Sucessfully Managing your Database.
Francis Bacon’s famous phrase “scientia potentia” has been paraphrased into modern language as “knowledge is power”. Taken from the perspective of a database, knowledge per see is not power, it’s just data. Deriving power comes from leveraging the data into knowledge, knowledge that can be used for the betterment and growth of an organisation. When businesses decide to invest time and resources into establishing and maintaining a database they invest in an information repository and knowledge sharing system.
First you need to answer a fundamental question: Does your business want to use a database as an electronic White Pages or do you see it as a serious business tool? I’d contend that a successfully managed database can be a lot of things for your business. It is:
- A source of competitive advantage;
- A soft asset that will add real value in the event of a trade sale;
- A point of differentiation when engaging new staff;
- A part of a risk mitigation strategy; and
- A store of the organisation’s intellectual property.
Described below are a few simple actions that can be used to guide your organisation to successfully managing the corporate database in the context of a commercial recruitment business.
The three C’s of data entry – correct, consistent and current
One of the most important aspects, and simplest to implement, is accurate, consistent and up-to-date data entry. There are four simple steps:
- Develop company policies around what data is to be collected.
- Develop a culture within the organisation where accurate and consistent data is expected. Make data entry a KPI and manage it accordingly.
- Communicate your policies to all staff engaged in creating and updating client and candidate records during any training sessions and most importantly during induction for new staff.
- Regularly conduct spot checks to check compliance against the established policy.
Consider collecting more than simple contact details. Collect and maintain information that will improve your efficiencies throughout the office between your staff. Here are a few ideas:
- Make use of a skills keyword library to ensure all candidates are “skilled” with consistently spelt classifications.
- Ensure phone numbers, emails addresses, all addresses – street, mailing and billing – are kept up-to-date as changes occur or via regular maintenance of database records.
- Use grading systems and mail codes to implement targeted marketing campaigns with better response rates.
- Always attach candidates’ most recent resume to their database record so you can conduct combined database and text searches and improve contact rates.
- Make use of “active/inactive” controls to distinguish current clients and candidates from those who just bog the search results down.
Performance and risk management
Typically business managers have a well developed sense of the metrics and ratios that drive their organisations. It is one thing to know what should be measured but quite another to have the systems and processes in place to record vital information. This is where a corporate database and standard operating procedures come together.
Adopt various measures such as counts of client site visits and marketing calls made; job orders raised, filled, cancelled or any ‘fall offs’; and candidates interviewed, shortlisted, placed and inducted. Adding notes that employ standard comment types, with accurate date and time stamping, will ensure all staff notate their work quickly and consistently.
Once the measures and a standard way of recording activity have been established, the business is in a good position to monitor and manage staff performance and other business metrics. A downstream benefit of recording this type of information is that when the time comes to report the performance of your business against a client’s PSA or SLA you will have the statistics and evidence to show compliance.
Different economic cycles demand different management techniques. Look for systems that naturally provide operational efficiencies and reduce errors by using data that’s entered once and used many times throughout the system.
Best of breed systems that offer a complete end-to-end recruitment solution – job posting, client, candidate and job order management through to payroll and billing – are a vital tool to the success of any recruitment business.
These database systems can be relied upon to advance marketing efforts and deepen Client relationships, deliver qualified candidates to consultants, improve speed to market and fill rates and ultimately reduce the reliance on administration, bringing down the cost of the sale.
- Source: Recruitment Extra Magazine - November, 2008
