I can’t believe 2014 is almost over! This year has gone by way too fast if you ask me. By now, you are probably finalizing the last of your budgets and already thinking about 2015. On January 1^st everyone has defined new goals that they want to achieve for the New Year, whether it be to lose 20 pounds or learn to better budget their money. How about as a company? Do you have goals you want to achieve next year that you weren’t able to this year? How about becoming more productive and get more done by working smarter, not harder? Learn how to set realistic sales goals for next year and actually attain them. As a staffing or recruiting firm you have the best tool to help stay organized and accomplish your goals…staffing software! There are so many great things a staffing solution can do to help make 2015 a banner year for performance.

Got software?

So you have a staffing software solution that you love, but are you utilizing everything it has to offer? Most staffing software is equipped with a daily planner component that can help you manage daily tasks. As a sales representative, for example, it is crucial to stay on top of all of your follow up calls. You are never going to close a deal if you don’t have a reminder of who you are supposed to contact, and when. Anyone in the sales industry will tell you that your work never stays inside the office; it is important to be able to reach those contacts as quickly as possible in order to stay ahead. The best way to handle this is by having your CRM at your fingertips on a mobile device. This provides the ability to reach someone from anywhere.

Goal setting

In order to set goals for the New Year you first need to assess, as a company, how you did for the year 2014. Dashboard reporting is the best and quickest way to help keep track of financial activity from the previous year. It allows you to see sales broken down by month, how many jobs were filled, how long job orders took to fill, how many marketing calls were made, and which sales representatives had the most sales. Having access to this detailed information will allow for the setting of realistic goals for the company in the New Year.

Now let’s talk recruiting

As a recruiter your days are very busy and sometimes it is hard to keep track of what needs to get done each day. Being able to quickly see how many jobs are open and need to be filled can help set priorities for the day. It is also important to document all correspondence with your client, as it is essential that your client is in the loop with your talent search for their job openings. Filling jobs means a critical need for a thorough and fast applicant search option in your software. “There is gold in them hills” and a high level search tool will help you dig that gold out of your database. And what about the fantastic talent you have, but nowhere to place them? Generate interest, and potentially new job orders, by marketing your talent through the use of resume submittals or blast emails. Use your search tool to quickly and easily go through historical job orders for highly effective targeted marketing. Staying front-and-center with your clients will build the relationships necessary for long term business success.

With any software it is vital to be able to navigate quickly to get to where you need to be. The easier the navigation, the more people will use it. The more they use it, the better your results in reporting, dashboards, and all aspects of the staffing software and your business. The use of keyboard shortcuts will help as they can provide quick access to crucial areas of your software, like client or applicant contact notes, which makes it easy to use and guarantee results.

So with 2015 fast approaching, focus on productivity and take full advantage of everything your staffing software solution has to offer. Take the challenges from 2014 and resolve to learn from them and turn them into opportunities both personally and professionally. Remember, that’s why it is called a New Year’s Resolution, to get a fresh start and improve!

Photo Credit: Business Creator Plus

For more information on the Ultra-Staff Staffing software download the whitepaper below.

Natalie Chrapla is the Marketing Coordinator of Automated Business Designs, Inc., software developer of Ultra-Staff staffing software for the staffing and direct hire industry. Ultra-Staff is a staffing software business solution with components for front office, back office and the web. Natalie’s email address is Natalie.Chrapla@abd.net or for more information on Ultra-Staff go to www.abd.net.