UberEats can predict new restaurant success. How can they do that? Because they have the data. If the majority of residents in an area are constantly searching for Chinese food, and there isn’t an option close to that area, it would stand to reason that a restaurant in that area would do reasonably well. Okay, makes sense. But who cares? And what does that have to do with staffing?
I bring up Uber because last year they were the boogeyman in the staffing industry. They launched UberWorks and that initiated a lot of conversations about the relevance of this kind of tech in the industry. We witnessed a lot of mixed emotions but mostly a little bit of fear, hope that they’d fail, and even some contempt. “Tech can’t replace our experience. Our relationships.”
And that’s true. There’s more that goes into this equation than just technology.
I personally wasn’t worried when Uber launched into staffing. If anything, it was validation for what we were building at TimeSaved. Uber doesn’t just launch new lines willy-nilly, so their decision to enter staffing meant that they saw the same thing we did: the opportunity to use technology to revolutionize staffing. Plus I do believe the above is true. Those in the staffing industry have spent decades building relationships and knowledge and that can’t be eclipsed overnight. At least, not by just anyone.
Well now IndeedFlex is here. And we all know Indeed isn’t just anyone.
The importance of Indeed’s data
Let’s return to the opening analogy, but change it a bit.
Indeed can predict job posting success. How can they do that? Because they have the data. If the majority of workers of a similar skill set are searching for jobs using a particular string of keywords, it would stand to reason that a job posting with those keywords would do reasonably well. That’s perhaps a little reductive, but you get the point. There are a lot of scenarios in which their data stores could play out in ways that should worry agencies.
- They know what to say in a job posting to get people to click, so they have an easy upper hand when it comes to filling their candidate pipeline.
- They know specifically what kinds of companies hire through staffing agencies, so they basically have a prospect list ready and waiting.
- They know what practices lead to sticky candidates and sticky clients because they can see the frequency of posts and interactions.
- They control the order in which candidates see job opportunities in their platform. We’ve already seen that they prioritize their own posts – can you blame them? How far will candidates scroll to get to your posts?
We all know data is a powerful thing, and agencies are sitting on top of valuable stock. And remaining competitive with companies like IndeedFlex is going to require thinking about that data in new ways, and finding technology and processes that help you make the most of it. But the true recipe for success is using that data in smart ways that is focused on relationship building. Because we all know that is what lies at the heart of the staffing industry.
There is a future of staffing that Indeed sees and it will be full speed ahead from here on out. At ActivateStaff, we are also working towards a very specific vision for the future of staffing that helps agencies stay relevant and build better relationships through technology and data.
