talent website, but the offering for fee earners and business service professionals was limited, and the team was keen to promote their new enhanced apprenticeship programme. Now they have detailed information on the firm, its culture and all the different job families in one place, which is presented in a creative and engaging way.
‘You can’t just tell people what your values are’
A common mistake that many organisations make is just announcing what their Values and EVP are, rather than engaging with people, which can alienate people and leave them feeling unsure of their identity.
Rather than just announcing firm values, it is far more effective to live and breathe them, and they slowly infiltrate into the business as usual.”
There must be a mindset change for any transformation to be implemented successfully.
Jo and her team did this through empowering the people around them.. Rather than focussing on what was wrong with the current approach, they demonstrated how great things really could be by sharing knowledge and helping people to understand that there are other ways of attracting great candidates…
Jo says, “Don’t tell people, let them experience it”
Developing a ‘Dream Team’
Jo recognised that in order to truly provide a value-add service to the business, developing her team’s offering was key.
At the time of joining, their agency spend was substantial…
Due to previously having a limited view of forthcoming requirements, the firm had become used to a reactive approach to recruitment and this was going to be a huge change for them.
Proving the model worked and providing tangible results in the first few months was vital, both in the quality of candidates introduced and time to hire.
One of the key hires to the team was Chris Lake, who had an exceptional track record in direct resourcing, having worked for a legal agency for 6 years prior to joining Gowling WLG.
Jo empowered the team to start taking a more forward-thinking approach. They began to identify and map the key markets within the firm’s key sector areas, understanding the active candidate market but more importantly building a picture of passive candidates that could be developed into a talent audience for the future.
The resourcing advisors started to build trust with key stakeholders and taking time to understand their business objectives and working with managers to plan for skills gaps and provide competitor insight and analysis to build credibility.
‘This wasn’t an original solution’
Now Jo, whilst undeniably fantastic, isn’t a part of some kind of secret recruitment magic circle!
The direct sourcing model isn’t an original solution, however, it’s usage within the legal sector is limited within the Top 100 law firms. In addition to this, varied results and methods are evident across the sector – i.e. direct sourcing limited to business services/non-fee earner roles or paralegal level recruitment in some firms.
What is clear, however, is that Jo has opened her stakeholders’ eyes to ‘what could be’ if they trusted in her and her team.
By really engaging with your people, being armed with knowledge and taking a genuine interest in your stakeholders, you can build fantastic relationships.
This doesn’t necessarily happen over-night. Jo herself will admit it has been in huge part down to her teams’ sheer persistence, determination and energy to truly add value that this transformation has been such a huge success
Where are they now?
12 months after Jo and Chris joined the business, Gowling WLG had succeeded in reducing its cost per hire by 41%. The time to hire for the new direct talent strategy 30% lower than for previous hires through recruitment agencies.
The success has continued with the team meeting their direct hire targets year on year, producing real and credible savings on agency spend, whilst still focusing time on building relationships with their key agencies to help with niche roles. By April 2018, they had exceeded their initial 60% goal.
The team were also delighted to receive a prestigious HR in Law award in May for their careers site, which they are now extending out to their international offices, the first being Dubai.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to Jo Franklin for taking part in my Insiders Story series! To find out more about life at Gowling WLG, visit their careers page at: https://gowlingwlg.com/en/careers
For all things interim management, change & transformation, get in touch with us via the info form below, and if you would like to feature in our ‘Insiders Story’ blog, email me on kate@refind.co.uk
You can view more about Kate Wass our executive interim specialist here
Shared Services, want to attract the best talent to join your business?
I recently published an eBook called “Why Top Performing Shared Services Talent Won’t Join Your Business & What To Do About It”. In this eBook, I explain why it is that big reputable brands (which have world-class shared services centres) still find it difficult to recruit and retain the best talent. Even though these brands may believe that “everyone loves our brand and it’s a nice place to work…” this isn’t necessarily the truth.
Is that the message you are giving off to a passive candidate market?
With over 75% of shared services professionals passively looking (and not actively seeking) a new role, then it’s no wonder that it’s difficult to attract and retain the best talent!
