With over 350 cases of coronavirus confirmed within the UK, it now seems inevitable that in the next few weeks many businesses will be affected by its spread.
With that said, TBOS have been making our own preparations for our team and our agency clients to limit disruption as the coronavirus develops.
In light of this, TBOS highly recommends recruitment businesses follow suit on this, should the worst-case scenario happen, your agency will be able to carry on with business as usual.
Here are our top tips:
REVIEW REMOTE WORKING OPTIONS
Research your options for your recruitment consultants to work from home. We are fortunate to be living in a new technology era where we have the tools to facilitate home working, but it’s finding what works best for your recruitment business.
First of all, do your consultants have good telephone and internet connections at home, to carry on with their daily duties? Clear and consistent communication amongst your team, candidates and clients is paramount, so these channels need to reviewed carefully. Such apps like Whatsapp Web and Slack can be installed on any PC to ensure your team are in constant communication with one another.
Another important issue, how do you monitor your consultants’ KPI’s?
If you already use a recruitment management system like JobAdder, Bullhorn or Firefish which monitors interviews, tasks and calls, you could use this as your main tool for measuring your consultants’ responsibilities. Many of these systems will also provide comprehensive reporting, this could be something you review on a daily basis with your team to ensure KPI’s are met.
Another option is Skype, it’s been a successful communication platform for many international businesses across the world, it could benefit your recruitment business too. It also has the ability to deliver group calls, which could essentially replace your regular team meetings.
Another concern is junior staff being trained by senior members of your team, a solution to this could be junior staff listening to call recordings or insisting they sit in on live webcam sessions with your senior staff. This way they still receive hands-on experience from senior players within the agency.
OUTSOURCE YOUR BACK-OFFICE & ACCOUNTS ADMINISTRATION
Managing a ‘remote working’ recruitment team is one thing but managing your own accounts is another, as unfortunately, you don’t have the skill or time to ensure it is being processed correctly or compliantly.
That’s why it’s important you consider outsourcing your complete back-office to somebody who does know how to do it, like TBOS.
Things like managing timesheets, invoicing, credit control, bookkeeping and your statutory year-end accounts can all be outsourced to TBOS for a small rolling fee. It’s times like these, that outsourcing is perfect for recruitment businesses as it allows the recruitment director to focus solely on running the agency.
Currently, TBOS manages over 100 recruitment agencies processing and funding requirements, for a range of placements here in the UK and overseas. We provide a specialist accounts team that essentially becomes your full accounts team for all of your agency needs. This also includes telephone and email accounts support with a guaranteed response within 4 hours.
As this outbreak develops, should any of our agency clients have to shift their teams to remote working, they can rest easy that their recruitment accounts are being looked after by TBOS.
MAKE SMARTER FINANCE DECISIONS
At TBOS, we keep our recruitment clients fully aware of their agency’s finances and their tax responsibilities to ensure their cash-flow is consistent. With that said, we always recommend that our agency clients make smart finance decisions, to ensure their business runs smoothly. Given this recent outbreak, this couldn’t be any more important.
If you are a recruitment business that is having issues with finance, managing tax obligations or struggling to manage your commission structure, you should call TBOS. We have managed to fix many accounts issues for our recruiting clients, ensuring they get back on the right track for success.
‘Our average debtor days moved from 80 days to 30 days within a few months of joining TBOS. Exceptional work by all concerned.’
STAY WELL INFORMED
It goes without saying that you should stay updated on the news to ensure you are well informed of the ongoing outbreak and how it may affect your recruitment business.
You can sign up for email alerts or app notifications so you can receive news instantly. Recruitment-specific news channels such as Recruiter, Recruitment Times and Recruitment News UK are also worth checking daily.
WANT TO OUTSOURCE YOUR BACK-OFFICE NOW?
You can speak to TBOS today to discuss your agency requirements, we are more than happy to run through a comparison quote – you may just a make a huge cost saving too!
Maybe some well-needed good news after recent events…
