Have you spoken with any CEOs recently? If you have, you know they are preparing for the worst, trying to “do more with less,” and working with their executive teams to scrutinize every expense that comes across their desk.

Even Marc Benioff, perhaps the most trusted CEO in tech, just laid off 8,000 employees (with more expected to come). This paints a pretty bleak picture for us sales pros, huh?

Well, I’m here to tell you otherwise, and explain why there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Because I’ve seen first-hand the benefits that investing in technology can bring to staffing agencies, even during an economic downturn.

Technology as a Competitive Advantage for Staffing Agencies

First off, forward-thinking business leaders have come to realize that technology has become critical for staying competitive and maximizing their employees’ productivity. This is especially true for staffing agencies, which are often called upon to fill a wide variety of positions across multiple verticals as quickly as humanly (or in this case, robotically 😉 possible.

And while CEOs have been preparing for the recession, this one feels different from the past. That’s primarily because despite tempered growth expectations, labor shortages and talent retention are on the minds of decision makers. A premium is being placed on how recruiting agencies can help… just look at healthcare staffing, which according to SIA has grown from $16B to $55B in the past 5 years!

I saw the appetite for tech investment despite economic turmoil firsthand during COVID-19. I worked with staffing agencies that were hungry to buy automation technology at the same time they were going on hiring freezes… and even laying recruiters off.

One of the most significant advantages of investing in tech is the ability to automate many of the time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks involved in recruiting and placing candidates. By using tech that can quickly automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, staffing agencies can allow their recruiters & sales reps to focus on more important tasks such as building relationships with candidates and identifying new business opportunities.

Maximizing Productivity Without Increasing Headcount

In short, cutting-edge staffing tech can allow recruiters to increase their output exponentially. Ten years ago, the way that staffing agencies grew was simple: hire more recruiters. Now, business owners can grow without the cost of hiring and training new talent. They can make their existing headcount more productive when times get tough.

Another amazing application of technology that came out of COVID was the combined efforts of Bullhorn and SIA to release the Staffing Indicator. This is an incredible tool that allows business leaders to benchmark their hourly worker performance against a large industry sample size. The Staffing Indicator helps them forecast better & make changes accordingly.

There’s a lesson here for sales reps. By offering tools that embed powerful analytics, you can enable staffing agencies to better understand market trends and even their own business. Who wouldn’t invest in tech that helps them to stay ahead of the competition?

You can tell that I’m squarely in the camp that investing in technology is both a bold and smart move for staffing agencies, even during an economic downturn. There was a great Harvard Business Review article earlier this year that highlighted the importance of accelerating digital transformation despite the current conditions that I would highly recommend checking out.

So it’s not all doom and gloom. Now is the time for the top sales reps to help their customers build strong business cases that will help power them through 2023… and then continue to grow for years to come.

P.S. We’re here to help!

Hey, I’m EngineBot! I can help connect you with a Staffing Engine team member if you have any questions.

I can also help you learn more about Staffing Engine and schedule a demo.