Maintain profitability by reducing overheads

It is more important than ever to ensure your business is not supporting inflated or un-required overheads. During boom times recruiters often invest heavily in new technology, but many never achieve the return on investment they originally anticipated. In the past this lack of return on investment was considered inconvenient, however over the next couple of years, companies without slick systems and lean operations will struggle to survive.

Guy Rubin, Managing Director at Culuru, systems experts with many years experience in the recruitment industry says: ìWe expect recruiters to shift away from spending on new technology to investing in optimising existing systems, automating costly manual processes and maximising the return on previous investments in systems.î

ìDemand is likely to grow for outsourcing expensive in-house functions like pay and bill and replacing costly manual processes like CV validation with slick automated alternatives.î

When planning internal projects for the coming year, Culuru advises that directors of recruitment businesses should consider the following questions:

ï Do you have teams of people carrying out repetitive tasks that could be automated?
ï Are all of your systems talking to each other with minimal manual intervention?
ï Are your systems getting in the way of recruiter productivity?
ï Do your systems restrict or enhance the performance of your recruiters?
ï Is there a better and cheaper way to deliver a function currently managed in-house?

Recruitment companies who find ways to reduce overheads and improve profitability without a negative effect on turnover will continue to prosper over the coming year, and be well placed for growth when the market picks up again.