Maximising Your Candidate Acquisition Return on Investment in 2024
Introduction
When we surveyed recruitment industry leaders, one clear trend emerged: Agencies are shifting their focus towards organic sourcing strategies in 2024.
With some agencies experiencing an increase in job board spend as high as 30-40% in 2023, it's not surprising that only 20% are now planning to increase job board spend as a source for acquiring candidates. Agencies are choosing instead to focus on organic acquisition and candidate nurturing to maximise ROI.
Maximising ROI means achieving efficiency in both sourcing and conversion. The aim is to create a balance between the use of external sourcing platforms and organic strategies, with an effective conversion pipeline that is able to effectively manage candidates from all sources. By engaging your existing database, improving the efficiency of your recruiters, and creating an effective social sourcing strategy, you can maximise your agency's ROI for candidate sourcing.
Read on to learn:
How to Utilise Enriched Data to Improve Conversions
How to Enrich Candidate Data
How to Implement Changes to Win Faster
Putting data at the heart of your
recruitment agency.
Putting data at the heart of your
recruitment agency.
Enriching Candidate Data
The most powerful change an agency can make to increase the ROI of candidate acquisition is to improve the conversion rate for candidates acquired. If your agency can convert a higher percentage of candidates acquired into placements your ROI will naturally improve.
This is where data enrichment comes in. Instead of treating candidates acquired as a number, it is vital to understand who they are, what value they offer your agency and what they need from you. There is no quicker way to lose candidates than treating them all as the same and doing so will be damaging to your ROI.
To maximise the returns from sourcing and achieve data-driven growth through enrichment, you’ll need three things:
- Your ideal candidate persona (ICP).
- The make-up of your current candidate database.
- A strategy to enrich your data.
1. Understanding Your ICP (Ideal Candidate Persona)
Once you know your ICP, what makes them tick and where they hang out (virtually of course), you can begin formulating a strategy for acquiring more of them.
Important note: Unless you work in a very specific niche it is unlikely that you will only have one ICP. Differentiating between role types and the candidates that suit each will enable you to effectively create talent pools for each area of your agency. By making the effort to segment these candidates you can then communicate far more effectively with each group to increase conversion.
Before you can begin enriching candidate data within your CRM, you first need to have a clear vision of the candidates who are an ideal fit for your agency. Being able to determine which candidates are bringing you the highest return will allow you to focus your efforts in the right areas to achieve a lower cost-per-placement and a reduced time-to-fill.
How to Identify Your ICP:
Unsurprisingly, it all begins with your data. The answer is inside your CRM so interrogate the data. The first step of creating an ideal client persona is looking at successful placements across different sectors and roles you've previously worked. Consider the common attributes such as:
- Skills: Is there a trend amongst skills for successful candidates?
- Salary Banding: Do the most successful candidates have the same expectations?
- Experience Journeys: Have they all had the same or similar roles at a previous point in their career?
- Application/Candidate Source: Is there a trend amongst the sources they have come from?
Utilising Your Enriched Data to Improve Conversions
Ok, so now that your database is full of enriched candidate data, it’s time to position yourself in the frame. Sharing expertise and delivering added value as your ICP candidates begin (or continue) their job search will prepare them for a smoother placement journey when the right role opens.
With your segmented database of candidates, you can start creating real value through clear and focused communications.
How to Use Data to Drive Revenue
Setup for
Success
Nail Your Personalisation
Segment Your Emails
Putting data at the heart of your
recruitment agency.
Become Data-Driven to Win Faster
Effectively implementing a strategy means planning for the long term and investing in embedding practices within your agency. Until the new strategy becomes the normal practice you have not succeded. There are three key steps to effectively implementing changes that will positively impact your agency's ROI from sourcing: Operating CRM-first, automating manual tasks, and measuring results to refine processes.
Put Data at the Heart of Your Agency
To succeed in increasing your ROI from candidate sourcing, you need to embed a CRM-first approach in your agency. By doing so you ensure that you are using your best resource first and are only looking to external (costly) sources as a last resort.
How to operate CRM-first: Analyse. Segment. Source. Repeat.
By creating a clear process to put data at the heart of your agency, it becomes easy for recruiters to utilise your CRM as their single source of truth. If you can make the database valuable by enriching or suppressing old data, you will make going to the CRM first an obvious choice.
Task - Analyse your application rates:
In 2023, 85% of placements made by Firefish users were made with candidates who were already in the system. If your placements from existing candidates are low, this is a clear sign that recruiters are ignoring the CRM and sourcing externally first. To overcome this, set clear guidelines on sourcing including a CRM-first sequence.
Multipost to job boards only once your database has been exhausted.
Use every relevant role to nurture candidates via job alerts, email, or text
Start with talent pools and potential matches.
Automating Manual Processes
The most vulnerable stage of any process is the manual part done by a human because it’s human nature to look for a shortcut. Making use of the automation tools at your disposal will not only mitigate this risk but will also enable your recruitment teams to spend more time with candidates and clients.
Automated Segmentation: Frequently refine and update the entry criteria of your talent pools based on your most recent ICP learnings. This will ensure that recruiters have active lists of candidates to work.
Automate Enrichment: Job alerts are one of the most powerful tools for candidate data enrichment – enabling recruiters to build a picture of candidate engagement without the need for manual input.
Measuring performance
By creating a clear and focused strategy to maximise the ROI of your sourcing strategy you will also, naturally, increase the value of your reporting – enabling you to win faster. Measuring key metrics can allow you to understand where the valuable candidates come from and how you can collect and enrich more of them in your database.
Analyse Placements by Source: Understanding where successful candidates came from will enable you to spotlight your sourcing activities. The channels that provide the best quality candidates at the lowest cost should become your target channels. Any channels that aren't performing should be refined or discontinued.
Analyse Talent Pool Quality: Understanding the makeup of your talent pools will give you a better understanding of the candidate data being enriched. Talent pools where candidates are added or removed in low volumes are a clear indication that either your ICP is not working or recruiters are not enriching the correct data when sourcing. Your talent pools should be active, evolving pools of talent that keep your agency at the forefront.