***WARNING: Humblebrag Alert***
BELAY is growing, you guys. Like, exponentially. Business is BOOMING and we are scrambling with all-hands-on-deck to meet the needs of our ever-growing client base.
Of all problems a business could have, we feel confident in saying this is one of those good problems.
But it did present us with a unique challenge we’ve never faced before: Short of adding more hours to the day, how, exactly, do we find the time to onboard enough new people in order to meet the needs of our clients?
The answer?
Automation.
In fact, weeks earlier, BELAY CEO and co-founder Bryan Miles and I were talking about how we've had to embrace technology and automation in functions of business in months prior and, admittedly, somewhat reluctantly at times.
But the fact remained that we had experienced an influx of sales over the last quarter and we needed to beef up our arsenal of highly qualified, fully vetted, at-the-ready contractors – and fast.
So we had to innovate; we had to think outside the box. But it did prompt some introspection for us. ‘How could we, a company so proud of being ahead of the curve and innovative and progressive, be reluctant to leverage new technologies?’ But the answer was – and is – simple: People, in general, don’t love change.
Our growth, however, forced us to be open to trying new things, especially since the alternative was working 70 hours a week – and that was decidedly not going to happen. Because beyond being a company known for being innovative, we are also a company who prides itself in not forcing our people to choose between personal and professional success. We believe in the third option – having both.
Time to Innovate.
So automation to the rescue. And it turns out, we weren’t alone. A new survey from CareerBuilder shows that 72 percent of employers expect that some roles within talent acquisition and human capital management will become completely automated within the next 10 years.
Further, employers who have automated a part of their talent acquisition and management processes reported the following improvements as a result:
- Saved time and increased efficiency by 93 percent
- Improved the candidate experience by 71 percent
- Reduced errors by 69 percent
- Saved money and resources by 67 percent
- Improved the employee experience by 60 percent
Staffing Automation for the WIN!
So while it took a little time for us to learn the ropes and for everyone to get on board with the new process, once we did, we were cooking with gas. Here are the automation tools we employed, and how they worked.
- Implemented: Acuity Scheduling
When we looked at our teams, scheduling new-hire interviews alone required a ton of calls – there was just so much back-and-forth. ‘Does this day and time work? No? How about this day and time?’ And on and on … and on. But with Acuity Scheduling, you enter all those people into the system and they can click a link and pick a time. Total time saver.
- Implemented: eSkill
One of the biggest culprits of wasted time, energy and money in many organizations is turnover. So eSkill’s online software provided us accurate pre-employment skills assessments, which in turn helped us sift through countless inflated resumes to find the real talents efficiently and affordably. Again, total time saver.
- Implemented: Spark Hire
Using their one-way interview platform, Spark Hire automated our post-skills assessment follow-up interview. It’s crazy genius. Candidates simply answer your questions on their own time on video that you then review at your convenience. As a result, we could ‘interview’ more candidates, quickly and easily compare them, and therefore get to onboarding much quicker. Totally clutch.
And the outcome...
In just a few short months, we’ve evolved from reluctant innovators to shouting ‘AUTOMATION FOR ALL!’ from the mountaintops. And without sounding too hyperbolic, it has truly exceeded our every expectation.
In three months, we’ve been able to hire 100 people or roughly 30 people per month – and BONUS! – there’s been no turnover so far. Our clients are thrilled and have even gone so far as to tell us that the quality of our newest contractors is not only equivalent but potentially higher than before. Further, what used to take us 30 days from receipt of resume to ‘CONGRATULATIONS! You’re hired!’ now only takes us roughly 10 days. TEN. DAYS.