Congratulations! You’ve found the open opportunity, recruited the best talent, and got official acceptance from your candidate. You’re free to move on to other sourcing opportunities, right?
Not exactly.
As a staffing agency, your primary focus is finding jobs and closing candidates. However, it’s important to remember that the deal does not end with a candidate’s acceptance. In fact, locating the candidate and getting them to a “yes” is only the first step in a successful engagement.
Beyond the Offer: Keep Employees Engaged Until After the Onboarding
It’s not enough to know employees are willing to start — you also have to ensure that you’re doing everything in your power to make employees stay. And while most staffing agencies are great at finding talent, many don’t know that the deal is only 50 percent finished after a candidate accepts the offer. The second half of the process happens after they have completed onboarding.
One of the biggest things to keep in mind when staffing is many candidates will continue looking for job opportunities even after they have accepted a position. It’s critical to streamline your onboarding process to make it fast, intuitive, and efficient to keep your employees moving forward towards their start day.
Additionally, many staffing agencies assume that not hearing from their placed candidates is a good thing. This is not always the case. Sometimes, employees can suffer silently trying to work through the onboarding process on their own, which can result in them abandoning the process completely if it becomes too difficult.
At Headcount Management, we know that there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all onboarding approach for candidates. Gabriella Scaturro, one of our back-office experts, emphasizes the importance of meeting every candidate where they are at—and recognizing what they need. "I have seen candidates complete their onboarding in 15 minutes, with no assistance, while others take 10 days plus and require live assistance along the way.”
The best way to know what a candidate needs is to ask. It’s important to check in on these candidates consistently, asking questions like:
- Have you finished your onboarding?
- Have you completed your payroll paperwork?
- Do you have any onboarding questions?
It’s no secret that people make decisions—only to methodically talk themselves in and out of that decision countless times before making a final decision. This is especially true in the job market. Recent statistics show that roughly 28 percent of workers admit they’ve declined a job offer after they have already accepted it. Staying connected with employees after they’ve given their acceptance can ultimately save the deal.
Building Honesty, Transparency, and Trust With Candidates is Critical
JT Thompson, Owner of Edge Group Staffing and a recruiter with over 20 years of staffing experience, has built a career understanding the importance of establishing trust and transparency with every candidate he places. “It’s always important to be honest about the job, what it is, what it entails, and what they can expect from the employer as they move toward the offer,” he said. “However, prioritizing transparency is just as important after a candidate accepts the job.”
For Thompson, that transparency continues throughout the onboarding process. “As a recruiter, I always make myself available to answer any questions or concerns they may have leading up to the start date. I also consistently check in to make sure they aren’t struggling in silence with any part of the process. Even a simple text checking in can go a long way in being able to identify and solve a problem before it negatively impacts a hire.”
Payroll Can Also Impact Retaining Employees After Acceptance
The payroll portion of your onboarding process can also significantly impact your ability to retain employees after they’ve accepted an offer. Most of the time, employees will have various questions about both the payroll process and their compliance responsibilities. If you’re the person in charge of paying them, you’re the person they will come to with all their inquiries. At best, ignoring their calls, having an inability to give relevant or helpful answers, or misdirecting them can quickly damage their trust in you. At worst, not proactively helping them get paid and stay compliant can cause them to look for new opportunities.
Working With an Back Office Service Provider Can Help Keep Employees Engaged
If it sounds like a lot of work to keep employees moving forward after the acceptance—it’s because it is. Fortunately, staffing agencies do have options available to ensure that their closed deals stay closed. Recruiters across every vertical often turn to a provider that specializes in back-office service solutions to manage the entire onboarding process for them.
A skilled and experienced back-office expert mitigates risk and decreases costs for staffing agencies by offering several mission-critical services. Your chosen provider will schedule and coordinate every onboarding component on your behalf. They also will serve as a single point of contact for all employee inquiries. Most importantly, your back-office service provider will ensure complete employment compliance throughout the engagement and manage payroll so your employees (and you) get paid.
The Back Office: Designed to Solve Onboarding Issues for Staffing Agencies
The Back Office from Headcount Management delivers fast, efficient, scalable, and (most importantly) compliant onboarding solutions staffing agencies. Contact us today to learn more about how we help staffing agencies keep their employees engaged and their deals closed.
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