Delivering the right message to shared services professionals
Candidates are being increasingly selective over their future employer, and considering that Monarch Airlines, Carillion, Toys R us, House of Fraser, and Maplin (just to name a few!) have gone into administration during the past year, why would you want to leave your cushy job where you’ve worked for years, and where Betty knows how to make the perfect cup of tea, for somewhere that isn’t as secure and may be at risk of joining all of the companies mentioned in the previous sentence?
It’s important that shared services give off the right message, follow the right process and keep up with their competitors when it comes to recruiting.
The most desired Shared Services assignments in the past 12 months that I’ve managed have been within newly created roles. But why is this?
Is it because there isn’t an expectation there, or because they feel the company are performing well by creating these new roles?
Newly created positions offer a chance for candidates to put their stamp on a role and make it their own. As these positions are created due to demand for a certain skillset within a business, they also provide candidates with a sense of feeling wanted and allows them to see these roles as a challenge and the chance to pursue something new.
It’s all about how you deliver the message, and how this message is perceived by your potential future employees!
So the big question is, how do you excite people to work for your shared service centre if the role is replacing someone who lacked motivation, was bored and didn’t enjoy coming into work….
It’s all in your message.
How you get this right in your Shared Services team!
And I have just the thing that can help you with this… In my free eBook, I examine the steps you can take to stay ahead in the field.
If you would like your free copy, email me at sam@refind.co.uk
You can view more about Sam Perry our Shared Services Executive Search expert here
Business services: do millennial’s want a job or an experience?
Working in recruitment you hear the word ‘experience’ a lot…Usually, in business services positions, it is within the context of what a candidate can bring to a position, or specific experience a client requires: what previous experience do they have, how much experience is required for a role, that kind of thing.
But, as more and more millennials enter the workforce, I’ve noticed that this word is now being used more commonly to describe what a company can offer you…There are a still lot of lazy stereotypes regarding a millennial workforce, but if you want them to want to work for your business services company (or any other company!), you may want to take some notes – starting with the end of these tired stereotypes.
Millennials are the first digital natives to enter the working world and this hasn’t been lost on us recruiters. The differences between this generation and their predecessors, however subtle, can have a huge impact on what someone expects from a job.
Whilst millennials want essentially the same as everybody else; enough money to live comfortably, career progression, a friendly team and a good work/life balance. How these areas are prioritised is slightly different…
Increasingly, a higher value is being given to a positive work culture over what a starting salary may be. Millennial workers are frequently less engaged by the prestige of a company, as they are more inclined to work somewhere where they believe their work is meaningful and the company that they work for has a strong social purpose. Just because a company is a reputable brand, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a desired workplace.
In a current candidate-driven market, millennials are being more and more selective over their future potential employer.
You may have noticed recently that a lot of business services companies are now online so that they can showcase who they are and what they are about directly to a young, digitally engaged audience. Technology has changed, and it now allows millennials more access to research companies, check reviews and identify other employees via platforms such as LinkedIn.
Whilst each millennial worker is different, generally, they all want purpose over a paycheck (with a dash of success thrown in there!). They are likely to search for opportunities that will enable them to learn, grow and develop, and if companies want to get the best of the next generation to work with them, they will need to adapt in order to survive…
In such a competitive market, recruitment is a two-way process and companies need to sell their opportunity as much as the candidate sells themselves.
But what do you think? Do you work in business services or are you a millennial? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or email me at sam@refind.co.uk.
You can view more about Sam Perry our Shared Services Executive Search expert here.
Change recruitment – at work and at home
I specialise in change recruitment at work, but my biggest challenge came from change at home – when I had kids!
I never knew how challenging it would be to manage work and family life. Whilst you can vaguely guess at how it might be difficult to divide your full attention between both, you never really know what the reality of it feels like until you experience it.
The main thing that you quickly realise is that you only have some much time available to you, especially when you’re running a small business.
I remember when life used to be Eat, Sleep, Rave – Repeat!
