After blogging with Typepad since 2006 I'm making a move over to Wordpress.
Our new site is Wordpress hosted so it makes sense to have the blog nicely integrated.
All the content (over 900 posts!) from the past six years will be moved over and I don't intended to take this site offline anytime soon.
You can access the new blog at http://ukrecruiter.co.uk/louisesblog
Louise's UK Recruiter Blog
Find out about the entire UK Recruiter community at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
06 June 2012
28 May 2012
In these tough economic times...
I will be doing a proper write up on last week's technology event. The way the event worked was, so I’d have a rough idea of how many people were going to come, recruiters paid a £20 deposit that is refunded to them after they attend the event. These are two emails I got on Friday from event attendees.
"Many thanks for organising yesterday. Thoroughly worthwhile as well as being thoroughly enjoyable! No need to return my deposit. Please donate to your nominated charity."
"Thanks for organizing the event yesterday – it was good. I would like the £20 refunded please, rather than giving it to one of your charities. When and how will it come back to me?"
Nothing wrong with wanting your money back but a little tight to actually spell it out!!
22 May 2012
Things to consider before upgrading your CRM
Ahead of our recruitment technology event on Thursday Wayne Barclay of Barclay Jones (a Consultancy working with agency recruiters, corporate recruiters and B2Bs advising them on the most effective use of technology, web and social media) has written this for us.
Once you've decided that your current software for managing your data (CRM / ATS) is ready for a kick up the butt! You may be wanting to upgrade your existing software, or migrate to a brand new system... STOP: are you about to simply move into a new house with all of your old stuff?
If you've made the decision that enough is enough, and you're ready (and willing) to change the way you store (and manage) one of your most valuable assets, then you will also be thinking about the existing data you have (won't you?)
I was with a client recently who is ready to make the move and we were discussing his current database and it turns out that he actually has a dataDUMP. It's a great system, although to be fair he's outgrown it and its but full of junk.
His recruiters don’t search it; they rarely add data to it, and if they do it's merely to ring fence it - they don't keep the data up to date. He spends a fortune on other databases and job sites to help with candidate sourcing; he has little visibility over what he has and what the business “owns” in terms of data; social media is not helping the situation by giving his staff even more “private” access to data that he has zero visibility over.
His database is therefore worth very little; in fact it is probably costing him money! We got chatting about what he wants to get out of the move to a new system...
Like many of our clients he has had the following experience:
- Invested well before recession
- Held on tight during recession
- Got a bit giddy post-recession and focused on bringing the money in (too right!)
- Now realises that strategy is key and he wants a safer, structured, visible environment for his data and his people
- The CRM that he has is not fit for purpose going forward - his business is very different to what it was when he bought the software and the software has not moved with the times. Upgrading to the newer version would in effect mean a completely new process - so he may as well see what's out there! (Right decision!)
Thus, the decision to move systems has been made and he wants to know about how to deal with the legacy data. Options:
Bin the old data and start again with a nice shiny new system! Trust me, the theory is great - in reality, your staff will hate you for this (even if they are the ones whinging about the rubbish they have to sift through to get what they need).
Migrate the lot! Some CRM / ATS software houses will happily take money for migrating your data (as a removal man will happily take your old junk to your new home...) - but you will be charged for this AND your staff will still have to wade through it.
Study what you have and see what you have to gain by migrating it - please think about what good looks like. Think about the typical life-span of a client and candidate and search your datadump for data that you need going forward.
The key to this is to think long not short term; ask yourself:
- If your data was paper-based, filed away in a multitude of filing cabinets, would you pack it up and move it to a new office?
- Is one of your objectives for the new CRM/ATS a cleaner working environment?
- Do you have a policy / process which clarifies to your people when the data that they have goes on to your system? You don’t want to be spending time and money getting a gorgeous clean house, only to invite a load of hoarders to stay, who nip out to every car boot going, and trawl eBay for stuff they may “need”. Be clear about what goes onto the system and why. And perhaps have a system that "archives" data that has not been touched in a while.
Investing in a new CRM / ATS is a great way of moving your business to a new work ethic, ensuring that your workforce has the best tools and that you can maximise the data that you have. Make sure that you don't simply move your junk to a new system and in 6 months have the same complaints that led you to migrate / upgrade - otherwise it's just geography.
Are you planning on migrating / upgrading your CRM? If so, how much data have you got? what's your strategy?
You can follow Wayne on Twitter, his Facebook Business page, his Pinterest boards, read his blog and connect via LinkedIn.
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