NEWS & INSIGHTS

Meeting the challenge of candidate retention & redeployment

Liquid Friday
the challenge of candidate retention and redeployment

Written by FCSA member, Liquid Friday

Liquid Friday Logo

Rising resourcing costs. Talent shortages. Diminishing candidate pools. These are the challenges recruitment businesses are facing to fill roles in the current tight labour market.

This, coupled with a stronger increase in demand means agencies are prioritising contractor engagement and retention.

There’s no doubt that redeployment is a winning formula in terms of revenue. Though it differs by industry and region, the cost to onboard new talent is an agency’s biggest outlay. Advertising vacancies, sourcing candidates, interviewing, ID and DBS checks, screening references…the list goes on, and it all adds up fast.

In an ideal world, the moment a worker comes off one assignment, you’d already have another job lined up for them – redeploying all your contractors as soon as they are available for work. 

The money definitely talks; recruitment agencies who double their contractor redeployment rate can increase their gross revenue by 20%… but just how can this be achieved?

The tricky matter of redeployment rate

Interestingly, less than 6% of agencies who place temporary workers actively track the redeployment rate. This is the ratio of contractors placed on a new assignment once their current assignment ends. 

As Liquid Friday’s CEO, Colin Gunnell, reflects, it can be a difficult metric to pin down, for various reasons.

“The priority for agencies is to solve their clients’ resourcing needs immediately, so they put a lot of energy into deploying new people who they know are readily available. The challenge with redeploying candidates is that frequently agencies just don’t know when the worker has dropped off an assignment, or there is a time lag before they find out. This varies between sectors; in some industries the line of communication between client and agency is quite proactive but there are plenty of actors where this doesn’t happen. So measuring redeployment rate can be very tricky as there is no standardised approach or standalone tool that captures the trigger point when the worker becomes available for a new assignment.”

Better data = maximised revenue

Once you understand how candidate redeployment impacts business growth and value, recruitment businesses need the right tools to implement an effective redeployment strategy.

Knowing when to reach out to workers is critical in the redeployment process. Candidates won’t wait around for a call once they’ve finished an assignment – they want the next job lined up.

The use of data-driven tools is on the rise across the recruitment sector, and in order to track and optimise redeployment rate, agencies need a mechanism that notifies them when candidates are coming off one assignment, so that they can be deployed effectively and efficiently. 

Introducing Liquid Stride (powered by Liquid Friday)

Liquid Stride predicts when contractor assignments will end, giving agencies a live portfolio of candidates for faster placements and redeployment. Learn more at https://www.liquidfriday.co.uk/agency/ 

 

  

About the author