Now I feel more like a Labrador going round and round in circles, chasing his tail but never quite managing to get a hold of it…
I know recruiters get a lot of stick but it is a tough job
I know recruiters get a lot of stick but it is a tough job! Both emotionally and also from a time perspective. There is a reason the big recruitment firms make junior recruiters work so hard, its because until you know what you are doing – doing more = better results. The more that you put out there, statistically the more results that you’ll get (even if those results don’t always hold the greatest value).
That said, I don’t think many recruitment firms have moved with the times. Most adverts read; we work hard play hard, we go for beers, you can earn loads of money… I don’t think that’s really why most people go to work.
These adverts only really appeal to one part of a large demographic. Whilst these might be great perks for someone fresh out of university, for those that have important commitments outside of work then these things just aren’t as important.
Your priorities change when you have kids, now the most important thing to me is ensuring I see my boys as often as I can. Not going out with my colleagues for beers every evening (and being judged if you can’t make it). Whilst it’s great to socialise with your team, and I think it’s great to spend time with colleagues outside of the office, this shouldn’t eat away into your personal time and cause an imbalance in how your time is spent.
That’s why I setup re:find, I wanted to create a culture that supported people (rather than stifling their creativity), enabled people to put their lives first whilst having the infrastructure to enable them to be a success at work and rewarded people not just with cash but with recognition.
Interested? Give me a call. Send me a message. Or leave a comment below. James@refind.co.uk.
You can view more about James Cumming our change and business transformation specialist here
Lifestyles of the rich and the famous… The reality lifestyle business.
I was at a conference recently and bumped into an old colleague. We had a nice catch-up and before we parted ways she said it’s great to see that your lifestyle business is going so well…
I remember hearing the phrase ‘lifestyle business’ from my big box recruitment background, and it always had a negative connotation attached to it. However, my old colleague didn’t say it with any negative undertones at all – far from it! She was, in fact, using the phrase as a compliment, which got me thinking.
Why do people see recruitment firms as lifestyle businesses if they don’t want them to take over the world? A lifestyle business generally refers to a business that allows the owner to live how they want to live whilst also running the company. This phrase also often refers to a business that doesn’t consume your personal life and gives you the flexibility to shut off at the end of the day.
I mean, surely the days of 8 till 8 are over, especially with so much industry focus on the subject of maintaining a healthy work/life balance. Thinking about it, I guess re:find does fit into the category of a lifestyle business…we have an office dog, there isn’t a suit in sight, flexible working is standard practice and we have a grown-up culture where people are supported (rather than managed to within an inch of their lives).
But does that mean you are a lifestyle business? Or is that just perception? How would you define a lifestyle business? Get in touch and let me know!
To discuss further, you can email me on James@refind.co.uk.
You can view more about James Cumming our change and business transformation specialist here.
Thinking of taking a leap into the interim HR market? Go ahead and jump…
Thinking of taking a leap into the interim HR market? Go ahead and jump…Senior HR professionals are increasingly coming to me to discuss the possibility of taking a leap into the interim market – with more and more expressing a desire go down the ‘consultancy’ route.
Rewind back to 2015 and this is exactly the position that Rachel Wade was in. A few years ago Rachel came to meet us to discuss her options. At the time she was the HR Director for EMEA, part of a Global Senior Leadership team. She seemed to have it all, but not all that she wanted.
My interim journey
Rachel is now 2.5 years into her interim HR journey. We talked to her, to get a real insight into what it takes to make it in the consultancy world. Her journey is one with many highs and lows and this is the brutally honest view of it.
Rachel was very lucky that immediately after leaving her permanent role, she had 6 months’ work offered to her. As amazing as this was, it also meant that she gave all her time to this role and didn’t focus on building her consultancy activities. So, when the 6 months were up and another piece of work didn’t materialise, it got real!
“It really hits when you are sat in an office, the phone isn’t ringing and the work isn’t coming in.”
Starting your interim journey isn’t always peachy – it took Rachel a while to find her groove. She realised that professionally she didn’t know who she was or what she wanted to be. Even as recently as a year ago she felt that her offerings were quite ‘vanilla’.
“It’s easy to get lost as so many people want to give you advice and tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. I had been positioning myself all wrong and was focusing on the wrong things. For the last 6-12 months I have been re-learning all the basics because at the start I was so client-led, I haven’t been in control of developing my business. It led me to remember why I wanted to do this in the first place and what my passion was.”
How do you plan your day?
“I have put structure into my day and that makes me feel empowered.”
Key priorities include: Getting invoices out to clients, chasing invoices, business development and having quality conversations with prospective clients.
Even when Rachel is delivering for a client, she still puts time aside to continue these important ‘behind the scenes’ activities. They keep the business going and her pipeline buidling.
Sales
However you feel about sales, as an interim you will have to do it in some way.
Contracts and clients won’t just appear from thin air. But don’t get too consumed with what to say and do, remember that you are speaking with your peers on these calls.
Don’t cold call – Rachel always takes the time to establish a relationship with prospective clients at events, seminars and workshops, or via LinkedIn.
Networking
There is no point going to a networking event unless you have a purpose as it takes up a lot of your time and resource.
Be selective about the networking events that you go to and do some research into the reasons behind the event and the type of people who are going to be there. Try to avoid the hard sell and don’t expect that by handing out your business cards to 20 strangers and giving them your sales pitch that you’ll win their business.
Remember that networking is exactly that – building a network. Making connections that you can learn from, give advice to, share knowledge and build a real relationship with.
‘Saying no’
It is so easy to take any work a client offers you, especially when things are quiet. But whatever this work may be, it will still require your time and effort. Try to figure out whether you want to do it or could your time be spent better elsewhere.
If you don’t align yourself with the business, or their expectations are not in line with what you can deliver, there is no shame in stepping away. Rachel admits that this is something that she has done in the past, and she has even stopped working with clients when it wasn’t the right fit.
What have been the highs and lows of the last few years in interim HR?
Highs
- Getting the first piece of work. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you realise that people will pay you for the work you do and that you are worth it.
- Nominated for a ‘Woman Who’ award and was a finalist in the startup category. “Even though I didn’t win I got amazing feedback from the panel”.
- Branding and taking up a virtual office space.
Lows
- Getting lost on the journey and forgetting who I was and what my brand stands for.
- Almost having my house and car repossessed.
After putting some structure back into her day and seeing some great results, Rachel is now focusing on building for the future. This includes putting in place proper systems and foundations and further embedding those crucial day to day activities. She also spends time analysing what works and what doesn’t, to continuously improve results. Rachel has also set herself financial goals and headcount goals and is now taking a more strategic approach to her business.
So there you have it… it hasn’t been easy, but through it all Rachel has stayed true to herself and the reasons why she chose to take the direction she did in the first place.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Rachel for sharing so openly with me. If you would like to learn more about Rachel and her business, then you can find out more here.
Carl Hinett is our Director & Executive Search Specialist. If you’ve got a hard-to-fill role and need some help, get in touch carl@refind.co.uk.
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Automation is dead…(long live HR recruiters)
Automation is dead…long live HR recruiters! “Recruitment is dead… automation spells the end of recruitment as we know it… recruiter jobs replaced by chat-bot… interviews no longer needed – we have a fully automated hiring process…”
Heard any of these lines before? I bet you have (apart from the last one – I made that one up but it doesn’t seem that far-fetched if you believe the news)!
LinkedIn is currently awash with stories telling us that it’s the end of recruitment as we know it, as companies are increasingly pouring money in to direct sourcing and automation – and not HR recruiters.
But here’s the thing, recruitment isn’t dying, far from it. In actual fact, spend on agents has increased and evidence shows that the industry grew rapidly in 2017.
In 2008 during the height of the recession, companies had the power, but this balance is now shifting back into the candidate’s favour, and they are noticing. Wages are on the increase, people are getting multiple offers and buybacks are now becoming more prevalent.
This makes hiring more challenging and will put pressure on retention rates, as people’s confidence and the benefit to move increases. This will ultimately impact time to hire metrics, cost per hire, and more importantly in my mind – business growth.
But how is this?
The problem with automation is that people are variable by nature, and not to mention emotional.
Nothing is going to beat picking up the phone and having a conversation with someone. A good story beats data hands down every time. In a growing economy with talent shortages and unemployment at an all-time low, people will be swayed by the business that has the most compelling story and makes it the easiest for them to join.
When you consider how many companies use technology badly, it’s easy to see why candidates get frustrated whilst applying for jobs.
Let’s put it simply – if you had 2 jobs with the same salary, same role. One had you communicate with a chatbot, and the other with your potential boss… guess which one would be more successful in establishing an emotional connection with a potential employee?
It’s not rocket science, is it? And before you say, yeah but recruiters are crap as well. Some are. But they are also very good at getting people interested and building an emotional connection – I think tech is a little way off on this front.
Still think that recruitment’s dead? I wouldn’t be so sure…To discuss further, you can email me on James@refind.co.uk.
You can view more about James Cumming our change and business transformation specialist here
Is ‘robotic process automation’ taking recruiters jobs?
Is ‘robotic process automation’ taking recruiters jobs? If you’ve worked in shared services, then you’ve probably heard about RPA.
But what exactly is Robotic Process Automation? RPA refers to a growing trend across shared service centres all over the world whereby we now have robots that can perform more and more intelligent tasks. Whilst automation has been around for a while, thanks to the rate at which technology is changing we now have intelligent software systems that can process and data quickly and more efficiently than their human counterparts.
RPA is like a software robot, or artificial intelligence, that can perform human tasks and is designed specifically to perform a vast range of repetitive functions and communicate between other systems, in much the same way that humans do.
Once implemented, this software is a cheaper, more accurate and more efficient option for many businesses. Robots don’t sleep so they can work through the night, they won’t call in sick or be late on Monday morning and you don’t have the expense of having to provide them with benefits.
In some areas headcount can be reduced by more than double land with human error eliminated, it’s a no-brainer for most onshore…
More than 50% of shared service centres have plans to implement RPA in the future. But why? The main purpose of companies creating SSC’s, is to eliminate costs and improve efficiencies. Robots perform better than humans once rapidly trained, so it’s no wonder the stats are so high.
Some of the benefits of RPA include:
- Reduced costs – between 30% and 80% savings
- Improved efficiency
- 24×7 work
- Agility
- Increases customer and employee satisfaction
- Improved compliance
- Human error eliminated
Robotic process automation will be the future of Shared Services. It will eliminate manual processing, reduce errors and inevitably saved time & costs. It will also provide a better service; software robots act in the same way as human beings and are trained extremely quickly to process data in a certain way, although they don’t make errors. Over time this software becomes more intelligent as it is self-learning and identifies trends, meaning that any unusual information that may have previously gone unnoticed will be flagged up by the robot.
RPA won’t work in everyone’s favour. It reduces headcount within a SSC, meaning redundancies for some, and initially, these transformation projects will be a big cost for businesses. Also, because of the complexities of changing existing systems, they don’t always work. There needs to be a solid strategy behind it with all stakeholders engaged in the project, as most transformation can fail if not implemented correctly. This is something that we’ve previously highlighted in these blogs (https://refind.co.uk/how-hr-is-preparing-for-digital-transformation/ & https://refind.co.uk/change-management-learning-secrets-success/).
Not all suppliers are in favour either, as sending invoices electronically may cause issues to supplies current accounting processes.
Some examples of how RPA is used.
Finance & Procurement
- 3-way matching.
- Invoice processing.
- Cash allocation.
- Credit status
- Parsing
HR
- Processing starters and leavers
- Applicant screening
- Recruitment feedback/rejection emails
- Data management
- Saving on recruitment costs
Payroll
- New starters/leavers
- Contractual changes
- Attendance/absence records
- Holiday records
- Deductions such a pension, salary sacrifice etc.
- Expenses
What are your experiences with robotic process automation? Has your business benefited from new technology, or has it caused problems in your workplace? To discuss you can email me at sam@refind.co.uk
You can view more about Sam Perry our Shared Services Executive Search expert here.
